Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3)
/
4 stars. So, so delighted to return to Seanan McGuire’s imagination for a vivid journey into the hearts and minds and worlds of her wayward children. We return to the “present” timeline here - after the last book’s prequel - to watch our trusty lost souls throw the space-time continuum out the window and right some wrongs.
As I noted in my reviews of the first two books in the series, Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones, I am so truly inspired by the sense of possibility in McGuire’s writing. I love fantasy and read it often, but I rarely - maybe not since Harry Potter - feel so immersed and … hopeful.
As always, McGuire includes very crucial, very on-the-nose, VERY IMPORTANT, RELEVANT messaging here - about acceptance, tolerance and the need to be kind to one another, among other things. I had the same reaction as I did to the second: okay, that’s a little preachy; a little loud. But again I kicked myself for assuming myself beyond the need for such a message. I need reminders too.
We do find out a little bit more about the worlds and the doorways. We get to visit several in this book and it made me so happy. I want a map, or a catalog, I want to know EVERYTHING. And I want to know where I would fit - what my world would look like. Perfectly suited? True acceptance? Fantasy, indeed. MORE, PLEASE!