Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapter 13-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Background

Series Context: The Cerulean Chronicles

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the sequel to T. J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, which was published in 2020. Together, these books are referred to as The Cerulean Chronicles. The House in the Cerulean Sea was named to several bestseller lists and, in 2021, won both the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and YALSA’s Alex Award, an annual award given to novels published for adults that are also suitable for young adult readers. These two novels are partially inspired by the Canadian government’s former policy of removing Indigenous children from their homes and placing them in white homes, group homes, and residential schools; the novels are also a response to contemporary American politics around trans and queer youth. The Cerulean Chronicles novels are “cozy” fantasies, set in a contemporary low fantasy world in which non-magical people struggle to understand and accept magical people. Government agencies heavily regulate the lives of magical people, whom many non-magical people fear and resent. One of these agencies is the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). DICOMY is responsible for the welfare of magical children, especially those who have been abandoned by or separated from their parents, and it oversees several orphanages for these children.

In The House in the Cerulean Sea, DICOMY worker Linus Baker, a lover of rules and regulations and a generally fearful person who has trouble recognizing and prioritizing his own needs, begins the novel naively believing in the goodness of the agency and its mission. When Linus takes a trip to Marsyas Island to inspect the orphanage there, however, he is transformed in many ways. He falls in love with the man who runs the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus, and comes to love the eccentric group of children for whom Arthur cares. Linus gradually comes to see how damaging DICOMY actually is to the lives of magical children, and he quits his job to move in with Arthur and the children on Marsyas Island. Somewhere Beyond the Sea opens a year after these events and follows both Linus and Arthur as they fight to save the orphanage and protect the children they love.

Authorial Context: T. J. Klune

T. J. Klune is the author of more than 30 fantasy and romance novels for adults and teens, including Under the Whispering Door, and In the Lives of Puppets. He has been writing since childhood and had poetry and short stories published at a young age. His first novel, Bear, Otter, and the Kid, was published in 2010. This novel focuses on the romance between Bear, who is raising his younger brother Tyson following their mother’s abandonment, and Otter, the brother of Bear’s best friend. An asexual queer man with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Klune often creates characters that reflect his interest in positive representations of queer and neurodiverse people. His novel Into This River I Drown, a supernatural novel about love and grief, won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance. Klune’s The Cerulean Chronicles novels are also notable for their emphasis on acceptance, love, and hope. In an interview with YALSA following his selection for the 2021 Alex Award for his novel The House in the Cerulean Sea, Klune comments that he “[chooses] to believe that a good number of people want to feel hope” and explains that one of his purposes in writing The House in the Cerulean Sea was to suggest that “we are capable of so much when we stand for what we believe in and lift each other up” (“An Interview with Alex Award Winner TJ Klune, author of The House in the Cerulean Sea.” The Hub, 2021). He explains that he felt very different from other people when he was young, characterizing himself at that age as “queer, [and] effeminate, [with] a mouth and brain that never stopped moving” (“An Interview”). One of his primary purposes as an author is to share what he has learned since then: Being different is wonderful, and our individual eccentricities should be cherished.

Critical Context: Queer Theory

The Cerulean Chronicles question the idea of “normalcy” in ways that are indebted to a field of critical theory known as “queer theory.” Queer theory examines cultural norms, their relationship to power, how they are produced and reproduced, and the ways in which they exclude or include individuals—with a particular focus on gender and sex. “Queering” is the act of disrupting these norms, and “queers” are the individual disruptors. Personal choices to conform to or depart from cultural norms are seen as political actions—whether individuals have this explicit intention or not. These aspects of queer theory are featured in highly regarded books like Samuel R. Delany’s science fiction novel Trouble on Triton, Leslie Feinberg’s semi-autobiographical novel Stone Butch Blues, and Judith Butler’s collection of philosophical essays Undoing Gender.

An important form of resistance to oppressive norms is defined by the term “queer joy.” This term refers to queer people living life on their own terms without allowing normative beliefs to shape their choices, building community, and making clear the happiness and pleasure they experience as a result. In The Cerulean Chronicles, “queer” characters like Arthur, Talia, and Chauncey have dual or ambiguous natures that call into question what a “normal” person is or can be. Homosexual relationships are centered, while heterosexuality is de-centered. The most likable and moral characters in the story celebrate physical and psychological differences, while the least likable and most immoral fear and condemn these differences. The story’s characters and plot create a clear argument in favor of Queer Joy as a Form of Resistance—despite attempts to marginalize and oppress them, Arthur, Linus, and the children in their care make the deliberate choice to find joy in one another and live authentically.