Beneath the Sugar Sky – Seanan McGuire – Review

 

 

Rini lands in the pond at Elenor West’s Home for Wayward Children. She is looking for her mother, Sumi. Problem is that Sumi died a few years earlier. Rini, with the help from some of the wayward children sets out to fix the past so that she can exist in the future

 

 

 

 

This was probably my favorite book in this series so far. This one I think had the strongest  and the most interesting plot. I love a good story about a paradox. I also loved that this was a journey to put someone back together.

I wasn’t sure how exactly this story was going to play out when I read the summary. I didn’t know if it was going to just be about Rini and her journey or if we were going to involve other characters. I loved that we got to see some of our favorites from the pervious book.

This book made me want to learn more about Christopher. I was only half interested in him from the other books. This book showed me that he has more to his story. I would love to have his book. I think he has a fascinating backstory and I want to know more about the world he was in.

I really enjoyed that the process of putting together Sumi involved more than just a simple spell or trick. Sumi was a complex person and putting her back together was a process. She needed all parts of her, not just her skeleton but her soul and her nonsense as well. This was a great look at how people are not just one thing, we all are complex human beings. If you lose one piece of yourself you are missing something vital. In the end Sumi needed the essential parts of herself to live again.

This book also looked at how nonsense and logic can work together. Just became something seems crazy or out of sorts doesn’t mean there isn’t some rules. Rules don’t have to be insufferable or annoying, they can be helpful. Rules don’t have to make life not fun. I think this showed how complex this world is as well. We get to see the different directions that exist int his world and are getting a even more clear picture of how this place works.

Each one of these books is short and I think sometimes that hurts the story a little bit. We get glimpses of people but don’t get to truly dive into anyone. We get introduced to Cora and Nadya, but we don’t get too much about them. We know they are both from water worlds but that is about it. We do know that Cora struggled with her body but I wanted to know more about her and her past.

We get hints at these characters but none are fully developed right away. I guess it does help build up for sequels. I hope we get more about them in future stories just so we have full pictures of them and they aren’t just side characters meant to fill out the cast.

There was nothing in this book that bothered me or made me have to pause while reading. I was able to get absorbed in the book and fly through it.

I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads. It was a fun ride that showed us more about the world and the characters in it.

“We try to make things make sense, even when they’re never going to.” (pg. 32)

“Futures, pasts, it didn’t matter. Everything fell apart.” (pg. 34)

“We don’t go where we’re not meant to be, even if we sometimes get born the wrong place.” (pg. 61)

“The fact that they had survived different somethings didn’t change the fact that they would always be, in certain ways, the same.” (pg. 106)

“It took me years of saving a world that stopped wanting me when I changed my pronouns to figure it out.” (pg. 110)

“There is kindness in the world, if we know how to look for it. If we never start denying it the door.” (pg. 174)