I liked it; it was good
I’ll be following the pattern of reading this book on Saturday and the next on Sunday. Was super excited to be diving in! Will they save the Quagmire triplets?
Read: Oct 26, 2024
Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Dark Comedy
Audience: Children
Book contains: excessive birds, murder, death, imprisonment, threats of burning at the stake
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Mr. Poe once again proves himself incompetent by sending the orphans to an “it takes a village to raise a child” program, in which the orphans stay with a handyman named Hector while they are forced to do the chores of the whole town. At least Count Olaf can’t get to them here, right?
In reality, the orphans were being raised by Hector, who provided them with food, shelter, and aid. He is one of the better guardians the orphans have had; if only he was better at speaking up for himself.
The narrator, Lemony Snicket tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans in a truthful and sombre manner. He constantly brings the reader directly into the story, discussing his own life “as he writes the story” as well as foreshadowing the bad things before they happen.
I continued listening to Tori (or V)’s recorded livestream on YouTube. I listened along while bookbinding, and just sped through the breaks in which she responded to the chat comments between chapters.
I find it amazing that Hector is such a perfect match for the Baudelaire children. Like Uncle Monty and Jerome, he is attentive to the children’s talents and interests, and provides them with things they like. He is an inventor like Violet, and he has hidden away all the town’s books in a library, and he searches for things Sunny might like to bite.
The Baudelaires’ sibling relationship is as strong as ever, and their close friendship with the Quagmire triplets only intensifies their worry when they start getting coded messages from them. Hector tries his best to aid the children, but he is frightened by the elders and other townsfolk, all of whom are quite nasty.
The dark humour of this series continues to be a favourite of mine. It has a way of lightening the tone of this otherwise dark tale which allows it to be appropriate for children. Snicket’s writing style is fun and engaging, and he has a talent of teaching new words or phrases to his readers in a way that makes them stick.
Bad things keep happening to the Baudelaires. Right as they seem to be happy, tragedy strikes. Their friends have been kidnapped, which already isn’t good, but it seems they’re never going to get closer to solving the mystery of VFD; the clues are far and few between. Despite this, it’s steady, and the pace adjusts as the story needs it to.
We’re over halfway through the series, so who wouldn’t continue at this point? I still think it’s an excellent series for children to enjoy—and learn some new vocabulary along the way.
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
Tigerpetal Press is a small book press dedicated to publishing local authors and poets.