Rating: 
Summary: Why is this good?
Review: I just picked up this book at the used book store ... and all I can figure out is that I wasted my money. this book is often found on the list of 'books to read while waiting for the next Harry Potter book'... and I can't figure out why.The author has one dimensional characters, and plot lines that aren't engaging. The characters are boring, unlike Rowlings most insignifigant characters who have more pizazz in their three paragraph appearance than the main children in this book. The children are perfect and good to the point of being totally unbelievable. The adults are shown to be stupid and easily manipulated, but at the same time oblivious to the needs of the children. The author has a tendency to define words that are used. Perhaps this is supposed to be a humor device, or some such positive thing, but all it does for me is make me think that he assumes his audience has an IQ of a goldfish. yes, the book is written primarily for children... but don't assume the children don't know how to look up words they don't know, or that want the words defined in a patronizing tone. Give the reader some credit. All I have to say is that anyone looking for a good read here, something that a Harry Potter fan would enjoy... they're looking in the wrong book. Try Dianne Duane, Patricia C Wrede, or Tamora Pierce. Or just re-read the harry potter books. They're just as enjoyable the 7th time around as the first, which is more than I can say for this one...
Rating: 
Summary: This is a great beginning to a wonderful series
Review: The Bad Beginning is the first book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. It is my favorite book by Lemony Snicket. Count Olaf is the most devil like creature in any book. The three main characters are Sonny,Klaus,and Violet Baudelaire. Their parents die in a horrible fire and that's when the unfortunate events begin. You have to buy this incredible book today.
Rating:
Summary: A book with no value
Review: For any parent who loves for there children to read books that cause them to come away with a feeling of hope, joy, strength, or at the least to have learned something beneficial, this book is not for you. It was dark, cruel and perverse with what I felt was sexual tendencies. As I told my 11 yr old daughter, there are absolutely thousands of good books out there to read. Don't waste your time on Lemony Snicket!
Rating:
Summary: The run of da life
Review: The book The Bad Begining from A Series of Unfortunate Events is a book that hooks you to keep reading on. The book takes place in a quiet, peacful, and dull town. . The day starts out like any other day, until the Baudelaire's house burns down killing both parents and leaving the three children. The Baudelaire children are Violet, the oldest, who makes funny inventions, Klaus, the middle aged boy, who looks at bugs in a pool of water, and Sunny, the youngest, who bites and chews on things. The book is very depresing and that why it is funny to read. The book is about the three children ovecome the death of their parents. They also have to deal with the wrath of Count Olaf, who is the closest relative. The three children were sent to live with him. Count Olaf is a nasty guy with a run down house. Count Olaf is mean to the children. For example, he only gives them cold lumpy oatmeal for breakfast. The children are in for a ride of their life. Count Olaf wants the money that the children inherited from their parents when they died in the fire. This book is a must read if you like good books. A five star book.
Rating:
Summary: light reading; very different from Harry P.
Review: A charming little book! I read it in one sitting, and it wasn't at all what I expected. For one thing, these have been sold along side the Harry Potter books and this one, at least, had no magic in it. On the contrary, it was very down-to-earth. The children's solutions to their problems did not seem particularly far-fetched. Although the books are "dark" in some ways, they do not teach a helpless outlook. On the contrary, the kids usually solves their problems by either reading books (law books, in this case) or by using their minds to come up with technological solutions. Their plans are frequently thwarted, and they have to start over again, but they don't give up. The plot is simple: three orphaned kids must deal with a malevolent guardian who's after their money. The fun part is the witty, entertaining prose. My only criticism is that frequent explanations of word meanings get old. As a child, I derived most of my word definitions from context and figured things out quite neatly. This author stops the dialogue to define words, which is cute the first few times and gets a little annoying towards the end. However, this is a children's book, and perhaps children like that sort of thing. At any rate, I will definitely read the second one.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 STARS AS A KIDS BOOK.... MORE STARS IF FOR ADULTS!
Review: This book is a trap for kids, for whom I do not recommend it... it is too dark, too Goth, and twisted. I do encourage parents to buy B0B-TALES, by Bob Morgan, a book of fifty children's bedtime stories... it is brand new, and terrific.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, thought provoking and generally fab
Review: I felt compelled to write after seeing people miss the point. "oh, these stories are dark"..."oh, there doesn't seem to be a moral...". Get Over It. If there must be a moral, it is that bad things can happen to good people, that heroes are people who never give up, and villians can be flat out evil (Olaf) or simply lazy (Poe, or any of the other useless adults) - think Voldemort and Cornelius Fudge in HPV - a useful moral if EVER I saw one. A friend recommended these books to me and I'm halfway through the series. These books are a linguistic treat, a metaphor-rich collection of unfortunate events. If your kids are reading these, you should too, so that you can talk to them about what happens (good advice about any book, really). Keep up the good work, Mr Snicket - the children's story must be told!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest
Review: i love this book and all the books in the series. these are truley fantasic books that are written in a kind of morbid,but very funny way.some find these books awful,depressing,and frightening,but i find them to be outstanding and just really funny.the way mr.snicket writes is over the top and refreshing in a world of boring,overly-descriptive young adult writers who write about repetitive topics. he truley immerses himself in the story to a point where you actually have to check the front of the book to make sure it's fiction.he puts things into great analogies (sp?) and always realates one thing to something else that you would never,ever think of.i would reccommend these books to anyone who can see the humor in an otherwise dark situation and wants a new perspective on things.
Rating: 
Summary: an adult reader sounds off...
Review: As an adult fan of youth literature I was intrigued by this book that claims if you are looking for a happy tale, don't read it. I thought the hook of the back cover description was brilliant and looked forward to reading the contents of the novel itself. I admit that I was expecting a dark and dreary novel. The author gives us no illusions that it will be a happy tale. However, the nature of the dreariness is shocking. I did not expect for orphaned children to be struck by an adult, tortured and led blindly from one horrible situation to another. I have no doubt these novels are popular with kids in the same sort of way that the "Garbage Pail Kids" appealed to an earlier generation. It's a fascination with the gross and beyond horrible that all kids share. In that way, the novel delivers very well, and I suspect the series will only grow in popularity amongst the "tween" set. However, I would caution parents of younger children to read the book together, and explain that what happens to the children in the novel should *never* happen to children. The author pays some service to the diabolical nature of events, calling the tormentors dispicable, but I don't think a 9 year old will be able to read this novel without some resultant fear. For other adults like myself who enjoy youth literature on occassion my advice is to skip this series. Not only was I cringeing at the actions in the plot, but the writing is distracting. The author is constantly giving definitions of words (in a clever way, I admit), but it makes the novel hard for an adult to read.
Rating:
Summary: O.K., but not the best.
Review: This book was pretty good. The only part I really liked was when Count Olaf tried to marry Violet,inherit the Baudilare fortune and kill the 3 kids. Like the book says, If you like books with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.
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