Review for House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune:

I loved so much about this book. 15 out of 5 stars. Vibes are Miss Peregrine’s meets Good Omens meets Howl’s Moving Castle.

The story is told from the point of view of Linus Baker, a middle-aged man who lives alone with his cat and has worked in the same position for the same government agency for seventeen years. The most interesting thing about his day might be whether or not he remembered his umbrella and if his neighbor will try to play matchmaker while also wondering outloud about the possibility of his impending mental breakdown.

He works for DICOMY, in the magical orphaned young adults division, where he determines if orphanages for magical youth are healthy and safe for their inhabitants.

In recognition of his emotionless stance on the orphaned children, commitment to his duties, and complete lack of convictions or personality- he is given a Level Four Classified case assignment.

Linus is assigned, for one month, to observe the highly unusual Marsyas Island Orphanage which is home to six “problematic” magical beings and their caretaker- Arthur Parnassus.

Here we meet:

-Arthur, the mysterious and warm orphanage “master.”
-Talia, a bearded lady gnome child (who also happens to be 263 years old.
-Sal, an older shifter boy who has bounced from orphanage to orphanage and transforms into a Pomeranian.
-Theodore, a wyvern who has a button obsession
-Phee, a very blunt and observant forest sprite
-Chauncey, a jellyfish/slug/sea cucumber blob that dreams of being a bellhop
-Lucy, the Anti-Christ

Linus’ life, views, and beliefs are challenged and turned on their head in the ensuing adventure. I laughed and grinned throughout this entire book. It’s charming, lovely, and heartwarming. This is definitely one of my favorite reads this year. I listened to parts of the audiobook while I was at work and it was awesome. You don’t want to deny yourself the voices of Chauncey and J-Bone.

My favorite character is Talia and I’ll fight anyone over it.

I added this a little late so unfortunately did not get to actively participate and engage how I’d like but it looks amazing and I will definitely be participating in the future!!

Fun idea! Wish I could have participated more, but just did not have enough time. Strange to have to give feedback on a packet.

I wasn't able to participate but loved looking through the packet. I love fun interactive challenges.

Camp NetGalley was a fun reading tool to help get people interested in reading. It had different activities to do every week in July as well as stickers (was it just me, or were we unable to download them) that would have been great had they been able to be downloaded. Overall, Camp NetGalley should be all Summer long, and NetGalley should have something similar for all the other seasons as well, and maybe some specials for individual holidays like Christmas, Valentines, President's Day and so forth.

I loved this. While life got in the way and I wasn't personally able to participate as much as I wanted to, I'm definitely going to be saving the Bingo card for future personal challenges. I hope that Team NetGalley does this more often!

This is a really fun idea even if I am not 100% sure what I am doing but that is on me not being tech savvy!

Good idea but I was away and had zero internet so couldn’t post my review unfortunately to get a badge within the time frame.

5 stars
Camp Netgalley was fun and interactive! This was filled with many interesting things that makes me think there should really be a camp dedicated to book lovers!

I sadly got super busy right when this started. I had planned to participate but it just didn’t work out. I think this was a great idea and I look forward to future events.

This free download for a promotional event impacting feedback ratios is pretty disappointing. Plus a minimum character count. All this has done has convinced me not to participate in any future events.

This was fun and a creative way to engage the Netgalley community! Hope to see it again next summer!

Super fun way to keep track of summer Reading and earn badges for books. Fun to compare when friends’ progress.

Sadly, I did not end up using this much due to being super busy these past months. I'm hoping to get more into this later & look forward to more like additions like this.

This was fun! I enjoyed the experience. I definitely would love to participate again next summer! I don’t really have anything else to say about it.

No review given since this was a welcome packet! This was fun, thank you! Love doing things like this.

This was such a fun experience to do during summer and it definitely helped me meet my reading goals! I loved the graphics, they were clear and easy to read, I would love to see more of these in the future, maybe for each season of the year, having a Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter one would be really fun. It would be a way to have more readers be excited about reading. I also enjoyed that there was something for every reader, it meet the needs of multiple different types of readers due to its inclusivity.

camp netgalley i welcome packet was opened and challenge was completed via instagram! no rating since this was not a book, arc, or alc.

This packet seemed silly at first, but I could see the benefit of setting goals for the summer. Just not something I think I'll be using.

I didn't really use the Camp NetGalley Welcome packet or participate in Camp. I had every intention because the packet was so inspiring, but summer plans got in the way! Maybe next year?