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A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)

Madeleine L'Engle

Start date: March 1, 2018

Finish date: March 31, 2018

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Winner Prize Winning Must Read Poll - March 2018
[close] Winner Prize Winning Must Read Poll - March 2018

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What Members Thought

Jun 29, 2020 Matthew rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2014, completist-book-club, fantasy, young-adult, library, classic

I read this one a few years ago and just realized I never gave it a star review. I did read it when I wasn't always writing reviews, so here is a brief take on what I remember . . .

I had high hopes for this one because it is considered a classic. Many people read this one when they are in elementary/middle school and I remember back when I was that age hearing my fellow students singing its praises. A bit odd that I never tried it back then! When I finally got to it as an adult, those hopes I ha ...more

81 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2015 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-women

I decided to reread after seeing the new Ava DuVernay adaptation with my daughter. I read the book as a child of the 1970's - probably a bit more than decade or so after the initial 1963 publication, around 1977, when I was 11. I fell in love with the book then, seeing much of myself in Meg Murry, the ordinary, often grumpy, young woman. I revisited L'Engle in 2015, and found that, while some of her books had not held up with reread, many of them did.

A Wrinkle in Time is a bit of a period piece, I decided to reread after seeing the new Ava DuVernay adaptation with my daughter. I read the book as a child of the 1970's - probably a bit more than decade or so after the initial 1963 publication, around 1977, when I was 11. I fell in love with the book then, seeing much of myself in Meg Murry, the ordinary, often grumpy, young woman. I revisited L'Engle in 2015, and found that, while some of her books had not held up with reread, many of them did.

A Wrinkle in Time is a bit of a period piece, to be sure. Girls today are stronger, more self-aware, more cognizant of the pressures of an often sexist society, and more willing to buck convention in order to be authentic to themselves. Not all girls, of course, but some girls. Our culture, today, at least struggles to understand these pressures and to acknowledge that they exist. This book is part of my personal canon, one of the books that shaped my childhood and had a part in making me who I am today.

Even so, the DuVernay adaptation succeeds in a way that, after reading ALOT of L'Engle, and a fair amount about L'Engle, I believe that she would appreciate. Meg Murry as a biracial young woman was an inspired decision, the relocation of the plot to a more diverse location in California, the addition of Charles Wallace as an adopted child, to me really work to illuminate some of the themes that L'Engle was writing about - alienation and social conformity in particular.

There are parts of the book that are quite different from the movie, of course. In the book, the Murry's have two additional children, a set of male twins who are effortlessly socially competent. They are capable of fulfilling society's expectations with little work. Meg, on the other hand, is prickly, defensive, occasionally angry, and fearsomely intelligent - all things which 1963 America couldn't really cope with in girls. Heck, we still struggle with girls who are prickly, defensive, occasionally angry and fearsomely intelligent.

A Wrinkle in Time shines light into dark places. For that alone, it's worth reading. ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Ev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An inferior cross between 1984 (brain), Stargate (time travel), and The Martian Chronicles (space) but still enjoyable, even though the main character trampolined my nerves the whole way through the book.

Action was slower than watching grass grow or paint dry, but once it picked up, it made the story come full circle.

Meg and Charles Wallace should have switched ages because all she did was whine and complain and throw tantrums right and left. I would not have minded if they had left her on Cam ...more

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Dec 04, 2016 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I wish I had read this book as a child or at least a budding teenager. Let's start there. There are so many things in this book I wish I heard at a younger age. Things that may have helped me find my confidence a lot sooner in life. Who knows? Messages about... being happy with being yourself, don't compromise who you are no matter how hard it might be. Don't follow the masses but instead be an individual. You are unique and have unique gifts that should be shared not hidden. Sometimes a weaknes ...more

3 likes · Like · see review