“Change often starts with the smallest of whispers. Like-minded people building it up to a roar.”

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint! If someone took all my favourite things to read about and put them into one book, that book would be this one. The ocean? Check. Magic? Check. Queer romance? Check. The foster care system? Check. Found family? CHECK! This was a weird and wonderful book that stole my heart with its loveable characters, interesting plot, important themes, and swoon worthy romance.

First of all, THE CHARACTERS! The children in this book all had such personality and I just wanted the best for them the entire book. I also really enjoyed Linus as a main character and I loved watching him grow as a person throughout the story. His budding relationship also made my heart swoon and I love that this book reinforces the idea that you can fall in love for the first time beyond your 20’s and 30’s.

This book covers some important topics such as systemic oppression, discrimination, the broken foster care system, marginalization, racism, and dangers of complacency among other things. Many times I drew parallels between the way magical children are treated in this book to the way Canada treated indigenous people by taking them from their homes and putting them in residential schools. I appreciated that even though this book is fun and humorous, Klune didn’t shy away from starting a real conversation through his writing of this story.

As you can tell, I loved this book! TJ Klune continues to impress me and I now need to read all of his books ASAP. If you’re looking for a wonderful found family story that’s outside of the norm, I highly recommend this one.