A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Trouble Begins (Books 1-3: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window)

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Summary: A Most Plesant Experience Reading These Unfortunate Stories
Review: I am very sorry to tell you that these books are very interesting and have wonderful stoylines about three children who become orphans in a terrible fire that destroies their entire home and kills their parents. The Boudilaire Orphans are sent to their closest relative, who I am very sorry to tell you is a very unpleasant man. This rather unplesant man is called Count Olaf. Count Olaf is an actor and does not have very much money. He, unfortuately, is also very clever. He tries in many ways through the series to inherit control of the very large Boudilaire's Estate. The story becomes even more unplesant whenever Count Olaf is around, and he is very often around, even though the children may not know it. Please read these stories!

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Summary: "Bad Beginning," middle and end
Review: I know I'm going to get a record number of unhelpful votes for this one, but this review is for those who, like me, don't get the cult of Snicket. (It's always a maybe-the-world-isn't-entirely-mad relief to see there are a few others out there who share your opinion!)

I only read "The Bad Beginning"; I felt I got the gist of the scenario and didn't want to re-read the same set-up of the children bonding to would-be guardians, only to have Count Olaf wreck things and no one listen to the siblings when they'd report what Count Olaf is up to and capable of. It was written decently enough, with a couple of glimmers of wit -- ironic definitions of slightly sophisticated words, and narrator Lemony Snicket's brief allusions to his own misadventures -- but, at least in the first book, there wasn't enough use of Klaus' encyclopedic knowledge or Violet's talent, which I can't even recall. (A glance through Amazon's reader reviews reveals she is a "genius inventor" -- I remember that being mentioned but don't recall it coming into play in any compelling way.) Even if the subsequent books do play up these elements more satisfactorily, there wasn't enough to interest or impress me in "Bad Beginning" to force myself to read the same story over and over.

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Summary: I'll Make Up My Mind When I Finish the Last One
Review: Oh, here we go again. "They're better than Potter"..."They're not as good as Potter"....Honestly, about the only thing these books have in common with Harry Potter is that they are a popular series, they've been made into a feature film, and you can find them in the children's section. After that, there's really little to compare them. So I won't.

All the same, I still haven't quite decided whether or not these books are worthwhile. I love Edward Gorey, and certainly like the dark humour of the books, but I haven't decided if the author is infuriatingly pretentious or just very clever. Maybe he's both....There are literary and cultural references that no child would catch (eg Klaus and Sunny...the von Bulows?), and I haven't decided if the author's explanation of sophisticated words is serious or yet another clever device. The novels, in fact, are full of clever devices, some of which seem to be designed at constructing the "Lemony Snicket" persona as a full-fledged character--but they do get tiresome from book to book. The whole mysterious pseudonym, the equally mysterious dead Beatrice: all these things are fun at first, but one can only enjoy them for their own sake for so long. Once you've accepted the idea that we're in for horrifying and depressing tales, we don't need to be reminded again and again.

Luckily, there are times when the author relaxes, and offers some enjoyable moments, such as when he plays with Sunny's nonsense syllables, and actually gets some good jokes out of them. There are fun, quirky details in each of the guardians, too, but we never stay with any of them long enough to get to enjoy them. On the whole, I do find the books engaging, and certainly easy to read, but I keep wanting to get past that annoying narrator's voice and find some real interaction between these three hapless children, who are genuinely likeable and worth spending time with. Daniel Handler also writes very well, and is adept with the language--something that is refreshing in children's books, which often descend to the language of trashy sitcoms or irritatingly "cute" approximations of childrens' speech (take that, Junie B. Jones!)

I'm not yet halfway through the series, but I would like to see some development, some back story (that was certainly hinted at in the otherwise mediocre film version) that will lift these books out of the repetitiveness of the "series"--if all we're getting is unfortunate event after unfortunate event, then all we as readers are expected to do is to applaud Handler's cleverness and his wit, and his ability to string learned references together. I'm hoping there's more there; otherwise, this series is threatening to leave me cold. And that would indeed be unfortunate.

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Summary: Offensive and stupid
Review: Gosh, now we have the right worrying about bared breasts for about 10 milliseconds at superbowls, but parents raving about a children's book that glorifies child abuse (locking a toddler in a bird cage, taping her mouth shut, and threatening to drop her from a tower is not dark humor to a child) and implied child rape - Olaf says to Violet that he will dispose of her siblings and keep her around because she is pretty. I wish these books were given 1/1000ths of the scrutiny of rock music, tv, etc. What a sad state this country is in when these are popular. They shouldn't have been published. And I don't care if the ending is happy or sad, it is what is in between that counts. Maybe Count Olaf should have been play by Christopher Walken. For good children's books with humor, sometimes dark, read something by Terry Pratchett.

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Summary: I new these were great books!
Review: I've read the first five books in this series, and all I can say is that they're amazing. The writing is clever and engaging, and filled with word play. The books introduce idiomatic expressions and challenging vocabulary to young readers in very humorous ways, and reinfore the learning throughout.

Nevertheless, I feel I need to comment on the binding. I have borrowed all of these books from the library, and nearly every one has been in some state of advanced degradation. For most, the spine crackles when I open the book, and many of them are falling right out of the binding. The hardcover books are very nice looking, but seem very fragile, and will probably not stand up well to more than two readings. I suspect the paperbacks could probably weather someone's handling somewhat better.

The books' physical integrity aside, I enthusiastically recommend these books for readers of any age.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: Honestly people are silly who take the sad parts way too seriously in books. If they want happy parts every few minutes they SHOULD go an read Harry Potter. Those books actually bored me, i like scenes that arnt all happy and jolly. makes a book more intresting. Plus how these stories are put together makes them cute an enertaining.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD BOOKS!!!!!!
Review: These books were okay. In the Bad Beginning, their parents died in a terrible fire and then they have to go live with Count Olaf. He is a WICKED guardian, and the only reason he took them in is because he wants their fortune. He cooks up a plot to marry Violet so that the money will be his. Then, in the Reptile Room, they go to live with Uncle Monty, a snake researcher. He goes all around the world researches snakes, varying from harmless to venomous. They love Uncle Monty. They research Peruvian snakes and land surfaces (Sunny chews rope into workable pieces while Violet fixes snack traps) in the morning and in the evening they watch a movie. That all changes when Stephano (aka Olaf) shows up. I won't tell you anymore about a reptile room. In The Wide Window, they go to live with Aunt Josephine who is afraid of everything even realtors.

Rating:
Summary: Should be call "An Oddly Marketed Series"
Review: I mentioned that I was interested in reading this collection and my wife was kind enough to purchase them for me. I had heard many a favorable comparison to the Harry Potter series. These people were obviously smoking crack as these books aren't even COMPARABLE to my LEAST favorite books of the Harry Potter series.

Why so negative? Well, first off, they're CLEARLY written for children, explaining (IN DETAIL) even the most simplistic words. In short, they're far too condescending for anyone old enough to deal with the themes contained within (read 2nd point).

Secondly, they're extremely dark to the point of being tedius. They aren't suitable for very young children, even though the writing style is clearly aimed at them.

Thirdly, they're EXTREMELY formulaic and overly predictable. Even a reasonably bright 8 year old should find these things a snore.

Lastly, they're extremely short (at least the first three, which were as much as I could stomach). They are so short, in fact, that older children would be able to finish them in an evening. Although I can't see why they would want to.

On an up-note, they do have a bit of humor and the character of Sunny, the only one that can't actually talk, is the most entertaining of all.

Literally pick it up in a store, read the back cover and put it down. At that point, you will have read the most humorous part of your entire 3 book set.

Favorite non-sequitor from the book: "Like most 12 year olds, Violet was left handed." That line WAS funny, but when you have to wait another 150 pages for another good quip, simply isn't worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: My teacher read the first two books to us in class it was soo interesting we never wanted her to stop!

Anyways this book is about three kids named violoit,clous and sunny who must move to another relative because their parents died in a house fire. They move to a distant relative named count olaf who is evil and tries to get their fortune (because they were a very wealthy family) It's a story about how they try to prevail against ther evil relative who is constantly trying to kill them (literally) just to get their fortune. So thats pretty much the main idea for the story.

Now, I've read some of the 1 star reviews that are like oh this book is so depressing and negative blah blah blah. Hmmmm, lets think now did they ever think about reading the title? It's called A series of "Unfprtunate" events not a series of the world of cottan candy and sweets with the happy bunnies bla blah. Not to mention the book itself warned you. Yes, this book is a bit violent for children. I thinks it's aimed at kids hmmmm maybe 7.8,9+? I woulden't reccomend this for kids who would be looking foward to a nice sweet dtory, But anyways, this story is exciting and adventurous! Very good book!