Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third installment of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. This review will not contain spoilers for Beneath the Sugar Sky, but will contain spoilers for the first two books in the series.

When a girl in a dress of frosting falls from the sky just outside of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the students must tell the young girl, Rini, that her mother died years before she was ever born. But Rini comes from Nonsense and demands that one way or another they need to give her mother back to her. She has a not only her own life to save, but an entire world. Setting out on a quest with four of the students from Eleanor’s boarding school, Rini is determined to bring her mother back from the dead. Will they save Confection, the world made entirely of sugar, or will run out of time and watch Rini disappear before their very eyes?

So I loved the first book in this series, but I didn’t feel like the second one held up to the same standard as the first. Thankfully, I have to say that this book did not disappoint. My only complaint is that I want so much more from it! I want to see more of the worlds.

While we saw Moors in the second book, we didn’t get to see enough of the “other” worlds in my opinion. The first book was set on Earth. This book finally allowed us to see a few more worlds, which I loved. However, I still want more. There was so little time spent in each world that I still don’t know enough about it. I understand that these books are really short so there can’t be that much worldbuilding, but I would rather them be longer so I can have it!

One thing that I want to point out is that McGuire did a really good job of making everything believable because she didn’t give me any reason to doubt the existence of these other worlds. They were fact, even if they didn’t make sense, so it was much easier to accept the crazy circumstances as a reader.

Confection was a world made purely of sugar. It was a world with many different layers and each layer was made out of a different baked good—bread, cookies, brownies and so many more. There were oceans of soda and trees of candy. Nutrition wasn’t a concern and they farmed candy corn. It was the perfect world for Sumi and Rini.

A bunch of my favorite characters were brought back for this book, but I also met two new characters, who each earned a spot in my heart. Kade. Christian. Sumi. Rini. Cora.

I loved meeting Rini, Sumi’s daughter. Sumi was one of my favorite characters in the first book and I was shocked when I discovered that Rini was her daughter. They were so similar, yet so different. With Rini growing up in Confection, she never learned the rules of a Logical world like Sumi had. As for Kade and Christian, I was really excited to see them again, but I want so much more of them. I really hope that they will be in the next novel as well.

I feel like the writing itself improved between the second and third book in this series. I didn’t feel like I was being lectured in this book like I did in the second one. I was pulled into the story and never thought twice about it. I finished it in one sitting. Also, I loved the pictures that are in these books. I kind of wanted more of those as well.

Overall, I loved reading this book. My only complaint was that I wanted more! I gave it 5 out of 5 stars and I HIGHLY recommend this series.

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