Today, I will be talking about the book called A Swiftly Tilting Planet. It’s the third book of the Time Quintet, but it could probably be the worst of all of them. It’s a bit too complicated. They just keep on introducing more and more characters, and it’s so hard to keep up with it. Also, I am not skimming it. I kept on reading the whole thing, but it was hard to actually enjoy it. I only liked some parts of the book, like stories that I could mostly understand where they didn’t keep on introducing new characters and it actually made sense. But the author switched from Beezie and Chuck to Zillah and Zillie, and then to Matthew and Bran.

Let me tell you about the book. This book is about Meg and her family living in the house. They’re all grown up now, including Charles Wallace. The beginning was a part that I could understand more, by the way. Mr. Murry, Meg’s father, gets a phone call from the president. The president is warning about something happening to Earth and a threat to the world. So it causes a worry to the family, and the fact that this all happens on Thanksgiving dinner is odd.

And the fact that Calvin’s mother, Mrs. O’Keefe, actually comes to dinner is weird as well, since she never comes over. (In case you don’t know, Calvin and Meg are married.) The mother says some crazy stuff, which seem to be runes. Charles Wallace gets called Chuck as well, so Charles decides to think about it outside. He sits on the Star-Watching rock, and suddenly, a unicorn comes. His name is Gaudior, and he takes Charles Wallace along with him since he’s apparently the “chosen one” to help save the planet.

Charles Wallace has to get within the mind and body of different characters during different times and find a connection between them. Meanwhile, Meg is doing it with Charles Wallace. It’s called kything, by the way. The first one talks about two brothers fighting over land, in summary. The second talks about Beezie and Chuck, which is important. Beezie is Calvin’s mother, and she had a brother named Chuck. Before, their lives were pretty decent. They had a great father and mother and grandma.

But when the father died, everything changed. Beezie’s mother even thought about marrying someone else, but he was very malicious. One time, on the steps, it got worse. The man aimed to strike the grandma on the steps, but Chuck got in between and, as a result, fell down the stairs with the china made of glass. There was some serious brain damage done as well as being unconscious. He could have died, but a unicorn prevented that from happening.

Chuck was sadly taken to institutionalism by his new father, who got married to the mother. The grandma died from shock about what happened to Chuck. 6 months later, Chuck himself died. The third story was the one that confused me the most. It was the most complex one and was a bit sad too. What I got from it was that there were two brothers: Bran and Matthew. Matthew had a crippled leg, and Bran had a half crippled leg from a war. He shut himself out from the world, but Matthew wanted to talk to him. So to release the pain, Bran decided to move to Vespugia. It was far away, but he would write. Zillah also came, and Matthew got letters from Bran. One day, Matthew was thinking about how Bran and Zillah would be perfect for each other. But then…guess what? He. Died.

I have a bit of an issue with these people dying. It’s sad and is for more mature readers. Plus, the Beezie and Chuck story was very scary. I mean, Chuck’s inner thoughts and him changing from old Chuck to new, crazy Chuck. Plus, he only was talking about some things that were scary to the sister, Beezie. I got a bit scared, too. Also, Matthew was a nice character, and I don’t get why he died. The ending still leaves me confused. What happened to Matthew? Why did he die? It’s all over the place.

This book would be given a 2 star rating by me. I didn’t really enjoy reading it. Plus, there were some dark parts that I didn’t like to hear about, like the Beezie and Chuck story. Here’s a spoiler since you might not want to read this book anyway: Chuck dies after 6 months in institutionalism. Plus, another person dies later on. I looked up some reviews on Common Sense Media, but according to it, it says that it’s 10 plus. I have to disagree with that. Kids can get easily bored by the plot or a bit scared by the middle of the book. In summary, I wouldn’t really recommend this book to you.

Written by Kruti Patel