Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Basically, T.J. wrote the first book in the series (the house in the cerulean sea) again, but without the magical joy it brought.

In the first book, an inspector comes to the island, and the caretaker of six magical kids and the inspector fall in love. It's such a heartwarming book and I loved it so much.

In the second book, an inspector who reminds me of Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter books (oh irony) comes to the island and, well, so much misery ensues.

I'm well aware of T.J.'s beef with JK Rowling, and I feel like this book was written as a complaint against her, not as a sequel to a book I loved so much.

There is no heart in this book, because it feels like it was written in anger. T.J. calling himself the anti JKR doesn't help me change that thought.

I wish he had written a manifesto or something, and not a sequel that ruins the first book for me.

While I really enjoyed this book and it still had a lot of what made "The House in the Cerulean Sea" so enjoyable, I didn't find the ending particularly compelling. While the the trans allegory is great, I found the contradiction between the earlier chapters where they're having to convince Lucy that taking the easy way out isn't helpful and will be a hollow victory (he wants to use his power to remove free will and force everyone to accept them), and the end where a queen unilaterally uses force to impose her will on the town, which amounts to the same thing, felt a bit jarring. Surely the point of the early chapters was that the correct way is solidarity and community organizing, not force, but then they end up doing the exact thing the non-magical peoples fear? Unclear exactly what was being said here. That said, I suppose there's nothing wrong with a feel good narrative where you can just punch all the bigots in the face too, it just felt out of place with the rest of the book.