After a four day journey I have finally gotten to the Last Page of this book. I have read many of TJ Klune’s novels, 6 to be exact. Which if I am going to be honest is a lot seeing as how many authors I have read and how little I tend to stay interested in their work. But you if you have read The House in the Cerulean Sea then you understand why I have read 6 book by this wonderful man. So when I saw this book I lept at the chance to read it and I am glad that I did because it really is a different type of work by Mr. Klune.

If you have read In The Lives of Puppets, then you are prepared for this novel for out of 6 that I have read this is the most unlike the others that I have taken the time to read. That may sound like a bad things but this book still very much feels like a TJ Klune novel, the queer, the found family, the heartbreak but love, type vibe that he is known for. But it is wrapped up in such a different bow that it takes a second to get into the book and to feel Klune again.

I enjoyed the read, and the plot felt inspired by many sci-fi movies that I have watched but it felt new and exciting. I am not sure of the work that was done to the novel from its first self-publishing back in 2017/2018 and current 2025 edition of the novel but it read well. The plot moves along, the characters feel developed, and the writing flows. I do have some comments on the novel as it is not a 5 star, no notes, type of read but one I think fans will enjoy, as long as they are prepared for an adventure, and I mean that in more ways than one.

I have not read the Green Creek series yet so I will not speak to those but be warned this is not the soft core novels that you get from THITCS, TLOP, UTWD, or the superhero series he wrote. It is a little more graphic both in violence and spice level. Funny enough I saw someone gave Cerulean Sea a one flame in spicy, and I am sure they were forced to put something because that book has ZERO spice. This however have a graphic spicy scene, mention of another, and gun violence (which isn’t spicy but a warning area). So know that going into the novel.

Beware Spoilers

Let’s Talk

This book opens quiet quickly and Nate’s parent should have come with a trigger warning. Not only was there a murder/suicide where Nate’s Father was the aggressor but there was also the drop of the Faggot word. So yeah there was a bit of a trigger warning to begin with. Not only that but Nate was found with his pants down around his ankles and his member being taken within a mouth. Which was a shock to read from a TJ Klune novel but immediately told me this book would not be like the other 6 that I read.

Nate, our protagonist, is 27 come the beginning of our story, an age I also lost my father at. Now what the two of us went through is so vastly different but the void and lost sense that came with my lost made me connect to Nate in a quick way. This is where I think people are going to struggle connecting with him because he just goes along with the adventure. Completely lost within himself due to trying to find himself, Nate become a victim to his own lack of desire. I mean he did just become okay with a random man and girl in his cabin with a gun, but grief can and will do weird things to you. I mean I was in a job that was sucking the life out of me when I first lost my dad, but I just let it happen. I allowed someone to talk sexually about a customer because I did not feel up to defying the world. There was a quote that got me.

“Nate just take it for what it is. Kindness. Sometimes people need it, even if they don’t know how to ask for it.”

Page 14

Like come on… this was so true for me, and I think this tells us about Nate more than most descriptions about him. He lost his parent far before their death and in that I think he learned he was the only one that could protect him.

It’s what he wanted now. Quiet. Room to think. To figure shit out. He needed to decide what was going to happen next.

That was another quote that just made me feel more connect to Nate.

When I first met Artemis (Art) I thought she belonged on Marsyas Island with all of those special children. And when she made a comment about how Darth Vader chokes people with his mind not being correct, I knew she should go meet that family. She was a weird child clearly meant to be more than just some Stranger Things clone but I was here for her optimism and love of bacon.

The story feel into the classic Sci-Fi trope. A non believer stumbles upon a secret, they get swept into it, regardless of their desires. There is a standoff with the government, huge action scene and the characters are on the run until the final standoff. That is the whole book, it does not reinvent the genre, but it does fuel it with a change in sexualities, and the bonds that are created.

Over all the book was predictable. I had guessed what Art was, I had not likely Peter when I met him along with other little things that I do not want to fully ruin, on the off chance you have not finished the book yet.

The Good

We have a cast of three main characters told from the 3rd person perspective where one is the focal point in which the story is happening too. Our cast is

Nate Cartwright

Alex Delgado

Artemis Darth Vader (yes… you read that correctly)

Nate and Alex felt real most of the time. And I am thankful for that.

The romance between Nate and Alex thankful was not painful for me. I am the type of person that hates when romance is thrown into a story just for the sake of the Romance tag and chatter on BookTok, so I was scared when I saw a review mentioned romance. BUT it was done well. It built naturally, two lost men finding themselves in a action movie, each having a missing piece of themself. Nate – an urgency, a purpose, a spark, and Alex – kindness, thoughtfulness, safety. So when it started with the sugar in the coffee (Page 104) I knew where this was headed. Klune did a great job of not forgetting about this arc, clearly (I mean at one point Nate noticed the hair on Alex’s feet or something).

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. My science brain nearly screamed when I read that word because I remember reading that in a textbook years ago. I was happy with the mention and TJ Klune did a great job of explaining it so props to that.

Something that made me laugh was that Art called the Greys (a type of alien) Jerks, which is now the second time I heard that, the first being in the TV show Resident Alien. Which if you like this book I recommend because it too is about an alien trying to figure out humanity and trying to find their own.

“I can like dolls and study UFOs at the same time. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m not capable of deciding what my interests should be.”

Though I will never recommend this novel to a child I liked to see this type of thought process in my books. TJ Klune is known for his queer takes on things and because of that I love him. A girl can be whoever she wants to be, just the same as a boy can be too.

The Bad

The one sex scene was so out of place. Do not get me wrong I love a gay sex scene as much as the next gay man, but I would love there to be a little bit of a build up. Not so much a will they or won’t they vibe but a thick tense chemistry that makes me sweat. I will say I did not get that, it was very blunt and very quick (kind of like Nate himself, lol). I mean Nate got woken up from sleep while there were sleeping in a barn and Alex all of a sudden had to get one off? I mean it was sexy, and there was consent, and also realistic. I mean they had no lube so they just made due with a little spit and elbow grease.

Another things that rubbed me (hehe) the wrong way was that it took quite a while for the story to really get moving. I mean it took until Chapter 9, well over 100 pages to get to the action part. Up until then it was just Nate, Alex, and Art cohabitating in this cabin and us getting no answers.

The setting, 1995 does not really come up. Yes there is mention of the technology, the lack of phone service on a Nokia but it did not play a huge role in my opinion. I think the time period allowed for the crew to go unnoticed for a long period of time but outside of that there was no pro or con of that time.

Lastly the pacing was off. It felt like a long EKG reading, just up and down. Forward and regressive in character choices. For me this is Klune first full attempt at an action sci-fi, which I think he confirmed in this acknowledgements, and it struggled in places. Not nearly as bad as Infinity Son was for Adam Silvera. The book leaned on the tropes found in the sci-fi realm but did not bring too much new to the genre. That being said I think it was a great first attempt, and a book I recommend you getting through.

Rating

I liked this book. Will it be one that I turn to reread, most likely not but I am thankful that I got a chance to read it.

I happily give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe its because its queer, or a plot of a movie I would have watched with my father but the book resonated with me strongly.

Final Thoughts

I wonder does that reference to Green Creek mean that these books are set in the same universe or are they different?

We need more books like this. queer rep and found family rep. A book that comments on government’s belief that they can take whatever they want and that anything different from them they was to harm and control. The ride may have been bumpy but I am glad that it exists. Thank you TJ Klune!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with a copy of this book to review. Its expected (re)publication date is February 4, 2025.