Extremely mixed feelings. 

I definitely get why this book speaks to so many people and why it feels so comforting to them. The vibes are indeed very cozy, and the kids are great. Linus's arc was fine. Not the most satisfying for me personally, but I can see it being incredibly relatable to many readers. In particular, I think that Klune handled Linus's internalized fatphobia pretty well, and the treatment of his fatness by other characters was refreshing. Lucy was my favorite of the kids for sure, and I also enjoyed both of the silly ladies immensely. Any time we focused on the kids and their interests and hobbies, I was having a good time. Some of the bureaucracy stuff worked for me, too, as did aspects of the romance. 

The biggest issue with this book is a lack of real, deep, thoughtful worldbuilding. We have no idea why things are the way that they are. There is a magical underclass, but why are they the underclass? What sociopolitical happenings created this regime? What justifications were used by those in power? We really only see the world through the eyes of 1) bureaucracy and 2) the main characters in this book, which means that the scope is small and it should be able to work with limited worldbuilding. Unfortunately, Klune writes in a lot of wider-reaching implications that made it impossible for me not to ask questions, and this is the sort of world where everything falls apart if you poke it a little bit.

TJ Klune has stated that he was "inspired by residential schools" (among other influences) in the writing of this book. I find that incredibly weird of him. Any reading of the children as indigenous-coded immediately further highlights the way that they are used to further the character development of the white protagonist. It also shows a shocking lack of care on the part of the author. If he wanted to use such a horrifying aspect of real-world history to inform some of his worldbuilding choices, then he should have actually committed to confronting those horrors, but he does not, and several parts of the book left a bad taste in my mouth.

Another sign of this book's poor worldbuilding is the total lack of thought put into ways that world history and culture might look different given the presence of magical creatures. You mean to tell me that no magical being has written a hit song? That no US presidents were elected based on their policy regarding magical people? As if. Maybe this vaguery would have worked if the world itself were clearly different from our own, but it wasn't. Don McLean's "American Pie" canonically exists, as do multiple other real-world songs and figures, and absolutely nothing about them is different. Lazy! So lazy! If you're writing fantasy oppression, you HAVE to think through your metaphors and how your marginalized fantasy people interact with the world as a whole. You HAVE to. And it feels like TJ Klune just had no interest in interacting with or developing his own world beyond the main characters and their direct experiences, and I think that's a real shame.

Overall, the parts that worked for me worked really well, and I genuinely enjoyed reading most of this book, but the utter thoughtlessness of the worldbuilding and influences cannot be overstated.