A review by nclcaitlin
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

3.25

Becoming the savior of a world of wonder and magic before you turn fourteen and then finding yourself standing right back where you started in the normal world can cause a problem. They can be hard for their families to understand, those returned, used-up miracle children. They sound like liars, peering through keyholes wishing to go back to their magical world, their new home. 

Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children is a school for those who have gone, and come back, and hope to go again.

Despite the troubled children and their upside down sense of normal, things are quite ordinary. That is, until a girl dressed in a wedding cake ball gown falls from the sky. 

"We're teenagers in a magical land following a dead girl and a disappearing girl into a field of organic, pesticide-free candy corn," said Kade. "I think weird is a totally reasonable response to the situation. We're whistling through the graveyard to keep ourselves from totally losing our shit."

McGuire uses a diverse cast of characters to interrogate our prejudices and attitudes. Why is ‘fat’ used as an insult? Why do we care about the flesh on our bodies and labels rather than what is underneath? For some, this might be the personality, the heart, or (in a very special lost child case) the skeleton. 

Not my favourite of the series as it felt too light and breezy, even in the darker parts - perhaps this was the point. It is primarily a story about a door leading to Confection after all.