The Quill #6: Recommended Reads #2

While there are certain authors whose work I categorically love, sometimes, even the best of authors writes a sub-par book. So, I don’t have many authors that I wait on tenterhooks for their next release — unless it’s a sequel to a book I really liked. Somewhere Beyond the Sea continues the story began in The House in the Cerulean Sea, which really introduced me to adult, cozy fantasy. You can probably imagine my delight six months ago when it was released.

Former main character, Linus Baker, returns in Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Linus is an exceedingly ordinary man in a world with many different sorts of magical people, all of whom are marginalized and oppressed by the government. Linus has found, and accepted that he has found, his home and his family. But the systemic oppression of magical beings by the government, and Linus’ old employer DICOMY (Department in Control of Magical Youth) still remains and is threatening his new life.

Arthur Parnassus, as both a former orphanage master and a magical being himself, is uniquely situated to help change that system. Having experienced firsthand the abuse allowed in government-sanctioned orphanages for magical children when he was a child, he has dedicated his life to making sure that others have better luck and experiences. He turned the orphanage that had been a prison during his childhood into a home and safe haven for other magical children. However, everything he is working to create flies in the face of the non-magical people in power in the government. In particular, he has upset the heads of DICOMY, all of whom have an abundance of power and see him as less than human. Can Arthur change the world to protect his children, his family, and his home, even with Linus’ support?

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is, to me, the perfect sequel because it took one man’s search for a home and expanded it into another man’s quest to make the world feel like home to all those that inhabit it.