Beneath the Sugar Sky

I think there are currently 7 books in this ongoing series, which means I’m way behind. But I’m not in a hurry and I thoroughly enjoy how, each time I start a new Wayward Children story, it feels like I never left that world, but without the tedious hand-holding exposition that some authors employ to make sure you’re caught up on previous events in their series. I love the combination of melancholy and hope that permeates these imaginative, wonderfully queer books, whose characters are bereft outside of their respective magical worlds, yet refuse to stop searching for their respective ways back, and in the meantime find true kinship and relatably imperfect friendship with each other. If you were one of those kids who ever imagined a world made of sweets, this particular book is both a dream and nightmare come true. That is, for as much as the experience of reading a book you consider to be a lived experience.

The third Wayward Children book returns again to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children and revisits the character of Sumi, who we met in the first book. You don't have to read the second book in the series before this, but reading the first (Every Heart a Doorway) would definitely be helpful.

The story's told mainly from the point of view of Cora, an overweight girl who found a door into a water world where she was a powerful mermaid. The author seems to be trying very hard to create a positive representation of a fat character, but does this mainly by Cora constantly maintaining an internal monologue about herself being fat, being called fat, expecting to be called fat, etc etc while nobody else in the entire book ever actually mentions it. Meanwhile Cora doesn't actually get a lot of opportunities to demonstrate her actual good qualities - apart from learning she's a decent athlete we don't really get much of a feel for her personality and skills since she's so completely focused on body positivity messages. It's a bit puzzling why she's even there for the story at all, since she'd never met Sumi previously.

Anyway... lack of character development aside, the plot involves revisiting Nancy (from the first book) and traveling to Sumi's world which was Candyland, a nonsense world. Maybe appropriately for the locale, the plot feels fairly chaotic also. The characters are dragged around from world to world, conveniently able to travel anywhere they want to via a deus ex machina candy bracelet, and reacting to one situation after another without much free will or forethought.

It's a fun tour of some of the other worlds, and a nice follow up to the characters of Nancy and Sumi from book 1, but felt a little phoned in, tbh,

Beneath the Sugar Sky attempts to fix something broken before it loses all possibility of ever being right again. There's a sense of urgency defined by absence rather than presence; tension created by what ought to be but is not.

The world-building is fantastic, both for the specific places they visit and for what those places say about the multiverse as a whole. It moves along with the best answers we have for now and then tells the reader new answers as the characters discover them. It made it feel like discovering something wonderful along with people who know enough to be guides while still having a sense of awe at every new thing.

This returns to the setting of the first book to advance what looks like it will be the main narrative of the series, tracing the lives of the children at the school during their tenure (while the even numbered books tell more about people during the time they did not reside there). I knew a little of that structure but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of settings in this one. The school is a locus but it doesn't constrain the story at all, getting out of the way so that we could have a quest this time. I like seeing different sides of old characters and meeting some brand new ones.

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in the Wayward Children series, follows a group of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children residents into Confection, a world where everything is made of sugar. Confection is a Nonsense world so don't expect too much logic. Rini is Sumi's daughter but Sumi died before she had Rini, and now Confection is at risk from the Queen of Cakes. The only way to right the world is to bring Sumi back.

Isn't it handy that the kids have experience of such things? Beneath the Sugar Sky is more of a direct sequel to Every Heart a Doorway than Down Among the Sticks and Bones was, bringing back old friends and new. The story is seen from Cora's a point of view, a keen swimmer who spent time in a water world. Despite her athletic ability, people from before thought she was fat and lazy. Her memories show her struggles but the present shows larger kids can have adventures too.

The second book is still my favourite but I await each new book in this series with much delight.