The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)

by T.J. Klune

Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. A six-year-old boy with spiders in his brain. The Antichrist, something dark and terrifying. While crafting Lucy’s character, I knew I wanted him to be an extreme. We have a were-Pomeranian, a garden gnome, a wyvern, a…Chauncey, and a forest sprite. But Lucy is something else entirely. And with him, I was able to explore the idea of nature versus nurture in ways more explicit than I might’ve been able to do with the other children. The idea of the Antichrist is in its name: the direct opposite of Christ. Light versus darkness. But what if he didn’t have to be what everyone expected him to be? What if, given the chance, he was able to defy his namesake? The idea that the most powerful child on the island (though Talia might have a thing or two to say about that) could shape the world to his wants and whims was interesting to me. Did he have to be what he was ordained he would be? No. He didn’t. And it's because of Arthur. Arthur, who believes in him, believes in all of them. Arthur, who could see past a title, and nurture, love, and support a boy who is just that: a boy. Evil is, for the most part, taught. And since that’s the case, then couldn’t the opposite be true? Arthur is light. Without him, without the other children, there was a chance Lucy could’ve been mired in darkness. But he isn’t because he’s taught that there is so much more he could be. He is more than what his name implies.