A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is a science fiction story revolving around Meg Murry, her five-year-old brother Charles Wallace, and her classmate turned friend Calvin O’Keefe as they adventure through space and time. To guide them on their journey are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which; three shape-shifting beings who transport the main trio around the universe by “tessering”, a process that bends time and space. The main mystery is about Meg’s father who’s been missing without a trace for over a year. Meg’s main goal being to find where he is and figure out what he’s been doing while he was gone. The answers to these questions take the story on new and interesting turns that keep the book from getting stale. A Wrinkle in Time has a theme of uniqueness, with each of the main characters being outcasted by other people or having to hide who they are to fit in. Also, the characters’ unique strengths are often key to the group solving problems or discovering new information.
The book remains interesting throughout its length, having a relatively constant stream of new locations and creatures that the characters encounter. The descriptions of these strange places and entities are detailed enough to create an image of them in your mind but vague enough to still retain the mystery and sense of magic behind them. However, sometimes the lack of clarity is to the detriment of the story. The book only gives the reader as much information as the characters have, but due to the fact that the main human characters are going to places and dealing with events that are beyond their scope of reality, they often get left in the dark about what exactly is happening. This results in a weakened understanding of why the characters are doing what they’re doing, at least for the first half of the book.
Overall, A Wrinkle in Time is a fun Sci-Fi story filled with fascinating places and driven by the relationships between characters. Though I didn’t feel that the book impacted me in a significant way or changed my views on anything. It’s simply a well-written adventure that offers an interesting new world to dive into. The book is also the first in a five-book series called the “Time Quintet” so I’d assume the other four books go into more detail about the concepts in this one, but I haven’t read them so I can’t be certain. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining Sci-Fi, but if you want something that will shatter your vision of reality and make you rethink your life, this isn’t it.
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