Rating: 
Summary: BAD BEGINNING INDEED
Review: I was surprised, after being seduced by the book's cover, how ordinary a read this is. It claims to be like Edward Gorey, but doesn't have half the bite of his work. I found the villians to be stock characters, and I found the resolution ad-libbed. On the other hand, it's a quick, felicitous read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for boys
Review: My middle school boys actually applauded and asked for "MORE" while reading these books. We've read Brian Jacques, we've read Time Warp Trio, we've read Harry Potter, we've read R. Dahl, and these books continue nicely in those veins. It's getting harder to find books to keep the boys interested in, we're waiting for the third book to be published so we can find out more about the "orphans" and the imagination of the mysterious Lemony Snicket. You won't be disappointed if you like books that aren't predictable and sugar coated.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable for adults and children
Review: A fun and funny book despite (because of?) the misfortunes. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to read to a sufficiently mature 8-11 year old.
Rating:
Summary: A unique entry in children's literature...
Review: This very well written and engaging book reads like a fleshed out Edward Gorey tale - complete with descriptive, odd ball place names and young innocents suffering at the hands of their evil (or simply incompetent) elders. The concept works thanks in no small part to the clever writing style, smooth narrative and strong imagination running throughout the story. The drawings, while not spectacular, are charming and add very nice details to the book itself. Other nice touches include the endpapers, "Ex Libris" plate (both by the illustrator), and the smirky attitude of the narrator (Lemony Snicket). A truly unique and immaginative item. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: "You, sir, are no Roald Dahl"
Review: I don't mind dark and depressing children's books. Plenty of them have depressing beginnings (_James and the Giant Peach_) and sad events (_Bridge to Terabithia_). Children can handle this in the context of the story. So the dark aspects of this story didn't bother me, especially with the over-the-top way in which it's presented (all of the "oh reader, turn back now, so awful" asides). What irritated me was that the author didn't seem to try very hard to go beyond the predictable genre aspects (They're orphans! Sent to live with a nasty relative! In a filthy house! ... gosh, I've _never_ seen a story like this before) or to even make the "bad" things very bad or creative at all (They have to ... make dinner! And then ... the Count wanted something else! And later ... the boy is slapped!). I also found the constant definition-asides for words quite cloying and condescending. Occasionally they were attempts at humor, which was fine, but for the most part they were actual definitions which wrecked the flow of the story (and in a patronizing tone, not like other children's books asides, e.g. all of the addressing of "Best Beloved" in _Just So Stories_). _The Wind in the Willows_ had a much more complex vocabulary and needed no pauses to explain the words. This book could have succeeded without them. To be honest, the tone and plot of this book gave me the impression of having been originally written as some kind of kindergoth Edward Gorey-esque spoof for sale at Hot Topic, but then was dumbed down several notches to reach a larger audience. I did like how the older sister Violet is an inventive young engineer, though. That was a fresh note in this book. I recommend skipping this book and going directly to the source for depressing-yet-fun-to-read children's books - Roald Dahl. Try _James and the Giant Peach_ or _George's Marvellous Medicine_ for much more imaginative stories of young children forced to stay with nasty relatives.
Rating:
Summary: Going from bad to worse couldn't be better!
Review: Think your life is bad? Forget about it--the lives of the Baudelaire children are worse! After devouring the first five books in a flash--the word "devouring" here does not mean that we hastily gobbled them up, but rather that we were compelled to read them rapidly in succession--we immediately e-bought Book 6, "The Ersatz Elevator" and Book 7, "The Vile Village." Lemony Snicket's unrelenting(ly funny) account of the misfortunes that befall the Baudelaires is never watered down by saccharine solutions, trust us. Kids 8 and up will find every book in the series hilariously morose and intriguing, including the author's different photos, bios and letters at the end of each book. Parents and teachers will appreciate the unique and humorous way in which Mr. Snicket introduces new vocabulary to young readers. For reasons that remain unclear to us even now, we may never know Lemony Snicket as well as we know JK Rowling, but hopefully his series will contine to get even better, or should I say, worse?
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely magnificent
Review: Oh, the poor, poor (but rich) Baudelaire orphans--what horrible things happen to them. What a dismal life they lead. But it is not all for naught, because out of those horrible things and the dismal surroundings emerges a most original, entertaining, mildly funny tale one could imagine. Count Olaf and his minions are villains extraordinaire. Violet and Klaus are perhaps the main heroes, but the reader may find himself drawn most to little Sunny, dangling from the tower, unable even to babble. The atmosphere couldn't be worse--in the best sense. Children's literature has too often been about good little boys and girls who prevail against the very mild problems they face. Not so here. These kids don't make a dent in their problems. In fact, the problems just get worse and worse to and including the last page. But real kids love tales of adversity. A case in point: the recent surge of interest in the Titanic disaster. Well, this book is a disaster too. Don't buy it. Don't read it. Lemony Snicket himself said so, and I believe everything he says.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Original!
Review: A very interesting, original story about all the bad things that happen to the 3 Baudelaire children. I absolutely loved the way this book was written and seems to flow smoothly. However, I think that some of the situations in the book were depressing, and may be scary for very young children. Otherwise this book was wonderful, and I found myself rooting for the Baudelaire children, and despising Count Olaf and his friends.
Rating:
Summary: pointless
Review: Maybe if I hadn't heard so many wonderful things about this book (as well as the entire line of follow-ups) I wouldn't be reviewing it so harshly.
This book is nothing but pointless, weightless children's fluff. Amusing if you are under 10 years of age & looking for some light (ULTRA light) reading, but completely unsatisfying if you crack the cover expecting something more along the lines of 'Harry Potter'.
The plot is very thin, and I can only assume it's due to this being one of a series, and thus the overall tale of the Baudelaire orphans is spread over the 10+ novels that have since been released. But this left the first book with very little substance, and left me feeling like I didn't care enough to give it another go with the second installment.
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning
Review: I give this book five stars because:
1.It makes you want to keep reading
2.Its humorous
3.Its entertaining and interesting to read
4.The author has a great sense of humor
5.The author uses descriptive words Violet, Sunny and Klaus Baudelaire are three very unlucky children. When their parents perished in a fire, they thought life couldn't get any worse. They were wrong. When the three children are sent to live with a distant relative, they had hoped their luck was about to change for the better. Unfortunately, they had reckoned without Count Olaf and his diabolically fiendish scheme to steal the children's inheritance.
The Series of Unfortunate Events are books that are very different to the typical image of children's literature. As the narrator says, "There is no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and there are very few happy things in the middle." The author uses a great sense of humor and depending on how you focus upon the book, it can either be depressing or very funny. I personally found it very good and interesting to read. Even though some of the things that happen to the three orphans are just plain awful, it still makes me want to read more and more.
The characters are both entertaining. Count Olaf is dangerously evil. The Baudelaires are intelligent, clever, resourceful children who enjoying reading and inventing. No matter what happens, they will always find some solution to their problems, even though more bad things are just around the corner.
This book is really fun to read and very interesting. I recommend this book to all kids of all ages. Whoever reads this book will enjoy it and when they start reading it, I bet they wouldn't want to put it down.
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