A Wrinkle in Time

I read this as a kid and absolutely loved it. Rereading it as an adult, well, it's still a fun read. But it feels a lot like Narnia meets 1984. Narnia in the fact that the main characters are all pretty useless and don't really advance the plot or solve any of their own problems. 1984 for reasons that will become pretty obvious reading this as an adult. The plot is fun yet surprisingly dark for a children's book, and there are some neat ideas. But also every NON-EVIL creature in the universe is a practicing Christian.

Like so many children's books, the characters are the weakest part. The main character Meg is pretty crap and it's mentioned several times that her FLAWS are her STRENGTH. And boy is she strong. She spends like 25% of the book complaining about blaming everyone for things they couldn't have prevented and yada yada yada I guess it's a plot point, but she's not sympathetic in the least.

As a kid, I thought the boy-wonder prodigy character Charles Wallace was precocious and annoying, but he's definitely the best part of the first half of the book. He's smart and knows it and is oddly wise, and then all of this gets thrown in his face when he underestimates the enemy. It's a pretty good arc.

In the end, LOVE SAVES THE DAY. What an overused trope. Meg loves her brother SO HARD that the evil brain creature just can't understand it, and then an alien teleports her to safety, and everyone rejoices and even the dog comes in for a hug!!!!! Wow!!!!! So sweet!!!!!!!!!