Brief synopsis: Meg feels like an outsider at school and in her home. She has a good relationship with her little brother, Charles Wallace, and her mom. Her father's been missing for "work" for a long period of time, but she and her mother refuse to believe the worse. When Charles Wallace introduces Meg, and a schoolmate (Calvin), to his three friends - Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit - a journey begins through space and time to save Meg's father.



So, I'm one of those people who grew up never having read A Wrinkle in Time. Since the film came out earlier this year, with some of my faves (like Mindy Kaling, Oprah, and Reese Witherspoon) and the book worked to satisfy one of my reading challenge prompts, I thought it was the perfect time to pick it up.

First things, first. I love fantasy books. I think most fantasy novels have very important messages within their pages alongside different creatures and magical capabilities. And I loved what this story wanted to be. This is definitely a book written for it's time in 1960-whatever, but for a fantasy-novel, it's fairly closed-minded, I think. It's an interesting mix of Christian ideologies, with hard, fast science. Still gender roles are very much a limit within this book (the brilliant scientist mother who stays at home, the need for the boys to play sports to be popular, being smart means you can't be cool, the need for any type of romantic scenario for Meg). But that's not my biggest complaint.

The biggest problem is I felt like I only read half a book. I felt it took forever to lead up to the big moment, and then just ended. Abruptly. It was over, and all wrapped up in a pretty bow. How is it possible the storyline holds such a deep meaning, but is at the same time not very developed? I would have loved to know more, to have been taken deeper into these obviously important ideas and what they mean outside of the book itself. I know this book is meant for children, but I really felt things could have been explored in a much deeper way. I'm disappointed they weren't.

The chapters at the CENTRAL Central Intelligence were reminiscent of Oz and chatting with the wizard - that's really all I could imagine as I read through those scenes.

I felt the idea of the story was interesting enough, but it wasn't played out well. I can't get over how quickly the book wrapped up. I needed more, but not in the way that I would say "I couldn't get enough of this book," but in the way I would say "this is seriously lacking."

I wanted more for Meg. I loved her at the start of the book, but somewhere along the way, she seemed like a completely different character.



I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say I think I may like the movie better... even though I haven't even seen it yet. I'm probably the anomaly here, because I've heard such great things. But overall, I wasn't a fan of this one.