Reviews

An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle

rachelmcg2004's review against another edition

1.0

*UPDATE*

Not even for Madeline L'Engle do I give this 3 stars. Some of those plotlines were REALLY bad.

---My Review:

I am a huge fan of Madeline L'Engle's books (they are some of my all-time favorites!)...but I gotta say, this one didn't jive with me. The whole plotline about Zachary (who's IN COLLEGE!!!) creepily stalking Polly to her home with the help of her parents and HER MOTHER...just noooo. That and the fact that her grandparents didn't believe her for the first gigantic chunk of the book (which, hello! Mr. Murray was in SPACE for YEARS being held captive ON A GOLDILOCKS ZONE PLANET!!! If that could happen, then time travel could. That's all i'm saying) really made this book kind of a downer for me. I also really did not like that Calvin and Meg were not there for their daughter. Granted, I have only read the Time Quintet series and not the O'Keefe one, so there might be a valid reason for this distancing, but as a child who felt great heartache over her father's disappearance, I would think that Meg would spend as much time with her kids as possible and not let something like a science career come in the way of that. I don't know. I agree with one of the other comments that stated that it seemed like the characters' personalities were warped in this book, because a man who's been in space does not disbelieve time travel, a woman who ached for a father figure does not abandon her child, and grandparents do NOT reveal the location of their high-school aged teenage daughter to a strange college boy who became infatuated with her. Especially if this college boy did not properly reveal the above infatuation to the girl's parents, so they (shockingly!) allowed this strange boy to know the address of their daughter. I mean, c'mon. It is sad how unrealistic the character dynamics are, and yes, Zachary is dealt with in the end, but in my opinion he should have never been part of the equation.

However, I did like the time travel plotline a little bit because of the beautiful imagery portrayed there. Unfortunately, this too was tainted by unrealistic and kind of sickening character development.

It is my opinion that the characters of a story determine whether a story is pleasant or sickening, and the abuse of characters here was more saddening that maddening. I love Madeline L'Engle, but honestly, I do not like this book.

The three stars was for her. If she was not the author I would give it 1 star.

rainmisoa's review against another edition

1.0

And with this, I have completed the quintet. It was not for me.

To read my full review, click here.

ntembeast's review against another edition

2.0

An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle, also known as, If You Thought It'd Be Less Racist in Book Five, You Were Desperately Mistaken, but Don't Worry, That Takes a Backseat to RAMPANT ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS This Time! Also, Did All My Old Mains Forget Their Own Canon or Is It Just the Same Old Hypocrisy I've Written Into My Past Three Books? (Do you really want to read to find out?)

Alright, let's take a step back here after this absolute mess of a series. I said that I always enjoyed the fifth book the best out of the entire quintet, the first book being my other favorite, and honestly? I'll stand by that. Mind you, they both still have problems. RAMPANT problems. L'Engle has many, many bad qualities that she expresses loud and proud, and she probably would have been a lot better off never speaking of them in the first place. It only makes one really take a critical lens to this series as a whole and reveals how absolutely shoddy its entire composition is.

That being said, I still think this book has some of the best character depth out of all five books. Mind you, that's because it's really the only character depth we get out of all five books, but it makes the entire experience of An Acceptable Time a lot more bearable. Characters aren't just a line on repeat like a broken record (Meg) or hypocrites incarnate (everyone in all the other books and a few in this one, Mr. and Mrs. Murry, Dr. Louise). Polly and Zachary and the Bishop actually feel like real people for once, like they have complexity and aren't cardboard cut-outs we're playing pretend with. People have PASTS to speak of, they've had experiences that have developed them as characters before we're ever introduced to them on the page, like Polly with the loss of her best friend and Zachary with his struggles with his illness, even Tynak and his tribe. The characters have MOTIVES for once, and aren't just being forced to do things because angels or other beings of power told them to. For once, it's characters interacting with each other and reacting to one another that we get to experience. It's basically a proper story for the first time! It might not be the wild, imaginative adventure of A Wrinkle in Time, but it has its concept and it takes its time to explore it.

In fact, that's another reason I feel this book was far superior than the last three: we actually got a chance to wrap our heads around a single concept that L'Engle introduced and then gave us the chance to experience. And it wasn't overblown by so many characters you had trouble keeping people straight, or by concepts thrown left and right with "reasoning" and "explanations" pulled straight out of characters' rear ends to try to make the crap she pulled seem logical and methodically planned out (even a kid could point out the anomalies in the last three books; they barely deserve to be called stories for how badly they were thrown together). We got one concept: travelling through time because connections between people can cross Time and Space, especially at a particular time of year. And honestly that part was really well-paced for once. It didn't feel like, "Hey we're on another planet now; oops it's two dimensional! Hey people are dying now, guess we gotta hang out in some mitochondria and switch some babies and prevent nuclear war and bang some 'little people' because we just remembered we have dicks at age 15! By the way, Angel Tan Removal, jinkies!"

Mind you, this doesn't mean there weren't problems that I'm about to address, because oh. Oh darlings. I don't think L'Engle knew how to not write problematic shit. But before we get into that, let's talk about Polly briefly.

Polly is our main character... and she is hands down probably the smartest female character we meet in this entire series. And I don't mean that superficially intelligent manner like how EVERYONE ELSE L'ENGLE BOASTS ABOUT ALL THE TIME is. She's book-smart in her own ways, but she's got actual common sense for once. She isn't an absolute MORON. And it's such a shocking contrast to the rest of the books that it makes her seem like the biggest breath of fresh air. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated her as our main character. Her way of handling herself and her situations is cautious, usually thought-through previously, and sensitive and kind in a way that shows authentic compassion and empathy with those around her. She doesn't let attraction rule her or blind her, which is an absolute relief coming from books where Meg, Sandy, and Dennys are endlessly ruled by their collective sexes. Overall, really strong, really good character!

So, you're gonna be thinking now: that means Polly's a good representation of a feminist character, right? ......yeah not quite. I think that's what's so disappointing to me. She doesn't fall for Zachary (the other main character)'s advances, but she's endlessly undermined by male figures throughout the book. Zachary takes precedence over Polly on multiple occasions. Even when Polly's life is in danger, HER OWN GRANDPARENTS (Mr. and Mrs. Murry) are busy thinking of what Zachary wants. All this fuss about Polly not doing anything to endanger herself and we're actually forced to sit through a conversation where we're concerned with whether or not Zachary will agree to AVOID THE PLACES THAT WOULD PUT POLLY IN DANGER?! Girl, NO. GIRL, BYE! That's bull! And it's not the only occasion where her attempts at feminism get cut short. Anaral having no say in her own future is just as bad as Polly's situation. And in one scene, just because the men in the book want plans to go their way, Polly, Dr. Louise (YES THAT DR. LOUISE, THE SUPPOSED "TEACHER" FROM A WIND IN THE DOOR), AND Mrs. Murry just all... let them decide?! Come ON. This dance with you and feminism is getting OLD, L'Engle!

What adds to my own personal disappointment is also the homophobia. Anyone reading these books can see that Polly and her best friend, Max, had a relationship that was clearly "more than friends." When Anaral's character got introduced, the spark of chemistry between Polly and her was a shock so bright and wonderful that I just stamped "Girlfriends!" on my heart, because had L'Engle actually written this differently, it would have been a beautiful and charming relationship to explore. But instead, both girls get paired off with male counterparts, and Max (not really a spoiler) passed away before the events of the book ever happened. So we have one dead potential girlfriend/lover/partner, and then straight-washing the two queer-leaning girls that could have ended up together. *Sighs* I knew it was too good to be true, and I wouldn't trust L'Engle with a relationship like that no matter how much she preached about love in this book (and all the others). But still, it was a disappointment nonetheless.

I wish these things were the worst of it, but by far the worst part of this book was Zachary and the emotional manipulation and abusive relationship that he had with Polly. He forces himself on her multiple times, and while it never gets anywhere, there are danger signals blaring EVERYWHERE any time he interacts with her. He touches her forcefully, grabs her and doesn't let go, kisses her when she doesn't initiate or want it, shows up randomly at where she's staying with absolutely no forewarning or asking permission (and her family is pleased because there's that disgusting urgency of all parents/grandparents to force young adults into relationships whether or NOT the young adult is ready for it yet). It's just BAD.

What makes it worse though is how he plays the sweet, intelligent, polite role for everyone and then turns it around as soon as he and Polly are alone. I'm telling you, the emotional manipulation and guilt-tripping was disgusting to read. He tries to coerce Polly into doing multiple things she clearly states she doesn't want to, and when he doesn't get his way or doesn't get her to agree to it out of using his (eventually fatal) illness as a bargaining token/guilt tripping method, he puts the blame on her so that she'll give in to what he wants, or he outright yells at her and begins to get physical and aggressive. He puts himself in danger just so that she would give in to his demands, and he does it MULTIPLE times. When they appear to be stuck in the Past at one point, he dismisses Polly as unattractive and unappealing, because he sees that Polly doesn't intend on giving in to his plaintive attempts to fuck her, and turns his attention immediately to fucking Anaral to attempt to make Polly jealous AND to see if he has a chance to get free sex. BUT THEN! he turns around and gets pissed in the same breath that Tav is showing an interest in Polly, because not only is Zachary abusive, coercive, manipulative scum, but he's also a jealous aggressor as well. Honestly, if Zachary wasn't such an enormous coward whose heart would give out if he so much as tried to slap somebody (literally, his heart's supposed to be that bad; aka, his illness that he uses to guilt Polly), he'd probably have tried beating Polly by now to force her to have sex with him.

The only positive that comes out of this is that Polly doesn't go with him, but honestly, the message of forgiveness and second chances that L'Engle tries to write into the ending of the book is a little lost on me after all the abusive and harmful messages she's tied into the other books in this series. It's hard to forgive when you've done SO MUCH DAMAGE WITH YOUR WRITING, L'ENGLE! I don't know if this was her attempt at a redemption, but it still has a long way to go before it gets anywhere near the message of love she so adamantly tries to send and constantly undermines with her messages of discrimination, poor representation, and hatred.

So, time for the wrap-up:

TL;DR
This book is definitely majorly improved from the last three books. Got decent characters that aren't just one-sided, but it has a long way to go before it's as excellent a story as it tries to be. That being said, the concept of the book is explored more fully and at a more enjoyable pace than the last three. The plot is driven more by character interactions than just mere *poof!* magic fairy powers! but still has enough fantastical elements to it that it'll keep you going. Still, don't go looking for it to be a feminist favorite. Its diversity, too, is lackluster and racist. And a lot of the reasons this book does so well at all is because L'Engle literally built up the backstory of the "tribal peoples" across her last few books, so she had less to pull out of thin air this time, and it shows. It's an okay read, but she's riding on her coattails at this point. The least I can say is that it wasn't all horrible, and that's far, FAR better than what I had to go through in A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters.

My advice for this series?
Read A Wrinkle in Time and An Acceptable Time and just skip the other three if you really want a taste of L'Engle's work from this quintet. The middle three are not even WORTH your attention.

And with that: I am DONE. Thank you, and good bye!

aubsimon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

magnetgrrl's review against another edition

5.0

Read LONG LONG AGO - just guessing the year. Want to re-read it soon though. Taught me the word "anorak" when I was like 810, ha.

pickekat's review against another edition

5.0

I love this book! I love the theme of looking at how you are acting and changing and I loved all the characters.

nedge's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Very 

analicia_simar's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

kylearnzen's review against another edition

3.0

By no means a bad book, but it doesn't seem to stand up as well as the other books in the Time Quintet.

amusicalbookworm's review against another edition

3.0

Okay, so here’s the thing about this author: in each or her Time Quintet books, she has such interesting concepts and beautiful writing. I also love the way she infuses Christianity and sci-fi/fantasy. HOWEVER. What kills these books for me every time is the poor character development. I think out of all 5 of the books in the series, this problem is the MOST evident in An Acceptable Time. Her characters just don’t make decisions that make any sense, and in fact their actions often contradict the things that we do know about them. There were many instances in this book where I had to ask myself, “why should I root for this character at all? Why should I care what happens to this person?” Particularly in the character of Zachary. I understand what L’engle was trying to do with his character, however if you make your character TOO deplorable and pathetic, and don’t show us any redeemable qualities, I think it’s going to be difficult to get your reader to have any empathy for him when you ask us to have it for him. Also, it was hard to get a good picture of who Polly was as our main character, which I now realize is because there is a separate book series featuring Polly, which I haven’t read yet. I’m not sure why this book is included in the Time Quintet, and not promoted as part of the series in which Polly is actually featured (I guess just because it has time travel?) All in all, I didn’t hate this book while reading it, but I found it to be a rather confusing experience overall.