Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) by Seanan McGuire

Title: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children #3
Genre: Fantasy/Magic/LGBT

Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: January 9th, 2018
Edition: Kindle Edition, 157 pages
Source: Tor free monthly book club
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository | Bookshop | Powell's | Thriftbooks

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...
   A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.

Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.

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   I am absolutely in love with how these short books are packed to perfection with plot, and character growth. I loved seeing the world of Confection. I loved seeing Nancy in her world. I hope to see Christopher's world in a future book (though from the synopses of the books that are out, it isn't going to happen anytime soon).

   Rini was a great character. Seeing her interact with people from the 'real' world was interesting in so many ways. What she knows as normal is vastly different from the rest of the kids at the school. Sure they don't belong to the same world, but they were born in a very different world than her, so even though they don't belong in the "real" world either, to them it's a standard. Trees not being made of sugar and cake is strange to her as her world being entirely of sugar and cake is weird to the rest of them. 

I liked Cora as a character as well. I really liked that she saw the Queen of Cakes for who she really was when the rest of them seemed to miss that part of her. The Queen's gaunt face and body made it clear to Cora who she was before she showed up in Confection. "You were one of us." I hope Cora's book is good. 

Also, I hope Christopher gets to go home to his world too. He deserves to go to his home after all he's been through.

 

These are books that I can see myself re-reading. I have ebooks for most of the ones that are out, but I think I'm going to put these on a list of books I'd like to have physical copies of.