A House Like a Lotus

By: Madeleine L'Engle

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

When 16-year-old Polly O'Keefe journeys to Athens, she feels confused and betrayed. The past eight months at home were different from any other time in her life. She met the brilliant, wealthy Maximiliana Horne, who gave her encouragement and made her feel self-confident. Polly idolized Max - until she learned a startling truth that left her wounded and angry. Now on a trip to Greece arranged by Max, Polly finds romance, danger, and unique friendships. But can she find a way to forgive Max and remember her as more than a painful memory?

©2016 Madeleine L'Engle (P)2016 Listening Library

Engaging and Insightful

Like much of Madeline L'Engle's work this story is engaging from start to finish. It's a growing up tale and captures all that that entails. It's the tale of a teenager who begins to discover not only what it means to mature into adulthood: including what it means to see, understand, and accept complexity; complexity of one's self, of others, and of the relationships between.

a lot of cussing

I'm dissatisfied. my daughter said that it had the b word.really not her best.no

This book is like a huge wave of love

I’ve just finished the 5 books in the Wrinkle in Time series and the three additional Arm of the Starfish series. I could have ended with An Acceptable time, but I think it serves as the end to both series. I’m glad I finished both series with A House Like a Lotus. It is a book of great depth and also so beautifully straightforward in its message. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Another Winner!

This is a much deeper, reflective writing of L'Engle's that I personally enjoyed very much. As an adult I am rereading, or in this case listening to all of this author's books. I still get that wondrous, feeling that I had as a teen reading this. This is a young adult novel. With that said, if you had a mature tween who could handle topics of lesbianism, bullying and sex then I wouldn't withhold it.
Those three topics are handled gracefully, well lesbians and sex are as normal as peanut butter and apple pie today, as they should be, but not in the time of this writing. Madeleine was ahead of her time and she incorporated them into normal in this writing. In fact it's the ones who teased and tormented Polly about these subjects,who come across as bullies. And that's as it should be also.
The narrator's voice. There are three particular things I can't figure out.When she was voicing the other characters, her breathing, inflection was unremarkable. But when voicing Polly (and the writing is from Polly's viewpoint, so it's 3/4 of the book) her voice, made every sentence run on. As if there were no punctuation at all. Or she would end the sentence but her inflection made you think there should be more to come. The third thing was speaking with a lilt at the end of each sentence, as if it was a question. I have never encountered this speech pattern before and I would love someone to listen and tell me if they hear it as well.
It is not unpleasant to the ear, just a bit distracting. At times I was focusing more on the speech pattern than the content, and had to back track .
If you are a fan of "Time Quartet" books, you won't be disappointed.

Statutory rape of the main character doesn’t fit in this book

I have loved all 8 of the Madeline L’engle books I have read, and have recommended them to my grandchildren. But this one, I wound never recommend to a youth under the age of 18. I applaud the way the author has integrated lesbianism into this book, which was very tasteful, but the statutory rape of the main character by her friend, a resident doctor, is more than I’d like my 11 year old grandchildren to read about. The rape didn’t even need to be in the story. Also, the book abruptly ended when it was just getting Interesting. I won’t recommend this whole series just because I thought the author was inappropriate with that one piece in the book.

Not Madeline L’Engle’s typical magic

The story seemed contrived to portray a teenage girls emotional responses to sexual situations which even today are not very likely, At least not in the profusion this one girl experiences them. Flat narration style.

Traumatized me

This book had a statutory rape scene. I do not like that. Madeline L’Engle is usually clean. This book full on described it. We stopped listening after chapter 71. Skip chapter 71 if you decide to continue reading.