A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill CD

Rating:
Summary: Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse...
Review: it always does for the poor Baudelaire orphans. Although they are polite children with pleasing facial features, their lives are destined to be filled with despair and woe. Lemony Snicket's latest telling of their adventures is filled with much the same type of events as the previous three tales. Will Count Olaf appear in yet another fiendish disguise? Will Mr. Poe continue to be lovably ineffectual? As Sunny would say, 'Gack', which probably means something along the lines of "Of course! I wouldn't be surprised at all!" Fortunately, the Baudelaire children are blessed with above average intelligence and research skills. Readers will find much to treasure in this witty volume detailing how the Baudelaire orphans rescue themselves yet again from the schemes of Count Olaf...Perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Rating:
Summary: The Miserable Mill
Review: This is a great book. It has many surprises in it. You want to read it because you want to know how Count Olaf is going to fool Mr. Poe and try to steal their fortune. You should read it.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of the best
Review: As readers of this series will undoubtedly agree, Lemony Snicket makes a very entertaining author. The characters in these stories are unique and fun, however this individual story failed to stand out from the rest. It's plot was ok, and it had it's moments, but it didn't make itself memorable. Although it didn't stand out, it still is a must if one is reading this series.

Rating:
Summary: Kids love this book!
Review: Lemony Snicket, The Miserable Mill (Scholastic, 2000)

The Baudelaire orphans continue their travails in The Miserable Mill, book four in the seemingly unending Series of Unfortunate Events from Lemony Snicket. In this episode, the orphans are sent to Paltrytown, a small place in the middle of nowhere sustained by a large lumber mill, of whose boss the children are to be put in the care. All well and good, except that the boss and the foreman both expect them to work in the mill (over the protestations of the boss' partner Charles, a very nice, if ineffectual, man). Needless to say, Count Olaf is lurking in the wings, and even when Olaf isn't doing his thing, life is not very nice for the Baudelaire orphans... not very nice at all.

The Wide Window was something of a disappointment from the Snicket camp, and it's quite refreshing to see that The Miserable Mill shows a return to form. The book feels far less episodic throughout than did The Wide Window (though, obviously, pieces of it still feel that way), and Snicket, seemingly bored with the formula (or assuming the readers would be), mixes things up a bit in order to keep them interesting. And keep them interesting he does. (He also indirectly answers a question I've had in the back of my mind since the beginning: "is Sunny actually speaking a language?")

Very nice, and makes me look forward to book five. *** ½

Rating:
Summary: The Miserable Mill
Review: Dear Reader,

When we last left the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans, they had just foiled Count Olaf's latest scheme and had lost their somewhat beloved Aunt Josephine to the carnivorous Lake Lachrymose leeches. When we pick up with them in THE MISERABLE MILL not much time has passed and the children are being whisked away on a train to meet their new guardian, a man who simply calls himself Sir.

The children are supposed to be staying with a guardian somehow "related" to them (no matter how slightly), but I have no idea how Sir is related to Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Anyway, the trio is whisked away on a train to Paltryville where they walk alone from the train station to the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. To their horror, Sir forces the children to work in mill! And not only that, but they are only paid in coupons and are only allowed one meal a day and a piece of gum to eat for lunch. Oh, how horrible! And then Klaus is tripped by the foreman and breaks his glasses and has to go see an optometrist who ends up hypnotyzing him, and then some very, very dreadful things happen (including a most gruesome "accident").

This story is unlike the first three books in the series and leads the children down a path quite different than the one they had been traveling. One would think their misery would come to an end, but it seems as if they are cursed to be followed by a series of unfortunate events.

Try to enjoy reading this book and whatever you do, please stay away from electric lumber saws in mills.

Sincerely,
Uncle TV

Rating:
Summary: Boring and not expectant
Review: Légère petite entorse à la routine habituelle : ce tome 4 laisse planer un suspense quant à savoir où se cache le fameux comte Olaf, l'ennemi juré des enfants Baudelaire. En effet, ce n'est qu'au 3/4 de l'histoire qu'on découvre son déguisement et l'identité qu'il a une nouvelle fois usurpée. Après les mésaventures survenues chez leur tante Agrippine au lac Chaudelarmes, Violette, Klaus et Prunille Baudelaire arrivent avec Mr Poe à La Falotte chez leur nouveau tuteur, au nom imprononçable, on sait juste qu'il est directeur d'une scierie et qu'il se fait appeler M. le directeur. De lui, on n'en saura pas davantage : son visage est sans cesse prisonnier d'un nuage de fumée de cigarette, c'est un homme autoritaire et il communique avec les enfants par note de service. D'ailleurs, il attend des orphelins qu'ils se mettent à la tâche en échange du gîte et du couvert. On découvrira, bien évidemment, que les conditions de vie des enfants vont de mal en pis - mais là repose l'idée facétieuse de l'auteur dans cette série désastreuse ! Bref, "Cauchemar à la scierie" excelle dans le glauque et la poisse. Certains éléments ne tournent pas rond, éveillent les soupçons des jeunes Baudelaire et cette satanée malchance ne les quitte jamais. Dans ce tome 4, il est question d'ophtalmologie, de scierie, de chewing-gums et d'hypnose. On ne s'ennuie pas trop, sauf si l'on regrette certaines longueurs dans l'introduction des Baudelaire aux dures réalités de la vie à la scierie. Autre mise à part : celle de Mr Poe, qu'on ne présente plus tant son inefficacité devient légendaire ! Il est presque à regretter que son personnage loufoque et benêt soit passé au second plan. Ce tome 4 centre son action sur le microcosme que représente la scierie Fleurbon-Laubaine avec ses acteurs hauts en couleur, comme l'associé Charles, l'employé Phil ou le contre-maître MacFool. Autre duo qui se passe de commentaires : la réceptionniste Shirley et le Dr Georgina Orwell. En un mot comme en cent : la série des orphelins Baudelaire s'inscrit dans la durée & dans le dérisoire. Poilant !