So I had never read this book. Most people who are into nerdy shit (space, supernatural, super heroes, good/evil) have read this book. Apparently, it’s a gateway book.
Well here I am, thirty years and change, finally reading a children’s book. And why, might you ask did I read a children’s book when I have thirty and change years on my vessel? Because of the damn Tesseract. Now, you might not know this but I am a huge, huge fan of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), and if you are caught up at all on that saga you know that the Tesseract is a very important Thing(tm) (no spoilers don’t worry). So when I was perusing the library with my nephew and sister and my sister goes “no wonder y’all are into nerdy shit” and shows me the description on the dust jacket of “A Wrinkle In Time” which has the word TESSERACT in curly script I said “wait, what.” and we then proceeded to have a twenty minute conversation about how I’ve never read or seen or in any way known anything about “A Wrinkle In Time”. At the conclusion of the conversation I checked the book out from the library.
So. Reading it took all of four hours (it’s short and made for children so it’s a nice quick read). While I love me a sci-fi space, anti-communism disguised as good versus evil plot, I just didn’t love this book. I liked it. I thought it was good. I love that the answer (as usual) is love. I just didn’t have that sense of wonder that I was kind of hoping to have… I don’t think that things were explained well? I think it was a lot of “this happened. then this happened. now this is happening.” I just didn’t feel a lot of connection to the characters or the plot. I tried to keep reminding myself that it was made for children and that the protagonist was a child (like when a solution seemed really logical and she didn’t get it I had to remind myself she was 12) and that helped. At the end I didn’t really care that it ended? I see that there are more books in the series (five in all) and I read their wiki pages because there was enough curiosity in me to see what happened but have no desire to read the actual books which is a real shame because some of the elements of the other books sound awesome (alter egos, telekinesis, nephilim, druids, Samhain…)
I think this book is a good gateway book but there are definitely better books out there. I know it’s a beloved classic and all and I’m glad to finally say I read it, and I really wish I had read it as a kid.
Happy reading.
Jah Will Provide 