Review: Beneath The Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3)

Beneath the Sugar Sky, Book 3 in the Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire

Published By: Tor
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
Date Read: June 14, 2025
Genre: YA – Magical Realism
Source: Bought
Format: Hardback
Pages: 174

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Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire’s Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the “real” world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.

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

After really enjoying the first novellas in the Wayward Children series, I was really excited to dive straight into the third novella. I was really intrigued by this one as it seemed so different from the first two novellas, and it definitely was. I am so glad I read this one as this one is definitely my favourite of the series so far.

I really loved that Beneath the Sugar Sky was a little bit more high stakes. While I love cosy fantasy and magical realism, I also love a good strong plot, and I felt like the plot in this one was much stronger than the previous ones. We are introduced to two new children, one being Rini who has come in search of her mother before she disappears completely. Her mother being Sumi, one of the children who was murdered in the first novella. I really loved this who ‘messing with a timeline’ vibe as it gave the novella a sci-fi feel to it which I loved. I also loved that it was a bit of a race against time to see whether they would be able to save Sumi and Rini.

One thing I really enjoyed about this one is that we had a group of the Wayward children travelling to some of the different worlds in order to same Sumi. I loved this idea that the children who weren’t of that world were still able to visit it momentarily and see what some of the other worlds were life. I really enjoyed the whole travelling concept of it, and I really enjoyed seeing some of the other worlds in more depth. That definitely increased my enjoyment of this one. Also… a world made of cake? Sign me up!

I also really liked that one of the newer characters was a plus size character. I liked that we had this representation and that we saw some of her insecurities and the challenges that she had faced. However, I do feel like it was a little bit overkill the amount of times it was mentioned about how she was ‘fat’. I loved the representation but felt like it could have been dialled back a  touch. We didn’t need to be told it every other chapter.

As a whole, this was definitely my favourite novella so far. I loved the high stakes and the different worlds we got to see. As someone who is definitely not a binge reader, I feel like this is such a binge worthy series. I’m honestly sad that I don’t currently have the next book to dive straight into. I will definitely be getting the next two novellas in the next month and I cannot wait to dive into it again. This is such a fantastic series, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy.

“Sometimes that’s all you can do. Just keep getting through until you don’t have to do it anymore, however much time that takes, however difficult it is.”