The Darkness Outside Us (Jun 2021) by Eliot Schrefer
Discussion . . .
Two boys, alone in space.
After the first settler on Titan trips her distress signal, neither remaining country on Earth can afford to scramble a rescue of its own, and so two sworn enemies are installed in the same spaceship.
Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: Evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed – not when he’s rescuing his own sister.
In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust one another . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.
The House in the Cerulean Sea (Mar 2020) by T.J. Klune
Discussion . . .
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place – and realizing that family is yours.
The setting of a school attended by strange children with a gay headmaster combined with a bureaucratic ministry looking after the supernatural may scream “Harry Potter”, but queer author TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea is more Miss Peregrine than Professor McGonagall, with a dash of gay romance and well, the Antichrist thrown in for good measure.
Middle-aged, overweight and moderately unsuccessful case worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, Linus Baker is sent on assignment to assess a special school. The usually sedentary bachelor is forced out across the country to impartially report back on the Marsyas Island Orphanage and its peculiar master Arthur Parnassus.
The orphanage and the children are viewed with suspicion by some of the local townspeople. As Linus slowly gets used to the island’s inhabitants, he must fight to remain impartial, to the children and to the charmingly strange Parnassus. But the house has a secret that could ruin this little found family.
So masterful . . . I enjoy most Klune’s depiction of the “Antichrist” . . . they so succeed in communicating the vast array of conflicting issues implied/herein . . . just so “brilliant” . . . and heart-felt