Somewhere Beyond the Sea: A pleasant escape that didn’t completely satisfy

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

2024’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea continues the adventures of Arthur Parnassus and Linus Baker and their six magical children, in a second world similar to ours, with a government kind of like Britain’s. The Amazon blurb for this book says, “This is Arthur’s story.” While I enjoyed the book and found it a much-needed escape from real life current events, this tale left many of Arthur’s issues unaddressed in its rush to show us fun, bantering scenes with the children, and let Arthur and Linus match wits with another government inspector and a government minister, the villain of the piece, a supercilious, evil, bigoted woman named J.K. Rowling—oh, sorry, no, I mean Jeanine Rowder.

(In his afterword, Klune calls out J.K. Rowling by name in the third paragraph, so I don’t think I’m reading too much into his villain’s name.)

In the wake of the dismantling of Extreme Upper Management of the Department In Change of Magical Youth (DICOMY) after the revelations in The House in the Cerulean Sea, Arthur has been called to testify before a larger and more powerful committee. He is shocked to discover how much power has been put in the hands of the hate-filled Rowder, and how deep her interest in one of their foster children, Lucy, goes. Since Lucy (Lucifer) is literally the child of the Devil, this interest isn’t too surprising. Rowder orders another inspection of the home, with the unspoken threat that the government will deny Arthur and Linus’s adoption petition for the six children, and take the kids away—because that’s what Rowder really wants to do. The new inspector, Harriet Marblemaw, is a Rowder loyalist and a woman who says she never feels fear.

As if they didn’t have enough on their collective plate, Arthur and Linus have invited another unregistered magical child into their home; seven-year-old yeti David. How can they face an unfriendly inspection and hide a seventh child at the same time? Or should they even try?

As with the first book, the children and the banter are delights. With the addition of David, who “auditions” to be part of the home by putting on a one-yeti play/detective drama, the opportunities for warmhearted antics multiply. While entertaining, this is part of the book’s problem for me, as I’ll explain below.

T.J. Klune

Sal, a Black youth who can shapeshift into a Pomeranian, is the oldest of the children, and growing into a natural leader. This means challenging the status-quo sometimes, in other words, Arthur and Linus. Chauncey is maturing and experiencing changes in his body. Since he is an amorphous being, there is no one to talk with him about his unique changes, like a craving for pinecones, the ability to squirt ink, and a new skill at talking to fish. Phee, a sprite, Talia, a gnome who loves to garden, and Theordore the wyvern show less development, but have plenty of commentary to add.

David has taken the word “monster” as aspirational, and says he likes to scare humans—because he’s observed that humans, who watch creepy movies and ride thrill-rides, like to be scared. Lucy, who DICOMY call the Antichrist, reacts badly when he hears Arthur tell David that he can be a monster if he wants to, because earlier, Arthur told Lucy he “didn’t have to be a monster.” Lucy reads these two statements as a double-standard and as if David gets to do something Lucy isn’t allowed to do.

With a nasty villain introduced early, and all kinds of signs of stakes being raised, I expected Lucy’s reaction to have a real impact on the story. When Rowder is questioning Arthur at the hearing, she pointedly asks him if he has ever encountered another phoenix (which is Arthur’s magical legacy). Arthur says no. This is Arthur’s story, and some time is spent on how badly he was treated in a DICOMY home, and how powerless and isolated he left, but the book never delves into how it might feel to know you are the last one of your kind. The pressure put on the children by Marblemaw and her not-even-veiled threats to take them away and split them up might cause stresses in their relationships, especially with David in the mix, but it does not. When Lucy sulks about not getting to be a monster, a few carefully chosen words from Arthur heal the rift between the two on them, and between Lucy and David.

Later in the book, when it is clear that Marblemaw has no intention of filing an honest report, Arthur is filled with desperation, powerlessness and rage. The phoenix within him struggles to be released, and while he tries to hold it back, he yells at Linus, demanding to know why Linus didn’t help more children when he worked at DICOMY. Then he shapeshifts and burns off some of his rage. When he changes back to human, Linus is at his side. The original question, though, is important, and even if it isn’t answered in this book, it needed to be acknowledged. It never was.

In the same way, Marblemaw says that she feels no fear. As the children try to mess with her, it soon becomes clear that this is no idle boast. She truly feels no fear, but this is not explained or questioned. What kind of human feels no fear? Is she human? Is she some kind of magical person being controlled by Rowder? Is she a human who’s been experimented on? None of this is addressed.

This book is being marketed to adult readers and YA readers, and it certainly works for both. The mix of serious issues, compellingly depicted, with quick, easy resolutions, gave me a literary vertigo.

After all the raising of stakes, the standoff between the government and Arthur’s family is resolved, via magic, fairly easily, paving the way for a lovely and funny happy ending. According to Amazon, this is a series now, THE CERULEAN SERIES, which implies at least one more book. Even so, to the extent that things wrapped up easily and issues were left unexplored left me less satisfied than I expected, and I am measuring that by the in-world standards of the book.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t snort with laughter many times. The book, like Book One, is heartwarming and funny. As always, the characters are charming and the banter is witty, and the book provided a few hours of pleasant escape.