The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 2)

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Summary: I don't desire to be disingenuous
Review: which is why I won't tell you I was happy with the purchase of this book. 'Disingenuous' means 'not candid or frank'. You see, I purchased this book looking for a bright, cheery story where the sun shines across a green field of lush grass as the protagonists enjoy a lovely picnic after they win a deliciously just victory over the villain, who is just barely bad enough that you can't possibly like him, but if he were a little nicer, you might.
Such is not the case with second book to this dreadful series of books. Not only does, Sunny, the infant get attacked by a snake named 'The Incredibly Deadly Viper', their kind uncle Monty, (who studies snakes, but cannot see when one is in disguise), is foolish enough to be fooled by the villian, Count Olaf, who really isn't very likable under any circumstance. Worse yet, uncle Monty soon finds himself indisposed, and Count Olaf is to take the Baudelaire orphans to a distant jungle, perhaps to dispose of them and their inheritance in one, awful blow! Certainly, I wouldn't put it past Olaf to kill 4 birds with one stone if he ever finds it possible.
If you enjoy reading stories where no-one is very happy in the end and the villain gets away, this is probably the book for you. Fun for adults as well!

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Summary: The Baudelaire kids enjoy a brief moment of happiness
Review: "The Reptile Room" is Book the Second in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickert. It professes--the word "professes" here means "claims to be"--to be the story of the three unlucky Baudelaire children, but I suspect that, with all due respect, Lemony Snickert is really engaging in vocabulary building skills for his young readers. Now, this has no effect on me because I already know what "ridicule," "preempt," "crude," and "retrieve" mean and do not need to have them defined for me. However, I suspect that for many young readers this book may well be, and I hestiate to use the word, educational.

Unlike the first volume in the series, which began with the Baudelaire children Violet, Klaus, and Sunny being orphaned by the death of their parents and being placed in the clutches of the wicked, bad, mean and nasty Count Olaf, "The Reptile Room" provides a brief window of opportunity for readers to have high hopes for their future. Mr. Poe has entrusted their care to Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, who is not only their late father's cousin's wife's brother but also a herpetologist of some repute (and the discoverer of the impressively misnamed Incredibly Deadly Viper). Dr. Montgomery gives the children the run of his home in general and the Reptile Room in particular, and plans to take them along on his expedition to Peru. The children are happy and gay, but such feelings do not last long in this series and before the end of the tale there is a deadly snake, a murder, a car accident, and the return of the worst of all possible persons.

Fortunately, Violent Baudelaire is especially good at inventing things, her brother Klaus likes to read, and Sunny may be inarticulate but is still a clever little baby. These characteristics go a long way towards explaining why there are additional volumes in A Series of Unfortunate Events instead of it ending in complete disaster earlier along the way. Even if it requires children to learn new words and to think of creative ways of solving problems, I would still maintain reading the works of Lemony Snickert to be a good thing. The story of misery and woe continues in "The Wide Window," which apparently will involve Curdled Cave, a small bag of shattered glass, the menu from the Anxious Clown restaurant, and a test tube containing one (1) Lachrymose Leech. However, younger readers should feel free to read something diverting and possibly even happy before proceeding to the next series of tragic events regarding the Baudelaire children.

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Summary: Very intresting book!
Review: In A series of Unfortunate Events the Reptile Room it talks about the Baudelaire orphans second adventure. They start of one day Mr. Poe dropped them off at their uncle Montgomery Montgomery's house. Uncle Monty is a herpetologist. He studies snakes. Like always Count Olaf tries to get his hands on his fortune. This time he kills Montgomery Montgomery's assistant and applied as an assistant. The Baudelaire orphans and Uncle Monty were going to Peru to study snakes, but Count Olaf decided to kill Uncle Monty. After he killed him he was going to kidnap the orphans to Peru. While they were driving to the docks, Mr. Poe had a car accident with Count Olaf. Talk about luck. Mr. Poe called for a doctor to do an autopsy on Uncle Monty's body. In the end they found out Count Olaf killed him, but he managed to get away.
The reason why I liked this book is because it's the first of its kind. Its nothing but horrible stuff in it. That is why I like it. I think Lemony Snicket is an real genious on thinking and writing these kind of books. I think he should write more A series of Unfortunate Events books.
My favorite part of the book is when a snake bit Sunny and everyone panicked. "With one flick of its tail, the snake unlatched the door of its cage and slithered out onto the table, and before Uncle Monty or any of the Baudelaire orphans could say anything, it opened its mouth and bit Sunny right on the chin."

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Summary: Enjoyable, Quick Read
Review: Second in the series, we begin where we left off with the trouble bound children of the series heading into what they hoped would be a better life than with Count Olaf. Oops, they hoped too soon.

These books are well written, short and enjoyable reads. The subject matter at times can be very disconcerting, so, I have sat and talked with my seven year old about the subject matter and explained that they are only stories. If you have young children I would suggest doing the same as there are times when violence is suggested. Sharp knives, death and implied death to the children are made throughout the book.

What I enjoy most about these stories are the introduction of new vocabulary words into the storylines, with quick notes on what the word means mixed into the dialogue.

In the same league as the Harry Potter series. Sit back and enjoy.

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Summary: The Best, but Most Frightening Book
Review: Wow! This book was really cool. If you check out any other books by Lemony Snicket that say A Series of Unfortunate Events and you don't like books that are unpleasant you wouldn't want to read this book. I, on the other hand, like the Reptile Room because it has some mystery in it and I love mystery books.
The book is about 3 orphans who's parents have died and they go to a house to stay with their Uncle Mongumry Mongumry, but the orphans call him Uncle Monty for short. Then the mean Count Olaf who used to take care of the kids
disguises himself as another guy so he can come and steal their fortune! Will he? Read this book to find out.
The characters in this book are named Violet, Claus, and Sunny. Violet is the oldest, Claus is in the middle, and Sunny is a baby. This book was great.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first.. still has kinks
Review: In the second installment of "Lemony Snicket's" tales of the unlucky Baudelaire orphans, the three children are brought to a jolly distant relative with a penchant for snakes. Things are looking up for them... for about a minute, until someone they hoped never to see again steps back into their lives.

I have to admit, I liked this book better than the first book in the "Unfortunate Events" series, but there are still moments where I found it a bit too self-aware. The constant definitions, for example, were a cute device for about the first two pages of the first book and then immediately lapsed into pure tedium. They are even more tedious in book two.

However, the clever bits are better than they were in the first book as well. The beginning of chapter three is one of the funniest passages I've ever read, in addition to simply being well-written. The death of a certain character is far more morbid than I would have suspected in a book with this alleged target age group (I suspect it was written with kids a bit older than the reported 9-12 in mind), and there is an instance of a single page of one word that is framed so perfectly that it knocked me out of my chair laughing.

So I'll read book three now. Who am I kidding? I've gotta see where this is going.

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Summary: A dictionary with a story.
Review: I give up on Lemony Snicket's "Series Of Unfortunate Events." I did not like the first book at all, but after cooling down for several weeks, I found myself checking this book out of my local library and reading it. Why? I'm not sure, but I think it was because I wanted to be mistaken about these books. So many other people seem to love these books... what was I missing? I figured maybe I just needed more time to "get it."

With Book the Second, "The Reptile Room," Lemony Snicket strikes out again. We are reunited with many of the same cardboard characters from the first book. The Baudelaire orphans-Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny-are back in all their one-dimensional glory. As usual, Violet still likes nothing more than to push her hair out of her face and "invent" little contraptions, Klaus still gets delerious with joy at the sight of any book (regardless of the subject), and Sunny bites everything she sees. Don't these kids ever do anything else? They have no depth at all! Mr. Poe is still the same arrogant chap, unable to listen to a word the Baudelaire orphans say without interrupting them, and Count Olaf returns, unchanged as the wicked relative set on stealing the orphans' inherited fortune. This time, however, the kindly Justice Strauss character is replaced by the orphans' new guardian, Uncle Montgomery. Uncle Montgomery is the most likeable fellow we've met so far and certainly the most interesting as a character, but Snicket sees to it that he is disposed of as soon as possible. Don't worry, I'm not giving anything away here-Snicket spoils any surprises by flatly stating early in the book that Uncle Montgomery will die.

Along with the same annoying characters from the first book, Snicket reprises his same annoying writing habits: among them is his tendency to interrupt the narrative or even characters' quotations to define any word he thinks the reader might not know. This happens once every page or two. Seriously. Snicket even gets to the point where he has adult characters define the words they're using in their conversations. All these defenitions make the story choppy and waste the reader's time. On the back, the book states that it is intendded for readers ten years old and up. I should hope that someone over the age of ten knows the general meaning of the expression "meanwhile back at the ranch" (which Snicket goes on to spend an entire paragraph explaining that it has nothing to do with the salad dressing). It's good for children to read books and develop vocabulary, but I don't think they need to be spoon fed the meaning of every other word! For many years context clues have been just fine for that and for those that the child still doesn't know, looking up words is a good way to develop dictionary skills.

Snicket resorts to other irritating tricks like saying "never tinker with electrical equipment" with an entire PAGE of never's. Three "never's" would have been sufficient. Come to think of it, ONE never would have done the trick but Snicket fattens his book by a page by repeating the word dozens of times in a row, such that they fill over a full page of text. Ridiculous!

The story of this book was slightly more interesting than the first, but the laughs were fewer (I didn't laugh at all) and the action slower. The book dragged on and on, without much happening. The plot could have easily been condensed to twenty or thirty pages without losing anything besides Snicket's definitions and digressions to say that nothing goood is going to happen. Yes, Lemony, we know that the kids' lives are not happy-you don't need to repeat the fact to us at the beginning, middle, and end of every chapter.

Since I checked out the third book at the same time as this one, I started reading it when I was done with this book. I suffered through twenty or thirty pages before recognizing it to be more of the same slow-paced garbage as the first two books. I promptly returned both books to my library. I now give up on Lemony Snicket's "Series Of Unfortunate Events." I have given the series a try, suffered through two and a half books, and now want nothing more to do with them. It's a real shame. The books are so nicely illustrated and printed, yet the books themselves are about the worst books I have ever read.

I'm not against the idea of having a story with "unfortunate events" or an unhappy ending, but these stories themselves are bad and are badly told. With so many other good children's books out there, don't waste your time on these.

Rating:
Summary: Lemony Snicket does it again!
Review: Let me just say...my kids LOVE these books. And for that matter, so do I! I read them to my 7 & 4 1/2 year olds every night and they are completely absorbed into the stories.

In Book 2, The Reptile Room, Count Olaf is back to his dastardly deeds in his quest for the Baudelaire orphans' fortune. The action and suspense starts off right away, and for those who loved the first book, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you, Lemony Snicket, for making these books such a fun read and actually being able to hold the attention of my kids!!!

Rating:
Summary: A very fortunate book
Review: The Reptile Room was intelligently written book. I thought that author did a great job in keeping me the reader interested. At sixteen years old,I still found the book to be a great piece of literature, that even the oldest will like.I look forward to reading the third book.

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Summary: Another Book Better Than Potter!
Review: Violet, Klaus and Sunny are in for another great adventure.? This time they go to live with a very distant cousin Montgomery Montgomery. (Uncle Monty for short.) He has a room full of reptiles. See the huge snake on the cover? That's the Extremly Deadly Viper who really is harmless. Uncle Monty wants to get back at the people at work who tease him because of his name. Everythings going great until Uncle Monty's assistant mysteriously disapears. Then Stephano appears. The orphans think he's Count Olaf. He's after their fortune again.
Excellent book. GO BUY IT!!!