Rating: 
Summary: A bad beginning---headed for a bad series
Review: This is a book I will happily put in the category of well-written garbage. Not a book I'd recommend for the specified age group at all. The writing is excellent, sometimes moving. But...BUT this is a story of child abuse, plain and simple, and there's nothing funny about it. The children are victims, and nothing they do reduces their suffering. In The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken, the children are victims, yes, but they are resourceful and strong, and the story comes across as a fantasy. Lemony Snicket's series may well be intended as a fantasy, but the first one misses. The evil is unrelenting and the hurts inflicted too real. Make it real and let the kids reading know it's real, or keep it fantastic. I'll pass on the rest of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: beat out Harry Potter by a trip to the moon and back.
Review: -It starts with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. They are all very creative. I have no idea how everything got so terrible for them. I can't believe that a house fire could make their lives so misrable. -For example, cooking for Count Olaf and his drunken crew, chopping wood for no apparent reason, almost marrying your worst nightmare, and watching their baby sister Sunny dangle out of a forbiddon tower. I wouldn't be able to stand it. -It would have been much nicer living with their neighbor. I have read the books up to number 4. i think that they have beat out harry potter by a trip to the moon and back. Alison
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunate Events Are A Pleasure To Read
Review: I have always enjoyed a challenge and a good book. From the warning in the first few lines of The Bad Beginning, I was hooked. Even the author's name - Lemony Snicket is intriguing. The main characters are the three orphaned Baudelaire children. What could be more gripping than reading about the tragedy that creates their situation and the constant struggle they endure against the vile Count Olaf, who, being their only distant relative, has custody of them now? There isn't a caring bone in his body! He even dangles the baby, Sunny out a window, in a cage, to force Claus and Violet to do what he wants. Why? He is after their huge inheritance. This little book has it all, including great vocabulary development. What an entertaining book - but no happy ending. Although this book was an assigned reading for my Children's Literature course, I enjoyed it and I am anxious to read all of the books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorites
Review: One of my favorite books is called "The Bad Beginning," by Lemony Snicket. I liked it because it was exciting and adventurous. It's about three Bauldelaire orphans that have very horrible fortune, even though they are very rich. Then they are adopted by their evil-eyed relative and he is doing all he can to get into their money. Then he comes up with an evil plan, part of which is threatening to kill the youngest Baudelaire orphan. What will happen to the Baudelaires next? Read on and find out. By Tia
Rating: 
Summary: Clever, dark humor
Review: I thought this book was great - I loved the dark humor and the slightly pompous, over-the-top writing style. I don't find it at all depressing or nihilistic (as some of the critics here put it)for two reasons: first of all, these books read very much like FAIRY TALES, not realistic literature. The Baudelaires' predicament reminded me very much of Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, etc. etc. Are those stories depressing? Secondly, the Baudelaires are not passive victims. Through their intelligence, bravery and resourcefulness, they outwit and triumph over the evil Count Olaf. I find that empowering. True, they don't wind up in a happy ending, but they DO defeat the bad guy, and go on to further adventures. I also like the fact that Violet is a strong heroine, and that the books really stress the idea that reading is valuable. The Baudelaires read voraciously, both for pleasure and to research ways of foiling their oppressors. I agree that these books aren't for little kids, but certainly the 9-to-12-year-old crowd can enjoy them.
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: Filled with intelligence and delight!
Review: When I started this book, I thought it would turn out boring. But after a few pages, I'd kind of like to know what happened to the three orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. I mean by who they went to live with and that everything might turn out okay. But from how Lemony Snicket explains Count Olaf, you'd really start hating him in the next couple of seconds. I would suggest this book to anyone who doesn't care what kind of book they read, and I'll tell you, if you read it, you'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: This Book Was A Gas...
Review: In this context "gas" meaning a great time. While Iwas searching, one of the thngs they said they were excited about coming out was the seventh book in the "Unfortunate Events" series.After just finishing the first I can see why. I desperately want to start the second, to see what unlucky fate next befalls the three Baudelaire siblings, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Three very unlucky children whose parents die tragically and are forced to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf. Imagine Harry Potter never getting the chance to escape from the Dursley's and you'll get the general idea. The author relates their tale of woe with hilarity, including a technique of providing definitions for words that the reader might not be familiar with. Destined to become cult classics and handsomely designed and illustrated in their little hardback form, they're books you're kids/niece/nephew/little sibling will want all of. And you'll be sneaking them away to see what all the fuss is about.
Rating:
Summary: Very terrible--but in this case that is very good.
Review: I read this book in two days. After I read it my brother read and so did my mom. I am ready to order two more more, and two more after that! I like the book, like I liked Harry Potter! I ask Lemony Snicket to write more, and more! I think that Count Olaf came up with a very clever idea to marry Violet.
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful, a word here meaning "Laughed myself silly."
Review: I have read the entire series (and will go on doing so until Snickett puts the Baudelaires out of their misery), and can only be surprised at the people who seem incapable of seeing these hilarious and blatant parodies for what they are. These books read in a doleful, deadpan, Poe-like tone, while discussing terrible events...events that become so terrible that they cross the line to silliness. You have an old-style melodrama villian in Count Olaf. In the three heroes, you have the distilled goodness, courage, resource and sweetness of every hero of every melodramatic childrens book ever written. In Mr. Poe you have the quintessential essence of those eternal, frustrating characters who always refuse to believe children because they ARE children. Every character and situation in the book is a stereotype, overblown and caricatured to the point where you are forced to giggle at it. Sunny's 'conversation', the author's autobiographical notes, and the sometimes hilarious definitions of words add to the spice. For good measure, the three children are honestly likeable! Very well written, both stylistically, and for 'grab' value. A series to be read and reread and snickered over many times! But NOT, for heaven's sake, to be taken seriously. Puttanesca sauce, anyone?
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