Reviewed by Addison Rosenberg
Review Source: Teaching for Change
Book Author: TJ Klune
This was because of you . . . . I may be a queen, but it is you who have the true power.
— Queen of Marsyas, Zoe Chapelwhite
This is not the first time I have been completely floored by one of TJ Klune’s novels and I doubt it will be the last. This hugely-anticipated sequel to Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea picks up where the last one left off, with some obvious passage of time since, now zooming in on the fatherly phoenix, Arthur Parnassus. Similarly to its prequel, it was impossible to put down.
While the family waits for David, the yeti from the last novel’s epilogue, to possibly arrive, Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past. Accompanied by the love of his life, Linus Baker, Arthur makes his testimony. Tensions rise between him and the Intern Head of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth and the Department in Charge of Magical Adults (DICOMY and DICOMA), Jeanie Rowder.
I couldn’t contain myself when I connected different parts of the book to my own education.
Klune does not pretend to know and be able to represent the experiences of all marginalized groups, yet his ability to exhibit experiences of oppression through the magical beings of Marsyas Island and beyond can be easily empathized with by those oppressed in our modern society.
True to her word, Rowder sends one of her pawns, Harriet Marblemaw, to, as they put it, to inspect the orphanage and ensure not only that the children are being cared for, but also that Arthur, Linus, and their good friends, the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb, aren’t “filling their heads with propagandic anti-government sentiments.”
The discussions of what children should be exposed to in the novel are eerily akin to those going on now in public school systems across the country. Klune’s characters discuss what is appropriate literature for children, specifically marginalized children. The characters also address socially acceptable beauty standards for children, reminding me of the many times kids of color have been forced to change/cut their hair because of racist school dress codes. But that’s just the beginning of the powerful and timely conversations Klune’s characters take part in.
The wonderful thing about TJ Klune’s novels is that he uses fantasy, in this case, magical beings, to explain and demonstrate systematic oppression and its consequences.
At the end of the novel, as newly crowned Queen of Marsyas, Zoe Chapelwhite, returns to the children after she triumphantly defends her lands from DICOMY/DICOMA, she bows before the children as a show of gratitude and humility for the work they did to fight for their rights and the rights of all magical beings. As Zoe so pointedly states to the children, “This was because of you . . . . I may be a queen, but it is you who have the true power.”
Seeing an adult author highlight the power of youth organizing was incredibly powerful and hopeful to me as a teenage social justice learner. I believe in the power of youth organizing and that the most effective change will come out of collaboration with youth organizers and the elevation of youth voices.
TJ Klune dedicated Somewhere Beyond the Sea to the trans community, writing, “I see you, I hear you, I love you. This story is for you.”
I enthusiastically recommend this book. Read the series as a whole to fully appreciate the message Klune builds.
Addison Rosenberg was an intern with Teaching for Change in 2025 during their senior year at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. They also served as the student director of Whitman’s specialty program, The Leadership Academy for Social Justice (LASJ).
Read a review of The House in the Cerulean Sea.
Find more recommended books on this topic on our LGBTQ+ booklist.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
Published by Tor Publishing Group on September 10, 2024
Genres: LGBTQ, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Pages: 400
Reading Level: High School
ISBN: 9781250881212
Review Source: Teaching for Change
Also by this author: The House in the Cerulean Sea
Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely-anticipated sequel to TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade.
A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.
He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there's the island's sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.
And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea 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.
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