So this is the fifth and final book of the time quintet. I read the fifth book before the 4th book because I had it on audiobook and I didn’t carpool for a week so I needed something to entertain me while I was driving to and from work. I mostly hated it! I was very surprised, because I generally liked the first three.
I’m going to have to basically spoil the entire book to illustrate why I hated it so much. Spoilers after the druid…
This book is about Polly, who is Meg and Calvin’s oldest daughter. She stays with her grandparents the Murrays for year I think to study with them instead of going to school. I’m kind of fuzzy on the details. They’re super not important. One day while she’s walking in the woods, she sees a random dude and a dog. Then she sees a different random she spent the previous summer with. Apparently her grandparents sent the second random dude into the woods to find her. They hang out a bit, we see Dr. Louise again, and the snake Louise. We also meet Dr. Louise’s brother, and another random girl.
Apparently a time gate has opened to 3000 years ago and Polly hangs out with some druids. They kinda want to sacrifice her for rain, so when she leaves, she’s a little hesitant to go back. The first like five disks are super boring. It’s a little setup, then wandering, and a crap ton of fretting. The Murrays are no longer adventurous. At this point Zack (the random dude from last summer) is fine, and only slightly annoying. We learn he has a heart condition, but also a car and a job. He’s a bit boring, but not (yet) terrible.
Finally though, we get to see what a collosal asshole Zack is. Everybody tells him that the bad ancient people (the non druids) want to sacrifice poly for rain so she can’t go back through the time gate. Zack promises the grandparents that they’ll stay away from the time gate. But, he’s a colossal asshole, so hes like “Hey Polly let’s go into the time gate. I think they can fix my heart. Don’t worry about that whole sacrifice thing, it’ll be fine.” I’m not entirely sure why he thought medicine from 3000 years ago was better, but there you go. So of course Zack leads them to the time gate and they get trapped. There’s a battle and Polly almost gets kidnapped. Zack escapes with the enemy and comes back to kidnap Polly.
Here’s my running commentary of what made me shout at my CD player in the car:
- His saying like “Oh crap” is “Oh zug”. It’s so annoying.
- He’s got a creepy obsession with the girl druid Anny
- His aforementioned assholey need to go to the past and put Polly in danger
- Zack gets Polly kidnapped
- He’s gaslighting her so badly
- Everyone is fighting with her about what an asshole Zack is, & I was shouting with them
- She talks to Zack and he’s an asshole to her, and still keeps saying they won’t kill Polly, even though they clearly will
- Zack only says at literally the last minute that he doesn’t want her to be sacrificed.
- Absolutely every single other person in this story is better than Zack, even the tribe leader who wants to sacrifice her.
- Then it rains and magically everything is fine
Omg. It was so maddening. Please don’t read this book. You’ll be annoyed and frustrated. Only one good thing: They said the title of the book 😀