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Somewhere Beyond the Sea

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller and heart-warming sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea

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Somewhere Beyond the Sea

By: TJ Klune
Narrated by: Daniel Henning
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A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything. Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the number one New York Times bestselling sequel to TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea.

Winner of the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy

Arthur Parnassus has built a good life on the ashes of a bad one. He’s headmaster at an orphanage for magical children, on a peculiar island, assisted by love-of-his-life Linus Baker. And together, they’ll do anything to protect their extraordinary and powerful charges.

However, when Arthur is forced to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself fighting for those under his care. It’s also a fight for the better future that all magical people deserve. Then when a new magical child joins their island home, Arthur knows they’ve reached breaking point. The child finds power in calling himself a monster, a name Arthur has tried so hard to banish to protect his children. Challenged from within and without, their volatile family might grow stronger. Or everything Arthur loves could fall apart.

This is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.

‘An enchanting sequel about found family’ – The New York Times

‘Like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket’ – V. E. Schwab, author of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, on The House in the Cerulean Sea

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Fans love Somewhere Beyond the Sea:

‘This beautiful, thoughtful, queer, magical story of chosen family has left me with joy leaking from my eyes’

‘These characters are like a hug for your brain. I adore them all and love watching them change and grow’

‘A beautiful story of hope, love and change, plus a message against prejudice, it’s the ideal comfort read’

‘The story is beautiful, funny, heartwarming and the narrator brings them all to life’

‘If I could give this book a million stars I would’



Somewhere Beyond the Sea was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller w/c 16 September 2024

 Action & Adventure Fantasy LGBTQIA+ Creators Paranormal Romance Feel-Good Heartfelt Magic
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Critic reviews

I loved it. It is like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket. Simply perfect (V. E. Schwab, author of the Shades of Magic series and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, on The House in the Cerulean Sea)
A witty, wholesome fantasy that’s likely to cause heart-swelling (The Washington Post on The House in the Cerulean Sea)
The House in the Cerulean Sea is a modern fairy-tale about learning your true nature and what you love and will protect. It’s a beautiful book (Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series that inspired HBO's True Blood)
1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in. Touching, tender and truly delightful, The House in the Cerulean Sea is an utterly absorbing story of tolerance, found family and defeating bureaucracy (Gail Carriger, author of Soulless, on The House in the Cerulean Sea)
Sweet, comforting and kind, this book is very close to perfect . . . I cannot recommend it highly enough (Seanan McGuire, author of the Wayward Children series, on The House in the Cerulean Sea)
Quirk and charm give way to a serious exploration of the dangers of complacency in this delightful, thought-provoking Orwellian fantasy from Klune . . . This tale of found family is hopeful to its core. Readers will revel in Klune’s wit and ingenuity (Publishers Weekly on The House in the Cerulean Sea, Starred Review)
This is a sweet narrative about the value of asking questions and the benefits of giving people (especially children) a chance to be safe, protected and themselves, regardless of what assumptions one might glean from, say, reading their case file (Booklist on The House in the Cerulean Sea)
This inclusive fantasy is quite possibly the greatest feel-good story ever to involve the Antichrist . . . The House in the Cerulean Sea will delight fans of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series and any reader looking for a burst of humour and hope
TJ Klune is a master storyteller
A delightful tale about chosen families and how to celebrate differences
This contemporary fantasy can satisfy any sweet tooth with its found-family story and its gentle queer romance
All stars
Most relevant
It's not the book I expected. It wasn't the book I wanted. It's not a book I think has been done well. And the studio performance has, occasionally, been too much. I don't mind going for it and committing to a performance, but at times it felt like someone trying to convince everyone that THIS SCENE IS JUST SO EMOTIONAL AND I'M EMOTING SO MUCH. Then the ending was just... Too much. Both where it went with the main story and how sincere and (for me) sappy, overly saccharin, it got at the end. It felt underserved and like the book didn't know what it wanted to be.

Disappointing after how much I loved the first, but I felt it moved very far away from that low stakes, smile inducing, heartwarming cosy read. I hope others can find joy in it but it wasn't for me.

Ok but missing the simple low stakes magic of the first

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I like the boogie man character & the voice is funny but I found some of narration a little to theatrical in certain parts. The voices overall were funny but the descriptive writing was sometimes narrated with so much emotion in the voice it sounded like a Victorian melodrama & was somewhat unnecessary & unrelated to the text. I thought the story got lost in the political message & felt more like a rant than an imaginative tale & I found myself wanting to get lost in the story but unable to due to the distraction of the political themes. Perhaps this author should write a non fiction book regarding all the messages they have for the world. It might be a better book.

Enjoyed the first book but this one not so much

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Loved the first book but this isn’t nearly as good. So some that it is spoiled. Really disliked the attack on JK Rowling. Not necessary!

Loved David’s story.

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For most part it has the same sweet energy as the first book. But at times it get's a bit too hysterical. Overall: sweet and funny.

it's a nice sequel

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If you ever felt parts of House in the Cerulean Sea were a bit cutesy then you may find that this book dials that up to 11. I appreciate what the book is doing and I did think the beginning was very good but then it becomes saccharine and unrealistic, with the good people being perfect and wonderful and the bad people being cartoon villains. And yes, some of the people the book is representing through fiction are villains, but wouldn't the book be so much more interesting if they could be depicted with some nuance?

Other issues include that the ending is so convenient that it's like the author just got tired of writing and that the children have become very irritating. They're not characters in themselves any more, they're vessels to deliver "the message" in an aw-shucks-don't-kids-say-the-darndest-things kind of way. You wonder if the author has ever met a real child.

Maybe reading the book rather than listening to it would have helped. As it is the overly emotional, high pitched, staccato delivery of the voiceover artist made all the grating moments even more grating. I would say it's the worst reading of a novel I've ever heard from a professional but he saves it with his voice for Chauncey, which is rather brilliant.

Not as good as House in the Cerulean Sea

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