Discussion Post: A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle)

[Kayte]

Synopsis: It was a dark and stormy night. Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure--one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.

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The film will be released on March 9, 2018.

[Juliana]

I've never read this before and I heard a lot of praise for the book.

Unfortunately, I didn't love it. I thought I would be charmed. It felt like the book started in the middle and that I was on the outside looking in. I never quite felt immersed in the story. I liked the characters and the world building but not enough to continue with the series.

I should have read this as a kid.

[Kayte]

I just finished. I read it as a kid, and I remember liking it, well enough to read some of the other books at least.

But I didn't really enjoy it this time. Pretty much nothing happened and what did happen went by way too fast. But I guess the pace, at least, is probably the nature of it being for children.

I just unfortunately didn't connect to the writing enough for it to be cute for a children's book either.

I could see it being a cute movie though, especially with a few tweaks.

[Kat]

Yeah the book is fine but simple, which is understandable since it's for children. The movie looks like it'll be a lot more interesting but I'm not that interested in seeing it.

[Carla]

I'm a little over halfway done but I agree with Juliana. I should have read this as a child. I'm not connecting with it and am pretty bored by it overall. Still looking forward to the movie, though, it looks to be a lot more interesting.

[Eve]

I totally agree with everyone else. I feel like I would have loved it as a child, but as an adult it wasn't very interesting. I just couldn't bring myself to care about the plot because the universe wasn't really fleshed out. Like, how did Meg and the tentacled creatures talk to one another, if the tentacled creatures' language was far too advanced to use to explain things to Meg? Where did IT come from? What was the deal with Ms. Who's (iirc) glasses?

It just felt like a lot of things happened out of convenience without explanation. Obviously a fantasy will have fantasy elements, but there still need to be rules established or explanations!