Book Review
Title: Beneath the Sugar Sky RE-READ
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: YA/LGBT/Portal Fantasy
Rating: ****
Review: As I mentioned in my re-read of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, I am re-reading this series as I managed to get an ARC of In an Absent Dream the 4th book in this series. Unlike Down Among the Sticks and Bones which is set before the events of Every Heart a Doorway, Beneath the Sugar Sky is a sequel to the first book taking place after those events and taking us back once more to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. In this novel, we are introduced to Cora and Nadya, both girls are friends at the home for wayward children and both girls come from water worlds. While the girls are still trying to get to their homes, we see a few of our old friends like Kade and Christopher make a reappearance in this story. However, the story really takes off when a girl falls from the sky claiming to be Sumi’s daughter which we all know is impossible.
We learn that the girl’s name is Rini and somehow Sumi is her mother like future and past collided. Meaning that with Sumi’s death, Rini’s birth was no longer possible as she is beginning to fade from existence. Surprisingly it is Christopher that comes up with a plan for bringing Sumi back, the first step is easy getting her skeleton together, with Rini’s help they manage to get to the Halls of the Dead to find Nancy and hopefully learn where Sumi’s ghost has gone.
The group finds Nancy in the Halls of the Dead and they also find Sumi’s spirit but the nonsense that made her who she was is still missing but they learn from the Lord of the Dead that this part of Sumi returned home to Confection, their next destination. However, payment must be made for taking Sumi’s spirit, in return one of them must stay behind. Nadya opts to stay behind as Nancy’s home is far closer to her own than the school would ever be, and she can wait in the Halls of the Dead the same way she could at the school, so it is agreed. I really felt sorry for Kade in this novel as he would never be allowed to return to the world, he called home while everyone else has or is searching for a way back and it isolates him, and, in the future, he may not even have Eleanor if she returns to her nonsense world, but he will always have the school.
Seeing the group’s journey through Confection is amazing and we learn so much about this world and others along with the Compass mainly through Kade and Christopher than we ever have before. When I first read Every Heart a Doorway I wanted to know about Sumi’s world and we learn so much here. There seems to be a trend with this series we get a book set at the school (Every Heart), then a backstory novel (Sticks and Bones), then another book set in the school (Sugar Sky) and another backstory novel, (Absent Dream). Due to this pattern there are so many stories I wanted to know, Eleanor and her journey, Christopher and Mariposa, Kade and his Fairyland and of course I’d love to know more about Nancy, the Halls of the Dead and her relationship with the Lord of the Dead which is never really touched upon, but it does seem the gift he gave Nancy was unique and they do seem to have a strange and complex relationship.
Overall, I loved Beneath the Sugar Sky but not as much as the other books for a few reasons. One being this book tries to be set in the present and be a backstory novel at the same time. I felt they should have been separate, I think a book about how the school coped after the departure of Jack, Jill and Nancy would have been great with scene about how these girls settled back into their own world along with Kade taking up a larger role within the school would have been great and then have Rini’s journey to save her mother be a completely separate book. Despite this, I loved the story and the characters and while I know hardly any of my babies are going to be In An Absent Dream, I hope I get to read more from them soon.
Buy it here:
Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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