During my first post, I talked about how I was less than halfway through the book and I was already in love with this book. As I read through more and more pages, my opinion has not changed: Cerulean Sea has officially become one of my favorite books! I believe that this is a book, in its own unique way, addresses the different issues that plague humanity today.
One issue that I alluded to in my first post is discrimination. Arthur and the children stay on the island because when they would go out, they would be made fun of because of who they are and the children would be very much affected by this. And then Linus came along. Just like in real life, some times all it takes is one person to change everything. Linus suggested it and Arthur reluctantly agreed to take the children to the village. Their first visit was everything they feared it would be, but throughout the rest of the book as well as the epilogue, it is hinted that Arthur and the children made it more of a habit to take the children off the island. At this point in the story we are also introduced to Helen, the village’s mayor. She is also responsible for ensuring that Arthur and his children have a safe place to come to when they decided to visit the village. She encouraged the villagers to accept them and who they are. Like I said, it only takes a few people to change the course of people’s lives.
It may be more appropriate to call it a habit rather than an issue, but falling into a very fixed pattern of living can prove to be problematic. For example, before Linus travelled to the orphanage, he was stuck in a very boring daily routine where he would go to work, come home to eat dinner and listen to the same music, go to bed, and wake up and do it all over again the next day. He was even content with being antagonized by his supervisor Ms. Jenkins (and her assistant Gunther with his trusty clipboard) as well as his neighbor Ms. Klapper. I believe that we are all guilty of this at one time or another in our lives; getting too comfortable in our routines. When Linus was sent to the orphanage for work thinking it was just another assignment, he was just going to do his job and leave to live his routine life again. Little did he know that this experience would completely change his life. Without giving too much away, when he returned home, he realized quickly that his routine life was not what he was meant to live and he had to make a change. Based on the decision he made, he completely changed his life for the better and became a more confident person as a result. There is certainly a degree of comfort in living the same life day in and day out, but change can always be a welcomed visitor, even if it makes us uneasy at first.
As you can probably conclude, I really loved this book! Even though the majority of the book was rooted in magic and fantasy, Klune does an exceptional job of weaving in real life themes into this fantastic world. There are even more real life themes that occur throughout the book, but I do not want to spoil it all for you. This book made me really think about my own life and how I am living mine: Am I doing my absolute best? Is there something missing? This book truly does provide the reader with an escape because of its fantastic elements and plot.
I have another one of Klune’s books Under the Whispering Door that I will be delving into soon. Stay tuned for that upcoming post!
Bookworm's Delight 