Prompt: A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie read

Thanks to the eagle-eyed viewers on the Goodreads group for the sufmggestion for this category. Brick Heck reads A Wrinkle in Time in The Middle. It’s a classic that lots of people love so I thought I would give it a go.

What it’s about?

On a dark and stormy night, Meg Murray can’t sleep. She heads downstairs and is talking with her mother and brother when their strange new neighbour appears. Mrs Whatsit mentions a tesseract which shocks Katherine Murray and leaves her clever children with lots of questions.

The Murray children are considered odd, especially Meg who struggles a school and her little brother, Charles Wallace who is actually a genius who can read minds. Their father, a physicist, has gone missing while working for the government.

With the help of school friend, Calvin O’Keefe and the mysterious neighbous, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which, the children set of an adventure through time and space to find their missing father and reunite the family.

What I thought:

So many people love this book that I had really high hopes for it, but to be honest I didn’t enjoy it. Somehow it seems both too big and too small at the same time.

The basic concept of the plot is really appealing and the big ideas that underpin the novel are interesting, but the story rushes to a conclusion and I found it hard to imagine the scenarios or care about the characters.

The dialogue is quirky to the point of annoyance and none of the characters were particularly engaging. I liked the opening chapters and the introduction of Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Which, Mrs Who but then it lost my attention.

There’s lots of big ideas being explored – light and dark, good and evil, conformity and independence, and the power of love.

Lots of people absolutely love this book and I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it when I was younger. Sad to say that this just wasn’t for me.

If you haven’t read A Wrinkle in Time, head to:

Waterstone’s: click here

Amazon.co.uk: click here