Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Origional!!
Review: This book is my all time favorite. All I can say is that Lemony Snicket is the most incredible author!! Origional, funny, and dismal this book is perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon with nothing to do!!! I read this book in an hour 'cause I enjoyed it so much! You definetaly have to read about the 3 kids (Violet, Sunny, and Clause) in their funny, and dismal adventures. Definetely a MUST read!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Rude, Disguisting and poorly written!
Review: As a reader of this book and not a parent, I would like to warn all prospective readers of this book. Several friends reccomened it to me, and I had nightmeres for nights after I finished it. The story follows three orphans who don't get anything good in life, no hapiness, nothing, which is rather unbelivable. All the adults are either horribly mean or too dumb to help the kids.
I might have at least giving it 2 stars if it wasn't so poorly written. It tells you what a word means far too often, which gets annoying and distracting. There is no humor or real tear jerking moments, just horror.
Overall, the book is a horror. Don't waste your hard earned money.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Needed in Overly Happy Days
Review: Unlike the majority of reviews before mine, I found Mr. Snicket's tale of the Baudelaire orphans to be quite enjoyable, refreshing, and earnest. It's a very rare thing to encounter a piece of literature where within the story the characters find very little hope. It seems that tragedies are a thing of the past, with the exception of a Series of Unforunate Events. Most people read in order to escape their own woes and miseries, but there is a great comfort in finding sympathy within the pages of a book by reading that you are not the only unlucky person faced with dreadful circumstances.It is true, as the author "warns" repeatedly throughout the book, that the tale neither begins nor ends happily, but it does make a much needed point. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire lost their parents, home, and possessions to a fire that destroyed their house. They have to live with a distant relative (Count Olaf) who is truly a deplorable person and who is after their inheritance. But despite the turmoil, the siblings remain hopeful. They are intelligent and kind, and are loving and protective towards one another. Brothers and sisters are rarely protrayed as having harmonious relationships, nor are teens and pre-teens ever portrayed as being interested in books and learning. The children are treated horribly by their "new father." He verbally demeans them, occasionally strikes them, and eventually concots a plan to marry the eldest daughter Violet. When they seek confidence and aid in the executor of their parents' estate he does not sympathize with them and shrugs off their complaints as "adjusting to their new lives." I did not find this "stupid" or unrealistic, as guidance counsellors and policemen alike have rolled their eyes at claims of child abuse by teenagers a million times over because their cries are just "simply ridiculous." I plan on collecting the remainder of Mr. Snicket's books to read to my children. I do believe that they have a place in a child's life, if only to show them how truly nasty some people are or can be. Whether they're related to you or not, every person has the potential to be completely and utterly insidious. Children must be aware of such potential, and they have to understand that actions such as Count Olaf's in the book are not acceptible.
Rating: 
Summary: A Pretty Boring Beginning to some Pretty Boring Books
Review: Ok, I'm 15, and therefore a bit older than the target audience, but I decided to read the first two books of the series last year when I was bored (my sister owns every one). I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter, Roal Dahl, Artemis Fowl, and His Dark Materials books, but I fail to see what so many kids like about this series. I'm not complaining that it's too creepy or violent, since I don't think it is, but the plot and characters don't interest me at all. Unfortunately, this Lemony Snicket has realized that taking orphans and having bad things happen to them equals big sales and a big fan base. It's too bad that so many kids are reading these subpar books. Most older readers will probably notice the many flaws in them. First of all, the only reason they seem to be orphans is that Harry Potter is, and it seems to translate into sales. The main characters aren't interesting in the least, and have absolutely no personality. Now, my biggest complaint is the constant "unfortunate events." It's not that it's depressing, but it just becomes boring and repetitive. Without some bright spots, how are we supposed to care about these kids, when we know that nothing but bad things will happen? Anytime they seem to meet a nice person, they die or become separated from the main characters. Aside from the irritating word definitions, the writing style is decent, which is one of the few good things I have to say about these books. Just skip these, and read Harry Potter a few more times (or read Artemis Fowl, His Dark Materials, and Roal Dahl's books if you haven't done so already).
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning (a very bad beginning!)
Review: One day at school, everyone began to talk about Lemony Snicket. Lemony Snicket this, Lemony Snicket that, Lemony Snicket is better than J.K Rowling and should be compared to Tolkien, etc. This convinced me to go and buy the first two books of the series. At first the excessively large print and the terribly high price gave me an instinct to buy something else, but with the words of my classmates ringing in my head I bought the books.
They had to be the worst books I have ever read. Some children lose their parents and try to escape from their evil uncle, how very cliched. Don't let any rumours get to your head like they did to me, ending up with a waste of a lot of money on some rubbishy books. And the Bad Beginning is cracked up to be very sad. Very sad book, my knee. Just about every other children's book I have read is sadder than this, and not once throughout the whole book did I feel a scrap of sympathy for the children.
In my opinion, this book is a waste of everything. Money, time and paper. Read something else. Read ANYTHING but this book.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a writer who tells the awful truth
Review: This series of books is hilarious and the audience that it was written for will love it, that is, intelligent children and adults. The ones that it lampoons, understandably, will hate it, which is another reason to love it. If Edgar Allan Poe and Gahan Wilson had a baby, it would have been Lemony Snicket...
Rating:
Summary: Hardly Stimulating...
Review: Let me begin by saying that I read a great deal. I read books (like this one) meant for kids, novels (of various types) meant for adults, and, of course, classics like War and Peace. This book is not impressive in any way, at least it isn't in my opinion. I read the first 3 books before giving up in disgust. In this book, all the adults are made out to be complete and total idiots. None of them even LISTEN to the kids when they say that their new guardian (Uncle Olaf) is being rather abusive. What kind of adult doesn't at least LISTEN to a 14 year old girl and her 12 year old brother when they complain of abuse? It is completely unbelievable. Evil Uncle Olaf is a buffoon as well, though they think he is clever. After partially carrying out his evil plan, he goes and ANNOUNCES it to everyone before he can make sure it will work. No one is that stupid. Not only that, but the kids refuse to stick up for themselves. Even though the "nice" adults don't help them at all they continue to let adults try and help them. This ends up making the situation worse, leaving the kids to figure out some way to avoid whatever is happening. This so-called solution that they come up with would never work if the adults had any brains whatsoever, making the story rather dull. Overall, I would say that I don't recommend these books to anyone, with the possible exception of reading them aloud to 6 year olds. If you desire to read a book, or a series of books, aimed at younger kids but still interesting enough for all ages, or if you are a young person and want something to read, I would first recommend Harry Potter. However, you have probably already read that, so as a secondary choice I would recommend the Artemis Fowl series.
Rating:
Summary: More disappointing than I could have imagined
Review: My husband and I are always on a quest for series of books to read together (we have read and thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman's Dark materials, and Taran Wanderer series). We were informed the Lemony Snicket Unfortunate Events series would be a good one to try out, if not for oursleves, then for children we knew. We picked the first in the series up while on a car trip to test it out. I can not express how disappointed we were. Not only were the "vocabulary lessons" annoying, they are completely unneccessary - children learn new words through proper use and context, and if it can not be figured out through these ways, then the extra effort to go look it up in a dictionary is a good learning method as well. Besides that, the words he chooses to define versus the undefined ones is absolutely absurd! And any child who needs the word "rickety" or "perished" defined is too young to be reading about such subjects as child abuse and implied sexuality (the uncle and theater members' thoughts of Violet), or to be exposed to such violence as shown by Count Olaf (threatening to cut Violet's face). In conclusion, since the book's context is too mature for the youngest of readers, and the vocabulary lessons as well as the simplicity of the plot make it inappropriate for older readers, I can not recommend it for anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Try It For Yourself
Review: When I first heard about the Unfortunate Events books, my first reaction was negative. I assumed the books were depressing, painful tales that would likely give kids nightmares and send them screaming to therapists. So I read one...and I was wrong. 'The Bad Beginning' chronicles the misadventures of three very...well, unfortunate...orphans: fourteen year old Violet (who longs to invent things), twelve year old Klaus (who longs to read books), and the infant girl Sunny (who longs to bite things...and people). As author Lemony Snicket warns on the book's back cover, this is "an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children." That it certainly is, but it is also much more. The book can be viewed as a dark comedy for children, a fairy tale gone wrong, or Charles Dickens meets Harry Potter. Snicket moves the story forward with a fast-paced plot and many vocabulary lessons inserted throughout the story in very clever ways. Many people may be critical of the Unfortunate Events books, citing that there are no happy endings. But life doesn't always turn out nice and neat like it did in the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Little House on the Prairie books. There's nothing wrong with those books, but maybe they're not your thing. If that's the case, maybe the Unfortunate Events books will be more to your liking.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Beginning to a Great Series
Review: Being only 13, it is very difficult to find a book for my age nowadays that I can learn from or that is entertaining in the slightest. With A Series of Unfortunate Events, though, I found myself turning each page with wonderful anticipation each and every time. I honestly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter series. Before reading this book, I feared that it would be a disgraceful copy of the Harry Potter series but to my surprise, it was actually a very diverse and eye-catching book that turned out to be one of my favorites. I have now read every single book in the Series of Unfortunate Events excepting book #9, The Carnivorous Carnival, and I do not regret any of the time spent reading them at all. I had a fantastic adventure diving into each and every story and spending the day with Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Count Olaf, and all of the other hilarious as well as fascinating and interesting characters that add so much to the humor as well as to the beautiful plot that keeps us all going. Lemony Snicket has such a way with words that can keep any child's eyes glued to the pages. Snicket's writings add to any reader's vocabulary in a whole new motivating and efficient way while at the same time keeping a smile on their faces. The way that he digresses into his own adventurous and rebellious life keeps us tantalized to his amazing stories. Although I am only one person, I can speak for many other readers of The Bad Beginning and the other stories in the Series of Unfortunate Events by saying that I am caught between the stories of the Baudelaires and of Lemony Snicket. There are times when Snicket starts to digress into his own life when I think, "Stop talking about yourself; get back to the mysterious and tempting plot of the Baudelaire children!" but then I find myself tied up in the middle of Snicket's life instead! There are so many examples of this in action that anyone can find just by reading these books and these examples are those that make the stories so wonderful and attractive. I recommend these books to anyone and I hope that if this review helps you and you decide to read The Bad Beginning or any of the other Series of Unfortunate Events books that you enjoy them as much as I did. Happy reading!
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