Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire [Book #3]

Content Tags: Fantasy, Death/Dead, Fatphobia

Description from Storygraph:

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.

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Wayward Children series continues to entertain me. This book had a much clearer plot and story arch than the second book in the series. It was an adventure to save Sumi and, by extension, Rini. This book also introduced a new resident at Eleanor's Home for Wayward Children - Cora. I haven't looked at what the other books in the series are about, but I hope one of them is for Cora. <3

While each of these stories have been fantastical and tragical and magical, they each are laced with very real emotions and lessons. Seanan McGuire has such a spectacular storytelling ability and pulls me into these worlds like one of the doors drawing in these children. I look forward to the next in the series!

I would give more of a breakdown of the book here, but with these being novellas, the description covers it pretty well. I will say though, that I'm not sure you really need to read the first book before reading the others because this book included a bit at the beginning explaining the background and context of this fantasy world. And the book filled in the relevant details that were included in Every Heart a Doorway since some of the characters in this book were not around for those goings on.

Book Reflection Wrap-up:

Are there lingering questions from the book you're still thinking about?

My lingering question is, will one of the later books feature Cora? Everything else was pretty well resolved in the book. I simply want to know more of Cora's journey.

If you had to trade places with one character, who would it be?

I think I would most like to trade places with Kade. He's the most content - as far as we've been shown - with where he ended up and his new roles and positions in life. Plus, he gets to help others on their journeys through the Home for Wayward Children and I think that's wonderful.

Added to TBR: January 2019

Removed from TBR: May 2023