The Arm of the Starfish

Short Review: This is a good change of pace for L'Engle. I have been working through some of her adult fiction and non-fiction this year. (Including the non-fiction book I am currently reading this is the 6th book of L'Engle's I have read this year.)

Traditionally L'Engle's books are pretty character and idea driven. But the Arm of the Starfish is a young adult spy thriller. Compared to the John le Carré book that I read immediately before I picked this up, the spy craft is weak. But as a young adult novel and something different from L'Engle it isn't bad.

One of the things that always annoys me with L'Engle is that her characters often don't seem to be the age that they are identified as. Here Adam, the male protagonist is 16 or 17 (I think it says he is 17, but a web search identifies him as 16). He graduated from high school year and is a marine biology major. But most of the time he seems like he is older, but an immature older teen.

Poly, the daughter of the O'Keefes is 12 and except for the repeated references to her not developing yet, she seems closer to 16. I know that L'Engle is writing in an era where teens were given more freedom so the fact that teens are flying around the world by themselves is part of the era. But the ‘spy' parts of the story don't completely make sense because even in a world that views teens as a bit more responsible than we commonly do now, I can't really believe that either the good guys or the bad guys would put much trust in a 16-17 year old.

Overall not one of my favorite books of L'Engle's but not a horrible book either.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/arm-of-the-starfish/