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Summary: A book to be shared and loved by all
Review: This is one of the best books i have ever had the joy of reading! It is not your cookie cutter cinderella fariy tell. The prince does not come riding in on a white horse to save these poor children instead the are forced to live a life of misery and woe. I enjoyed this book because at every turn you would think they would be saved but instead they would just be mislead I cannot wail to get my hands on the next book in this wonderful series. I think everyone should be made to read this book!
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Summary: The funniest depressing read I've ever had
Review: These beautifully bound and illustrated books are marvelous fun! The Baudelaire children are the saddest, smartest characters I've seen in a while. True, the bad guys are stock-in-trade but who cares? This book and the one after it are enormous fun. Followers of Roald Dahl in particular should gobble them up! Hooray for children's fiction that is intelligently written, witty, funny and not saccharine sweet!
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Summary: You'll love this book!
Review: I loved reading this book. It is fast and fun. The author has a fun, creative, imagnitive style of writing. I highly recommend reading his books. My daughter who hates to read loves Lemony Snicket books so I know you will too.
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Summary: Fiendishly clever! Kids will beg to have the light left on!
Review: Snicket's foray into children's literature is dark, morbid and delightful! He strikes me as the sort of person who would invite unwitting Jehovah's Witnesses into the house for tea and leave them stranded on the sofa for hours.
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Summary: Just as good as Harry Potter!!!
Review: I heard that this book was going to be good... but not this good. It was almost as good of a read as Harry Potter. I can't wait for the third book to come out. Another reason I liked the bad beggining is because it is a short read.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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