I finished The House in the Cerulean Sea today and I immediately teared up—not with sadness—but with utter gratefulness that it exists.

This is a book I might never have picked up without it being repeatedly recommended to me, but I’m so glad I did. It took me a few chapters to become oriented in the world of this book, but once I found my footing I was utterly enchanted by this magical, humorous, and compassionate story.

This is a profoundly hopeful book about found and chosen family, about learning to see and appreciate the inherent value and goodness in every person, about allowing yourself to be seen and loved for exactly who you already are, and about letting yourself change and grow.

I want to press this book into the hands of everyone I know (and talk about it with anyone who has read it!), but mostly I now want to live in the house surrounded by the cerulean sea.