The House in the Cerulean Sea is the very definition of an “if you can make it past the first hundred pages, you’ll adore it” book. The first hundred pages or so reads like a very Douglas Adams kind of satire on the inefficiencies of government. “Hitchhiker’s Guide” meets urban fantasy, if you will. But once Linus arrives at Marsyas Island Orphanage, the titular house in the cerulean sea, things take a much lovelier, heartwarming turn.