Last reread: April 22, 2018

(Mrs) Who knows how many times I read this book as a child.

After recently reading an adaption, a graphic novel, and then feeling as if I were Charles Wallace eating the food of Camazotz, I felt a pull to reread the original, hoping to supplant that sawdust taste with the original wonder. It worked. (It also pointed out a few places where the graphic novel takes shortcuts and thus doesn’t make sense if you don’t already know the story.)

Thinking of the film adaptions (I was sorely disappointed in the first and will not see the second), I realize only now that I've never thought of this book as science fiction or fantasy. I wouldn't have even known what that was as a kid, and it didn’t lead me to read more science fiction or fantasy. It scared me, thrilled me, made my heart pound. I found it odd—though, strangely, also matter-of-fact. I loved it for all those reasons. I related to Meg’s insecurity and fear, if not her anger. I wouldn’t have fully understood the references to The Tempest for example, but they likely were planted in my brain, waiting for later acknowledgment. No graphic novel or filmed version will ever live up to the (simple though effective) images in my head.

P.S. On page 186 (out of 216) of my (childhood) copy of the book, I’d written my name in script at the bottom, but added an extra ‘s’ to my name—a highly unusual act for me. I puzzled over that for a bit until it occurred to me that maybe I was trying to write myself into the story by comparing my name to the word tesseract.

P.P.S. It's fitting that I finished this (adult) reread on my mom's birthday, as she, always trying to keep up with my reading addiction, enrolled me in a mail-order book 'club' for children that sent me this book, as well as others that became favorites.

A Classic..

My Rating is ;
If It was the 60s/70s: 4.5
If I was under 16 y/o: 4
But reading it now: hardly 3
Yes.. it's about TIME..
And 3 'Different' kids..

3 Strange powerful Women..

Looking for a Father..


I believe it needed like more action, and less the direct speech..
It felt like part Educational, part Religious even part Political...

I LOVED so much the Time/Space theme and facts... but the story felt ...dunno, classic dry comparing to current Middle Grade novels...
Yet I love to watch the Movie , the trailer is impressive..

This one is weird and interesting, and incredibly creative. I love how unique L'Engle's mind is and that it was her children than pushed her to get it published. However, no matter how many times I have read it over the years, I can't quite fall in love with it.

I recognize its value as a classic shaping of minds and in literacy in general.

It is always just a solid 3 stars for me.

That's what I felt I was seeing as I read this, a blank slate, a void, an empty room.

A Wrinkle in Time is a very nice tale, but I just wish L'Engle spent more time developing the settings. The decently rounded characters seemed to be floating in spartan landscapes like portraits hung in limbo.

Lackluster description is one thing, but perhaps more than anything, I think my tepid-3 star, ho-hum reaction to A Wrinkle in Time is due to my reading it as a middle-aged curmudgeon. It's made for kids and I haven't been one of them in a while.

My wife loved this book as a child and kept hinting I should read it, hinting so much that the hints became ultimatums. Could've sworn I heard her in my head shouting, "Read this or you do not love me!" So I read it and well...meh. I missed the age-appropriate boat on that one, I guess. But hey, at least I was smart enough not to give her my scathing review (yes, this would've been seen as a scathing review in her eyes). I just said, "It was nice," and that's the story of how I managed to stay married.

The End

It was four-star stuff but the ending ruined it a bit - the part where Meg defeats IT by love. Why do people keep feeding this love-conquers-all nonsense to their children? Harry Potter, Doctor Who and now this. Love doesn't conquer anything, you need guns. In fact, I agree with Sherlock Holmes on this one - love is a serious disadvantage and sentiment is a chemical weakness found in losing side.

This is still a crazy book...
Meg and her brother Charles meet a stranger one night who tells them about a tesseract (wrinkle in time). Come to find out their father is trapped on a distant planet and together with a band of new friends they must embark on an epic journey to rescue him from the evil "IT" (and no, we are not talking Stephen King here). Can Meg find the courage inside her to save her father?
I read this book years ago in school and found it super strange and boring but I wanted to give it a reread as an adult to see what my thoughts would be.
This book starts off well but during the second half it starts to get a little boring and I found myself skimming through most of the way.
This is one wild book! The characters are a bit confusing and hard to follow. Also things seem to happen out of nowhere which is a bit confusing for the reader (whether young or older) and I also remember it being very confusing as a child. If I remember correctly there was actually a point where I just had no idea what was going on anymore in the book and I was completely lost.
This book is a classic though and I do respect it as such however, like many classics, it is a little difficult to enjoy to its full extent. Of course it could be the writing style, it could be the characters, or the crazy world that the author has imagine for us. It also may be simply because we've been so modernized (even in our reading) that books like this just don't seem to jive anymore.
Then again it could simply be that this book is not for everyone. Like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye I find this book along the same lines, a respected classic but just not for me.
I would recommend this book for the classic that it is. Definitely to younger readers but I don't think this book would be enjoyed as an adult as much as it would as a teenager or preteen.

This is the fifth time I've read A Wrinkle in Time.

But I never actually enjoyed it that much. The first time I read it, I liked it but I also found it kind of annoying. I reread it once to see if I could understand it better, and then I reread it out of boredom (and because I was actually starting to like it). Literally the week after I read it the third time, my sixth-grade teacher told us that we were going to read it for English.

Which made me even more annoying during book discussions because I knew everything.

I haven't read it since then, so it gives me nostalgia going back to read this story. Even though I didn't even read it at that young an age (maybe fourth or fifth grade when I read it the first time). It's been three years and I honestly still don't understand Mrs. Who.

But that's the point of this kind of book. This and The Phantom Tollbooth formed an important part of my reading basis in elementary school. The kind of books that make you think.

"I see!" she cried. "I got it! For just a moment I got it! I can't possibly explain it now, but there for a second I saw it!"

Four years later and not that much wiser (I've lost brain cells), I still get that kind of moment reading this book.

The characters. None of them fit into any specific tropes (although I guess Meg could be labeled the 'outcast' and the twins could be labeled as 'basic') and none of them were my style of character. But I liked them all. Meg got annoying at times, but she's also very relatable.

“Meg, don't you think you'd make a better adjustment to life if you faced facts?"
I do face facts," Meg said. "They're lots easier to face than people, I can tell you.”

Calvin was my favorite because he reminded me of the boy I liked in sixth grade because he was good with his words and he was a really layered character; he appeared to be normal, but when Meg really got to know him, he was so much more than just the athletic boy.

“I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.”

I'm going to be honest, the Mrs. W's got on my nerves. They were definitely helpful, but they also felt unnecessary for a lot of the time. Mrs. Which was too strict and serious and boring, Mrs. Who just existed there, and Mrs. Whatsit was annoying.

“Have you ever tried to get to your feet with a sprained dignity?”

No, usually I'm still standing because someone else destroyed it.

The plot was very absorbing. It wasn't predictable the first time I read it, but this being the fifth time I kind of just followed along until the last two chapters. Because I forgot the last two chapters existed. Which is surprising because Chapter Eleven is my favorite.

This was a good, quick book to get me reading a bit faster, because I've been in a slump for a while now. It was only twelve chapters that still got my brain twisted again. I haven't developed since sixth grade.

This book will outlive time itself.

A Wrinkle in Time has that Thing I can't describe, this special element that I haven't seen in any other book. There's magic, there's physics, there's fantasy, and friendship and loyalty and courage and anything else you can imagine. This is that book. It's the book you will read over and over again, not because of the intricate plot or complex world-building, not even because of the characters, but because of the special Thing it contains.

I can't fathom the thought that I went a whole six years without rereading this. This book is so so so so special, and if you haven't read it, then damn I feel bad for you. I feel like I just went on an intergalactic journey with some of the most brilliant minds of our time.

There's a certain divide, or a line that my favorite authors can't cross with female protagonists, and that is their personalities and the way they are portrayed, and how they interact with other characters. Basically, I despise weak female protagonists. When I read this novel for the first time in sixth grade, I hadn't yet formed a solid opinion on Meg Murry, because I wasn't picky and I basically read anything that was given to me. But now? I just ... I love that bitch. With my whole entire heart.

Meg Murry is a frail, awkward, odd, intelligent girl that is faced with the daunting task of saving her father from The Dark Thing, AKA "IT" on another dimension called Camazotz. In the first 75% of the novel, it is evident that Meg Murry is very afraid. She isn't used to stepping out of her comfort zone, has always lived a normal, quiet life, and does not think she is at all capable of anything related to saving her father, let alone an entire dimension. And I think, overall, that is what makes her character growth so inimitable.

I think the thing we love the most about our favorite characters is not that they start off with a sturdy strength inside them, but that they are full of faults and flaws that they eventually overcome them. Why? Because it makes us proud. Because we, as imperfect humans, are given something to relate to.

That is why Meg Murry's journey is a special one. I'm tired of reading about characters that seem to know exactly what they're doing, where they're going, and who they are. In this book, I was able to see Meg's growth and how she learned to rely on herself, how she learned to stop putting her responsibilities in other people's hands, and how she learned to do things for herself. I loved watching how she learned to stop hating herself, and that she was worthy of love and worthy of every happy feeling in the world. She is not perfect, she is not a saint, she is none of that. And she has accepted that inevitable truth with all of her heart.

--

"I wanted you to do it all for me," Meg said. "I wanted everything to be all easy and simple ... So I tried to pretend that it was all your fault ... because I was scared, and I didn't want to have to do anything myself."

--

Meg wanted to reach out and grab Calvin's hand, but it seemed that ever since they had begun their journeyings she had been looking for a hand to hold, so she stuffed her fists into her pockets and walked along behind the two boys. I've got to be brave, she said to herself. I will be.

--

Growth comes in different forms, different seasons, different times, and no matter how infinitesimal Meg's may seem, it is part of her journey all the same.

The definition of a strong female protagonist is not one that has been strong from the beginning. It is one that has endured more than any could bear, one that has fallen, stood up, and kept going. These strong protagonists come in many shapes and forms, and Meg Murry is now added to my long list of favorites.

I automatically fell in love with the insta-love, insta-care, and insta-protectiveness. (I just made all of these terms up because I am cool.) Normally, I hate insta-love. Hate it with my entire being. But I just couldn't bring myself to feel any irritation towards it in this book because it is so well written and so lovely and just everything I needed today. I love how Calvin is immediately protective of Meg and he won't let anyone hurt her, how he refuses to let her cry on her own. I love how Meg has known Aunt Beast for approximately a few hours and departs from her arms with tears in her eyes, and "I love you," on the edge of her lips. I love that I love it so much, and I have no clue why, and in all honesty, if I read this in another book it would be completely, utterly weird, and I know I would hate it immediately. But this book ... it’s speshul bro

Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, Mrs Which, Charles Wallace, Mrs Murry, Calvin

why
are the characters
so beautiful
so wonderful
i can't explain it
i can't comprehend
- an exquisite, sad, lovestruck poem written by me

In every book, there are characters I would die for, and characters I would kill. Miraculously, A Wrinkle in Time has yanked the strings of my heart and has made me numb to all the hatred in the world. I can't bring myself to hate anyone in this book. Not even "IT", the antagonist. Why? BECAUSE IT'S WRITTEN SO WELL. I have absolutely no complaints about any of the characters whatsoever. They are all beautiful beans (except the Prime BitchCoordinator).

If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the method in which Meg defeats "IT". The love-conquers-all bit is a lil cheesy, which is completely understandable, seeing as how this book was published in 1962, and everything was cheesy back then. Overall, the plot had me at the edge of my seatbed the entire time, and still, six years later, I love it just the same and even more.

I know how sparse my five star ratings can be, but this book will always deserve its five stars. I don't think it will ever go down. This is a book that everyone has to read, because it is beautiful and heartbreaking (in how beautiful it is), and that ending, oh my god that ending, that last fucking page just shattered my soul because it. was. written. so. well.

Hopefully you get my point and are now rushing to the nearest library to check out this book. If you are not, The Dark Thing shall reawaken from the depths of the fifth dimension and will come find you. (I shall set it upon you.)

A classic of children's literature. Even on re-reading this as an adult, it held up very well.

4,25 stars - English paperback - read again after 30 years

Huh . . . Well that was that.

I'm just not even sure what to think of this book. It was very unique - maybe too unique for my tastes. I just feel rather indifferent about it. :P

One of these days, I will finally realize that I am in fact an adult, and will stop wanting to recapture an alternate childhood. Even if Hollywood insists on flashy (re)adaptions of every children's book in existence. Damn you!



The easiest and most natural thing to do when faced with failure, is to pinpoint a culprit. Preferably someone other than one's own self, so I choose my country's school system. If you go by its compulsory reading list, it's clear that a heavily depressed child/teenager is what it takes to ace Literature class.

The reading list boasts of such lovely stories like :
- baby is eaten by eagles
- magic sheep to witness last will of suicidal shepherd
- mythical star gets its heart broken by uncaring princess
- materialistic peasant climbs over everyone and everything to get a bit of land
- OR, my personal favorite: French boy breaks innocent Indian girl's heart - if only because the lack of any tragic deaths.



So trust me when I tell you that I'm positively green with envy, when others get a frigging space-fairy-tale to analyze. Not only does it boast of an interesting title (A Wrinkle in Time), but its author also parades around with an absolutely fabulous (pen?)name (Madeleine L'Engle). Add to that a story that manages to coast by with minimal religious references. Meaning... if noone explicitly mentions God or Jesus, I can convince myself that things have nothing to do with them.

What I'm saying is that I should've positively ADORED this book! So feeling nothing but boredom and irritation, understandably put me in quite a foul mood.

It started out well enough with the heroine being bullied for being different, but before I could even grasp the entirety of Meg's woes, she gets a huge pile of insta-love thrown her way, space-travel, a villain whose endgame never gets explained... all wrapped in a slew of utterly confusing events, peppered with as many weird characters as 200 pages can hold.

Score: 1/5 stars

I was initially holding out some hope that some pretty visuals would at least endear the movie to me, but I lasted less than 10 minutes. In its defense, I was on a plane, where my attention span is even lower than usual.