Scan barcode
A review by theanitaalvarez
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
4.0
The protagonist in this book is Polly, Meg and Calvin’s daughter. She’s a smart kid who’s sent to her maternal grandparents for some time, to get a better science education and to be alone for time (Meg and Calvin had been getting busy, apparently, and they have lots of kids), to mourn the loss of her friend, Maximiliana.
While she’s there, of course, crazy things begin to happen around the house. She sees people who clearly are from other times (druids Karralys and Anaral, and warrior Tav), and she’s not the only one seeing them. Bishop Colubra, the brother of Doctor Colubra (she appears in other novels in the series, as a friend of Mrs. Murry), also knows about them and has talked to them several times. She ends up meeting them, as well, and strikes an odd friendship with Anaral. She also manages to travel back in time, as the Bishop has done before her.
However, things begin to get weird around Samhain, when she’s transported into the past and overhears a conversation between Karralys, Tav and Anaral. Tav, apparently, believes that Polly should be sacrificed to the earth for better harvests. The other two are against this idea, but Polly is understandably terrified.
Of course, her grandparents and the Colubras agree on that she shouldn’t get near the spot where you can travel in time. But then Zach Gray, a troubled boy whom Polly likes a lot, appears. And he ends up taking her into the past anyways.
There, Tav doesn’t want to kill her anymore, but the leader from the tribe on the other side of the lake, Tynak, thinks Polly is a goddess and decides that killing her is a brilliant idea. So, he enlists Zach’s help (he’s worried about his heart, damaged by rheumatic fever) to kidnap Polly, in lieu of helping him to heal his own heart.
As all the previous novels, this book is very much centered on the power of love. The obvious opposites would be Polly and Zach. While she’s clearly brave and selfless, he’s very selfish. He’s the stereotypical bad-boy, in the sense of a brooding-snarky kind of guy. He even tells he that he’s dangerous for the girls he dates!
It follows that Polly’ll fall head over heels for him. But, after he betrays her, she begins to hate him. As one of the big themes in the novel is love, she learns that hate is bad and kind of forgives him a little, but decides that she doesn’t want anything more to do with him.
There’s also a nice part in which she’s explaining Klep, a guy from the other side of the lake who was captured after a skirmish, what love is. She says that it is like a connection, and he comments that he sees that there’s a connection between Polly and Tav (you know, the guy who wanted to kill her and then decided not to). That plot point is left unresolved, as they live within different millennia, but it’s kind of nice. It clearly shows that love doesn’t really know about time and space.
This is a nice read. And it’s great to see how generations expand. So, good points here. Also, there were no egregious facts about Antarctica this time, so that’s a plus.
While she’s there, of course, crazy things begin to happen around the house. She sees people who clearly are from other times (druids Karralys and Anaral, and warrior Tav), and she’s not the only one seeing them. Bishop Colubra, the brother of Doctor Colubra (she appears in other novels in the series, as a friend of Mrs. Murry), also knows about them and has talked to them several times. She ends up meeting them, as well, and strikes an odd friendship with Anaral. She also manages to travel back in time, as the Bishop has done before her.
However, things begin to get weird around Samhain, when she’s transported into the past and overhears a conversation between Karralys, Tav and Anaral. Tav, apparently, believes that Polly should be sacrificed to the earth for better harvests. The other two are against this idea, but Polly is understandably terrified.
Of course, her grandparents and the Colubras agree on that she shouldn’t get near the spot where you can travel in time. But then Zach Gray, a troubled boy whom Polly likes a lot, appears. And he ends up taking her into the past anyways.
There, Tav doesn’t want to kill her anymore, but the leader from the tribe on the other side of the lake, Tynak, thinks Polly is a goddess and decides that killing her is a brilliant idea. So, he enlists Zach’s help (he’s worried about his heart, damaged by rheumatic fever) to kidnap Polly, in lieu of helping him to heal his own heart.
As all the previous novels, this book is very much centered on the power of love. The obvious opposites would be Polly and Zach. While she’s clearly brave and selfless, he’s very selfish. He’s the stereotypical bad-boy, in the sense of a brooding-snarky kind of guy. He even tells he that he’s dangerous for the girls he dates!
It follows that Polly’ll fall head over heels for him. But, after he betrays her, she begins to hate him. As one of the big themes in the novel is love, she learns that hate is bad and kind of forgives him a little, but decides that she doesn’t want anything more to do with him.
There’s also a nice part in which she’s explaining Klep, a guy from the other side of the lake who was captured after a skirmish, what love is. She says that it is like a connection, and he comments that he sees that there’s a connection between Polly and Tav (you know, the guy who wanted to kill her and then decided not to). That plot point is left unresolved, as they live within different millennia, but it’s kind of nice. It clearly shows that love doesn’t really know about time and space.
This is a nice read. And it’s great to see how generations expand. So, good points here. Also, there were no egregious facts about Antarctica this time, so that’s a plus.