Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
In Beneath the Sugar Sky (2018), the third book in Seanan McGuire’s WAYWARD CHILDREN series, we return to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, that haven for children and teens who once found their way through portals to other, magical worlds but have been involuntarily returned to ours. At Eleanor West’s boarding school, at least they find others who believe them and empathize, and desperately hope with them for a way to return to a magic world where they truly felt they belonged.
At Eleanor’s there’s a new girl, Cora, cautiously making her way through the halls and through daily life. Cora’s been teased and abused as overweight all her days, except for that glorious time she slipped through a portal to a world called the Trenches, where she was a particularly excellent mermaid and her fat was wonderfully functional. The only thing now remaining from her mermaid world is that Cora’s hair is still a dozen shades of green and blue (though Eleanor knows if these colors ever fade, Cora will never be able to find her way back).
A new adventure for Cora and her friend Nadya, another returnee from a watery world, begins with a splash: a girl falls from the sky into the pond behind Eleanor’s school, startling Cora, Nadya and the turtles. The falling girl is Rini, daughter to Sumi, a character from Every Heart a Doorway who died as a teenager while she was at Eleanor West’s school. Rini informs them that in her own timeline, Sumi was able to return through the portal to the magical Candyland-type world called Confection and defeat the evil Queen of Cakes, after which she married and had her daughter Rini. But now the malicious Queen is alive again and back in charge of Confection, and Rini is slowly disappearing, à la Marty McFly in Back to the Future, albeit far slower. Clearly Rini, Cora, Nadya and other friends (who will be familiar to readers of the first book) need to find a way to change the current reality! And so their quest to bring Sumi back begins.
Readers who enjoyed the first two books in the WAYWARD CHILDREN series will likely be equally charmed by Beneath the Sugar Sky. This novella throws open more portals, and readers are lucky enough to visit some magical worlds that we had only heard about before. McGuire balances imaginative whimsy with her insightful and thoughtful writing and engagement with meaningful issues of diversity and belonging.
As always, McGuire has an understanding and sympathetic eye for those youth who feel like outsiders in our society. In Beneath the Sugar Sky we engage not just with characters of alternative sexuality but also those who are overweight, disabled, of minority religion and races, and more. Cora struggles with self-acceptance because of her weight; Nadya is missing one arm, which she refuses to let hold her back; and there’s a delightful cameo by a girl wearing a hijab. It’s a pleasure to meet up again with several characters from Every Heart a Doorway, some of whom I hadn’t expected to see again.
I found Beneath the Sugar Sky much lighter in tone than the prior two novellas in this series, which makes it a more pleasant read, though it does deprive it of some of the heft and impact of the other two books. The multiverse/different timelines aspect of this story didn’t really hold water logically, but I suppose that can be excused at least to some extent where the world of Confection is, quite explicitly, a Nonsense world. The last paragraph of Beneath a Sugar Sky gave me goosebumps, along with a heartfelt wish to visit these characters and their worlds again.
Wayward Children — (2016- ) Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. No Solicitations. No Visitors. No Quests. Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things. No matter the cost.
I guess I’d better get my act together and start reading these books. :)
I’d be really surprised if you don’t love these, Jana!
Me, too!