[Series Review] A Series of Unfortunate Events, by: Lemony Snicket

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

by: Lemony Snicket

#1 The Bad Begining
Publication Date: 1999
Read Date: October 7th, 2017
#2 The Reptile Room
Publication Date: 1999
Read Date: October 15th, 2017
#3 The Wide Window
Publication Date: 2000
Read Date: October 20th, 2017
#4 The Miserable Mill
Publication Date: 2000
Read Date: October 24th, 2017
#5 The Austere Academy
Publication Date: 2000
Read Date: October 28th, 2017
#6 The Ersatz Elevator
Publication Date: 2001
Read Date: November 4th, 2017
#7 The Vile Village
Publication Date: 2001
Read Date: November 11t, 2017
#8 The Hostile Hospital
Publication Date: 2001
Read Date: November 21st, 2017
#9 The Carnivorous Carnival
Publication Date: 2002
Read Date: December 9th, 2017
#10 The Slippery Slope
Publication Date: 2003
Read Date: December 10th, 2017
#11 The Grim Grotto
Publication Date: 2004
Read Date: January 1st, 2018
#12 The Penultimate Peril
Publication Date: 2005
Read Date: January 5th, 2018
#13 The End
Publication Date: 2006
Read Date: January 6th, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Children's Lit
Format: Library Bound
Pages: 3,360 in total

 

my overall rate

“Are you ready?" Klaus asked finally.
"No," Sunny answered.
"Me neither," Violet said, "but if we wait until we're ready we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives, Let's go.”
--- The Ersatz Elevator

Back at the end of 2016, I saw the first season of A Series of Unfortunate Events because everyone was watching it, saying that it was good, so I was bored and watched it. I enjoyed it, but as I always am, I wanted to know more. What would be the end of the Baudelaires? My only option was to read the books. Somehow it took almost a year later to finally find the access to have the books and read them. It was a tedious moment in life in where reading was my only true escape. Mr. Snicket wrapped me up in his writing and make me devour book after book.

The Bad Beginning is literally the best title to begin this whole story of the Baudelaire siblings. Usually, the story starts normally, then the unexpected happens and at the end everyone has to deal with the disgrace, right? Well, not this story. The Baudelaire parents have died in a fire that consumed their home too. Now they are orphans hoping around guardian after guardian until they become of age and can gain access to their fortune. But the villain of the story is literally there, following their steps, always lurking in the corners looking for the right moment to bring them to their dismiss so he can get the fortune instead of the kids.

"A series of unfortunate events can happen to anyone, no matter what they want, and even though the three children did not want [...], everything happened that the Baudelaire orphans that they did not want at all."
--- The Carnivorous Carnival

Count Olaf is a villain that sometimes is smart, but others is just too freaking annoying. How is this guy alive for 13 books? This guy disguises himself every single time and NO ONE notices, only the kids. For real? This is why the book is Children’s literature. I was annoyed like the Baudelaires. No one believes those kids no matter how right they were. I seriously dislike Olaf and the reason is that the author did such a good job in making me hate him. There is no other explanation. I hated him. I don’t even have an ounce of pity for him after his story slowly comes to light.

    Violet Baudelaire is the inventor. She does everything with almost nothing and out of the blue, always saves the day and their lives. I liked that she was really a kickass. She transforms from a girl that loved to invent for fun to a teenager that invent to prevent Olaf doing harm to her and her siblings. She stopped being afraid and started kicking ass for real.

    Klaus Baudelaire is the nerd, no other word. He’s super smart. A bookworm. A kid that loves to read about anything and everything. He, too, would come up with crucial information to save his and his sisters’ lives. Sometimes being smarter than a maniac called Olaf was a good thing to be. Plus, his research will continue to live in the storyline for quite a time.

     Sunny Baudelaire is an interesting character. She barely speaks and when she does is like talking nonsense. She says one word and it can mean a paragraph. She is actually really smart and helpful when is most needed. I’m slightly weird out that she has such strange teeth. Always bitting stuff. *shrugs* I have to point out that in the last books she became as kickass as Violet. She became the “chef” of the three and started talking more and making sense easier for adults to understand. She finally grew up to be as good as her siblings.

Other characters worth to mention are in this paragraph. The Snicket family. I swear that the Baudelaire family is so entwined with the Snicket one that I didn't know where one started and where the other continued. Is worth mentioning that Kit was badass, even more, because she was pregnant. Also, I was so happy to know about Jacques but I was very sorry for his short appearance. I have to say that I despise Mr. Poe was much as Count Olaf because the damn guy was always coughing, never listening and always telling the Baudelaires they were children. I also despised Esmé Squalor and Carmelita, I swear that those two combined were more annoying than any other villain in the whole series. I feel very sorry for all those good guardians that wanted to do good for the Baudelaires but failed and the bad way, meaning something deadly.

“Who will take care of us out there?" Klaus said, looking out on the flat horizon.
"Nobody," Violet said. "We'll have to take care of ourselves. We'll have to be self-sustaining."
--- The Vile Village

Every guardian these kids have been with were a little annoying of their own volition. But, as I said before, the most annoying thing was that no one listened to the kids until it was too late. Mr. Poe was always blaming them for whatever that happened to their last guardian before moving them again and later on, The Daily Punctilio start making such crazy stories and everyone believe more a newspaper than their voices because somehow whatever is printed must be true. And if you think a little there is a LOT of people that are like that. I find myself quite angry in the last books whenever someone pointed out that they shouldn’t listen to the Baudelaires because they are kids. BULLSHIT. In my years working with kids, I have noticed that sometimes kids know more than some adults. Always listen to them, you never know, they can surprise you.

Lemony Snicket is the author and I don’t want to give away much his identity, even though I know less than when I started the first book, but he is a character also. He gets immersed in the story because he is the one telling it. He visited every place the Baudelaires were in. He knows every character he is talking about. He knows everything but doesn’t tell us much. He also advises every single book and almost every single chapter that this story is not a happy or happy ending story, that you must put it down and read something better. He is literally telling that the end is bad and you shouldn’t read. So DO NOT BE SURPRISED when the story ends and you don’t like how it went down because HE TOLD YOU MANY TIMES IT WAS LIKE THAT. I think everything was clever. His writing almost perfect, but I have to complain that maybe 13 books was too much. If wishes were fishes… I also have to point out that his writing tends to be very good until he likes to stop the imagery to say something that I was not much interested in that moment.

“Life is a conundrum of esoterica.”
--- The Reptile Room

Small sentence to point out that my favorite book was The Penultimate Peril because my favorite character is there: Dewey Denouement. Just saying.

This is a Children’s series, which is something that I have read before I started working in an elementary school library, but somehow I enjoyed it and I fully recommend it. Just be prepared that the middle books are annoying and that the end will not be your favorite. Because no matter what you hope, the story is just really sad. And that, my friends, is how The End leave you with.