NOWA NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIESDear Reader,If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the … wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all.If you haven’t got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair.I will continue to record these tragic tales, for that is what I do. You, however, should decide for yourself whether you can possibly endure this miserable story.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
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This book follows the further misfortunes of the Baudelaire orphans. Count Olaf is back, posing as a seaman on the shores of Lake Lachrymose, where the children came to meet their newest guardian, Aunt Josephine.
As this is not a happy tale, it only makes sense that their guardian is a person who is petrified by the simplest things—‘petrified’ here means “a big fraidy-cat who thinks everything is going to hurt her.” With cold stews for every meal, and Count Olaf still after the Baudelaire fortune, this story cannot, and does not, end well.
If your morbid interest in the Baudelaires continues despite the lack of happiness and the abundance of misfortune present in their lives, then by all means, pick up this book and read on.
Not your ordinary young people’s book. Very fun to read.
The three Baudelaire orphans have been set up with a new guardian, Aunt Josephine. She’s afraid of everything, including cooking food, and thus only serves cold food, insists on correcting everyone’s grammar, and lives in a house that’s nearly falling into a lake, of which she’s also afraid. Count Olaf trying to get the kids out of her guardianship seems like a blessing this time, except that he’s happy to commit murder to do so.
I do not get what people have seen in this series that it went as far as 11 books and spawned 2 adaptations. I’m not necessarily against formulaic series—sometimes the formula is what makes something work well, but not when the formula is held to this strictly. Not nearly enough changes, and the “dark” tone is just unpleasant, in my opinion. After the first book, I thought surely it would get more interesting or creative, but it’s really just a rinse and repeat of the book before it. Except that while the guardian in the previous book was a nice, somewhat normal-seeming guy, Aunt Josephine was an over-the-top, ridiculous loony.
What made it all worse for me was that I started into this series primarily because the books were narrated by Tim Curry, but the places I have access to audiobooks for free only have a version narrated by the author for this one and the next 2. I almost ended the series right there, and maybe I should have. But they’re short, quick listens, so I figured I’d stick it out. For now. We’ll see how it goes from here on.
This is one of my favorite series
110/10
Like the first two books in the series, this book is dark. There aren’t many happy moments and certainly not a happy ending. The author will tell you so throughout the book.
The story follows along the same themes as the previous books…the orphans are sent to another relative and things don’t work out as planned. I like this story because of the clues the orphans had to work out. I found that it added a new interesting angle to the story. I definitely didn’t like this relative as much as I liked “Uncle Monty,” but she was at the very least not mean.
I look forward to reading the rest of the series.