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A review by mariahistryingtoread
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
2.0
I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. I wanted to read it again when I saw the movie a few years back because the movie wasn’t very good and I wanted to compare. I never got around to it as I believe I was still in the midst of my years-long reading slump at that point. From my recollection as a child the book was fairly confusing though enjoyable. I assumed by re-reading it I would understand more now that I am an adult. I now can see what I found to be confusing as a child was me projecting some deeper meaning onto the story than there actually was and presuming that I was not getting it.
While there are some heavy concepts present, the book is not so bogged down in scientific rhetoric that I would consider it a problem. It could be a turn off for kids, however, as the introduction in my audiobook stated L’Engle didn’t ever actually consider this a kids book so that’s a modern day demographic categorization issue more than anything.
I don’t actually have much to say, good or bad. I expected to like it more because it was special to me as a kid and it’s widely praised. I found it stronger at the beginning when the mystery had yet to unfold. As it began to unwind it became significantly less interesting as it settled into a very basic rescue story. And when I say basic I mean white-tee-blue-jeans level basic. They only travel to one place at which point they almost immediately resolve the main point of the journey. There is only one other location on this little excursion. There are no clever puzzles or interesting tricks or really anything fun to figure out. When it’s not dabbling in discussions of high concept scientific theory the book feels as if its sole purpose is to push L’Engle’s ideological beliefs onto the reader.
It’s not a bad belief system - the idea that love can conquer all - however, there are better, more entertaining, less obvious ways to weave a message into a story. The characters often function as little more than pawns as everyone outside of Meg does not progress in any way. This is especially true for Charles Wallace whose whole schtick is purposely designed to make him a better vessel to perpetuate the agenda.
So, all in all I would recommend this just to experience some of the hype, but I would say definitely manage your expectations as much as you can. I like it well enough. It’s just not as mysterious or magical as it appears to be at the outset.
While there are some heavy concepts present, the book is not so bogged down in scientific rhetoric that I would consider it a problem. It could be a turn off for kids, however, as the introduction in my audiobook stated L’Engle didn’t ever actually consider this a kids book so that’s a modern day demographic categorization issue more than anything.
I don’t actually have much to say, good or bad. I expected to like it more because it was special to me as a kid and it’s widely praised. I found it stronger at the beginning when the mystery had yet to unfold. As it began to unwind it became significantly less interesting as it settled into a very basic rescue story. And when I say basic I mean white-tee-blue-jeans level basic. They only travel to one place at which point they almost immediately resolve the main point of the journey. There is only one other location on this little excursion. There are no clever puzzles or interesting tricks or really anything fun to figure out. When it’s not dabbling in discussions of high concept scientific theory the book feels as if its sole purpose is to push L’Engle’s ideological beliefs onto the reader.
It’s not a bad belief system - the idea that love can conquer all - however, there are better, more entertaining, less obvious ways to weave a message into a story. The characters often function as little more than pawns as everyone outside of Meg does not progress in any way. This is especially true for Charles Wallace whose whole schtick is purposely designed to make him a better vessel to perpetuate the agenda.
So, all in all I would recommend this just to experience some of the hype, but I would say definitely manage your expectations as much as you can. I like it well enough. It’s just not as mysterious or magical as it appears to be at the outset.