A House Like a Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle

A House Like a Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some light spoilers ahead, but I tried to refrain from really telling anything.

First, this book is not for kids unless you're prepared to discuss sex, consent, and people taking advantage of teens.

As background, Calvin and Meg are 41 years old now, and move back to the US for Calvin's job. They settle on another island, this time in South Carolina. Their 7 children are a little older now: Polly (16 years old), Charles (14), Sandy "Zan" (12?), Den (10?), Peggy (8), Johnny (6), and Rosie (4).

While the whole family is mentioned, this story is mostly about Polly's "coming of age." She makes friends with a bunch of much older people in South Carolina: Maxine and Ursula who are in their 50s, and a medical intern Renny that she's dating. He's the absolute worst person in this book in my opinion, but Polly doesn't seem to notice. Max encourages her to take a trip to Athens, where she meets a total creeper guy Zachary in his 20s. He's the second or third worst person in this book. Again Polly doesn't seem to notice. Instead she focuses on being mad at Max for basically no reason at all. The story flashes back and forth between her town in South Carolina and Athens.

There are a lot of issues with this book, the biggest is that it is SO MELODRAMATIC. Maybe that's perfect for teenage girls? Another problem is the super high number of creepy characters willing to hit on 16-year-old Polly. Polly is tall, but she makes it clear that she does not look like an adult, so it's not an innocent mistake. Given that this was written in the 1980s we can't blame culture for this disaster. Another issue is that a whole bunch of new characters are introduced about 70% of the way through the book. Nope, sorry, I can't care about new people this late in the game.

Nonetheless, if I grade it on a curve, it's the best in O'Keefe series, and maybe one of the better in the bigger Kairos series (which is the 8 books in the Time quintet + O'Keefe series). There are references to great books, and there are a few deep thoughts.

More of a spoiler: Netson's Disease is fictional but I'm not sure why, as there are plenty of parasites that injure the heart. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/americans-may-be-more-at-risk-from-deadly-heart-parasite-than-realized/

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Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Action-mystery-fantasy about a new character Simon on a freight ship to Latin America. Poly and her brother Charles are also there, but the story isn't really about them.

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The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle


Technically this isn't part of the A Wrinkle in Time series. But it has the O'Keefe-Murry family in it, and chronologically, this falls right after A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time #4), and about two more O'Keefe Family books before An Acceptable Time (Time #5, but also O'Keefe Family #4).

Spoiler alert: Even though the whole point of the book is that a new character Adam Edington is going to work for Calvin O'Keefe, Adam doesn't make it to the lab until about 40% of the book. When he does, he still doesn't get to work, but goes swimming with dolphins. Then a little bit of the starfish excitment, then more blah blah blah.

Also, Calvin and Meg, who are about 37 years old, have had 7 children by now. Poly (12 years old), Charles (10), Sandy (8?), Dennis (6?), Peggy (4), Johnny (2), baby Rosie a.k.a. Mary. Holy cow.

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