Books 18 and 19 of 2022: Beneath the Sugar Sky / In an Absent Dream

[thistlechaser]

Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) by Seanan McGuire. In Every Heart a Doorway, book #1 of the Wayward Children series, there's a series of murders. The first person to get murdered was a character I didn't like, so I thought that was really a rather convenient twist. Unfortunately this book was all about bringing her back to life.

The worlds the magic doorways open to all fall at points on a compass. Each direction is a classification of worlds: Logic and Nonsense are opposites, Wicked and Virtuous are opposites, and Rhyme and Reason are also opposites. This book was our first look at a Nonsense world, and it didn't work at all for me.

Being opposite of Logic, Nonsense throws out anything that makes sense. For example, you could walk anywhere in the entire world in a day of walking. The whole world was made of candy and cookies. I'd be a Logic or Reason door sort of person; even just spending a couple hours reading about a Nonsense world was too much for me.

Add onto that that I really didn't believe in the main character as a person. See, the theme of this series is "there's no one right way to be a girl", and each book has a different sort of girl as a main character. Intersex, damaged twin sister, missing a limb... The main character of this book was fat. The author only ever used "fat", never overweight, heavy, or any other word. The author also repeatedly said how in shape she was, despite being fat. How being fat wasn't her fault at all, she ate healthier than most other people. She was stronger than any of her friends, more in shape, more athletic, and being "fat" was a product of her genes and nothing else... Doesn't that rob the meaning of making the main character "fat"? Why couldn't she have been heavy because she likes pizza and cookies more than other people? Why did she have to have an excuse that it wasn't her "fault"? It just really struck me the wrong way.

This was the first book I didn't enjoy at all. I would have DNF'ed it, but it was so short and I had hoped it would get better.

In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4) by Seanan McGuire. While I didn't have any of the issues with #4 that I had had with #3, I still didn't enjoy it much.

It started out so slowly. We spent the first 20% of the book with the main character (a bookworm girl) in the real world. Snooze.

When she found her door and got to her new world (Goblin Market), it was... fine. For me, the world (and the story) had none of the magic of the other books.

I guess I believed the main character as a person (though a boring person). So much of the story was time-jumped past though, it was hard to connect with the world or any of the other characters.

---

I loved books 1, 2, and 6 of this series so much, I was very surprised to see how much 3 and 4 didn't work for me.

Looks like I have two left of the series to go: Come Tumbling Down and Where the Drowned Girls Go.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

. The first person to get murdered was a character I didn't like, so I thought that was really a rather convenient twist. Unfortunately this book was all about bringing her back to life.

Heh. I had the exact same reaction to Sumi (or whatever her name is) and was DREADING the plot of getting her back. But actually I enjoyed 'Sugar Sky' more than I was expecting, because my expectations were so low. The one I really hated was a follow-on book where the restored Sumi plays a major role (Come Tumbling Down -- so be forewarned, I guess XD) -- which was a bummer, because it was a Jack book, and Jack is my favorite character in this series that I keep reading despite not liking it much XD

I also did not enjoy being in Cora's POV and hearing about how she is "fat" (but the "good" kind of fat *eyeroll*) constantly.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think Sumi is the right spelling of her name, and drat, her book is next then. Oh well. At least we did get to see Nancy happy in her underworld world.

Jack is my favorite character, too! I loved Down Among the Sticks and Bones.

I'm looking forward to the last book. I usually don't read the summaries ahead of time, but I was trying to figure out the number order and caught on a detail. I've been curious about the other kind of school, for kids who had a horrible time and don't want to go back. Apparently that's where Where the Drowned Girls Go is set.

I had hoped for a Christopher book, he had seemed really interesting... until I read Sugar Sky. She seems to put out one book every year, so maybe eventually there will be one.

[hamsterwoman]

Sticks and Bones is definitely my favorite of these!

I've been curious about the other kind of school, for kids who had a horrible time and don't want to go back.

Ooh, I didn't realize we were going to get a look at that -- I've also been curious! I guess I'll read that one :)

I think Christopher is around in Come Tumbling Down, too, although I don't recall him being particularly memorable there...

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Was the Nonsense World anything like Alice In Wonderland (ha ha)?

I read a book w/a similar kind of character once- it was about a girl in high school who was overweight and struggling to get more fit. The whole story was about her efforts to exercise, and how only one kid at school would be her friend. My memory of it is pretty vague- this was over 20 years ago- but I do remember sharply how it ended- turned out she had some kind of metabolic disorder that caused her to gain weight, so the ending point was: it's not her fault. And I think she got medication and suddenly everything was fine. It seemed like a cop-out to me.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say it had been as creative as Alice in Wonderland, but the whole thing was the world was just candy. The ocean was soda. Buildings were gingerbread. Armor was made from chocolate (and since it was a Nonsense world, the chocolate didn't melt from body heat).

Agreed, that's completely a cop-out. It undercut the message in the Wayward Children series so much. "There's no one right way to be a girl"...