Book 4 of A Series of Unfortunate Events! This book brings the orphans to their first non-relative of the group, in the sense that they are staying at a sort of institution instead of a person’s home.

Read: Oct 6, 2024

Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Dark Comedy
Audience: Children
Book contains: madman, brainwashing, mild depiction of gore, workplace injury, smoking

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

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Could These Guardians Get Any Worse?

Mr. Poe is running out of places to send the Baudelaires, and this time, he’s brought them to Sir, whose real name no one can pronounce. Sir forces them to work at Lucky Smells Lumbermill, in exchange for their safety from Count Olaf. Can he really keep the greedy bloodthirsty count at bay?

This book is one in which the orphans don’t really have a specific guardian that they live with, and it’s never really stated how they’re related to him. Right from the start, you know where they’ll end up the next book, since Mr. Poe says that if the mill doesn’t work out, they’ll be put into a boarding school until he can find the next possible guardian candidate.

Lemony Snicket reprises his role as the sorrowful narrator, speaking to the reader directly as he relays the unfortunate lives of the Baudelaire orphans. He includes obscure words/phrases and their meanings (sometimes in general, sometimes in specific contexts), and he may even spoil how things will end (like how in the previous book, he told the reader that Aunt Josephine would die before he described how it happened).

This is the last book that I brought along with me on vacation to Mexico. I read it—like the previous two—the old fashioned way, either right on the beach or in a lounge chair on the balcony.

The orphans are once again the only characters who seem to have any sense, and are left to deal with things on their own. However, Klaus takes a bit of a back seat in this book due to extenuating circumstances, leaving Violet and Sunny to be the heroes of the day. It forces them to be even more independent than before.

Their sibling relationships are stronger than ever in this book, which forces them to—for the first time—exchange roles and see things from another perspective. So far, Klaus has been the researcher and Violet has been the inventor, but in this one, circumstances change, and I love how it forces them to step into one another’s shoes (figuratively, not literally).

The style and tone are conversational with a splash of dark humour to balance out the horrible things happening to the Baudelaire children. They can’t seem to catch a break.

Since it’s a relatively short book, the pace goes quickly, but it’s funny just how much Snicket can drag out a single idea, such as at the very beginning of the book where he discusses the significance of the first line of a story.

While not my favourite of the series so far, this book was definitely enjoyable and gets me excited about the next book, in which the orphans are sure to interact more with children their own age at the boarding school that Mr. Poe is sure to send them. I highly recommend continuing this series!

Related Reviews:

A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 2: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 3: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 4: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 5: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 6: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 7: The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 8: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 9: The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 10: The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 11: The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 12: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 13: The End by Lemony Snicket
The Chronicles of Narnia Book 1: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Alice in Wonderland Book 1: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
*The Wicket by Carlee Coton*
Coraline by Neil Gaiman