Book Review : A Wrinkle In Time

Imagine a land of angular gray houses with dull-looking flowers, endlessly the same. The apartments are tall, rectangular buildings with every window exactly the same. This is Camazotz, the planet to which Meg, Calvin, and Charles are teleported in author Madeleine L’Engle’s classic 1962 science fiction novel, A Wrinkle in Time.  Invited on a mission to defeat the dark thing, and possibly save her father in the process, Meg Murry, the main character, her friend Calvin, and her brother Charles Wallace journey to the planet of Camazotz, where they encounter the mysterious IT. Captured by IT, Charles Wallace is placed under its control, but Meg, showing courage and defying all odds, is able to save them. A Wrinkle in Time is an exciting novel that I feel very passionate about.

Exploring themes of friendship and individualism, A Wrinkle in Time tells a powerful and moving story. For example, Meg and her friends have to work together to avoid ITs control. When Charles Wallace is captured, they show incredible loyalty, and brave the dangers of Camazotz once more to rescue him. In addition, the denizens of Camazotz are part of a collective mind, IT, without any individuality. Their every action is controlled, and they have no freedom. Through IT, L'Engle argues that collectivism is very dangerous, and should not exist. 

Furthermore, A Wrinkle In Time demonstrates that all people are special in their own way. For example, even though people believe Meg and Charles Wallace are “dumb” because Charles learned to speak at four, and Meg gets bad grades, they are actually quite smart.  Meg’s mother, Mrs. Murry explains that the only reason that Meg is bad at math “is that Meg and her father used to play with numbers and Meg learned far too many shortcuts. So when they want her to do problems the long way around at school she gets sullen and stubborn and sets up a fine mental block for herself” (40). In other words, L’Engle urges readers to understand that, through her father’s games, Meg developed a love for math which leads her to feel frustrated and angry at the system for treating her as if she were not an individual. At the same time, although Charles Wallace only started speaking at the age of four, he has developed quickly, and now uses better vocabulary than most kids his age. In essence, L’Engle implies that people can be different than the way they appear. 

Reading A Wrinkle in Time strongly affected me. I loved the book greatly, and I learned a lot from it. When writing this book review, I couldn’t find anything negative I could possibly write about the novel, due to the author's excellent use of supense, character development, and literary devices. Overall, I would give a Wrinkle In Time a 5/5.