This series was my ENTIRE LIFE when I was a small human child. I saved any and all money I received to buy the books (my first collection of matching hardcovers) and listened to them on cassette tape (OKAY GUESS WHO JUST SOUNDS OLD RIGHT NOW) when I wasn't re-reading the physical copies. Hello I even intended to become a famous author myself and write under the pseudonym "Orange Peel" because obviously. So yes. I am a mild fan right here. And I decided I had to reread before the Netflix series comes out! Of which I will be watching. And hopefully flailing ecstatically -- which is a big big word here which means "FREAKING OUT BECAUSE LEMONY SNICKET IS THE BEST THING OF LIFE".Ahem.(I also loved the movie, just so you know. SODA. SODA. BANANA. #IUnderstoodThatReference)Obviously the series is timeless. I completely adored it even though I'm 23 and not, erm, 10. But whatever. The true sign of a good book is that any age can adore it.Although I found the story 1000% more creepy than I did as a kid....because Olaf's ploy to marry Violet because just that bit more creepy when you think about it.And of course it made my little soul totally muchly pained to see the torment the Baudelaire's go through. But I love the clever quips and the witty jokes and I adore how it doesn't dumb down the children. Any time a character tries to dumb down a character, the Baudelaire's glare and fight back. GO SMART CHILDREN WHO DESERVE TO BE TREATED AS HUMANS AND NOT OBJECTS. I love this series omg. Wait while I frolic down memory lane. THIS IS AN UNFORTUNATE SERIES AND I LOVE IT.

When I was a child, I learned a thing or two from reading the works of Roald Dahl. The most important of these lessons is that adults are, more often than not, either evil or oblivious and, to co-opt Lemony Snicket's writing style, by oblivious I mean "lacking conscious awareness; unmindful."As an adult, I have only received mountains of proof substantiating the notion that adults are either evil or oblivious. All you need to do is watch the news or enter the workforce and you too will realize the same. So it is through this lens of animosity towards grown ups (hey, just become I am one doesn't mean I have to think like one) that I read the first installment of Lemony Snicket's 13-part serial A Series of Unfortunate Events.Snicket, or his alter ego, seems mighty influenced by Dahl and Edward Gorey. Like the former, most of the adults in the book are worthless. Those who aren't are either dead or somehow taken away from the Baudelaire children. Like the later, bad things keep on happening to our protagonists.The three Baudelaire children-- Violet, Klaus and Sunny-- live a rather charmed life with parents who love and respect them. Upon an unsupervised excursion to the beach, a fire consumes the Baudelaire home and kills the parents. The three children are taken into the temporary care of Mr. Poe (who has a son named Edgar, by the way) until a relative can be located. After some time, the children are pawned off on Count Olaf, a horrid actor with a title and no money. From the beginning, it is obvious that he has only taken in the children because of the vast fortune they are set to acquire. When he learns that the inheritance will be withheld until Violet is of age, he punishes the children repeatedly. We will stop there, lest I give away the end of this first book.Aside from a page-turner plot, what works in the book's favor is the language. Snicket uses large grown-up words with the context of child-sized sentences. He defines the words without being condescending and goes on to explain many of the legal concepts that are used throughout the story. The characters are also intriguing. The adults in the story often appear as grotesque figures that make just enough sense to keep the storyline plausible. And, in the grand tradition of children's literature, the Baudelaire orphans are quick-witted and strong-willed.I found this book as part of a three series boxed set at a thrift store by my house. Each book is small and hard covered, designed to look like a Victorian tome and filled with beautiful illustrations. Now, I can't wait to get started on volume two.

This was fantastic! I read the series when I was a kid and then just now had to reread it for my Children's Lit class! And I'm glad I did! Because eff yeah! This! IS! GREAT!Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket has such a distinctive tone and writing style, and it's one that I love. He's sarcastic and realistic and cynical and hilarious. Best of all, even though this is absolutely a children's book it treats the reader (who is technically supposed to be a child) as an intelligent human who is capable of figuring things out and having a good vocabulary and understanding subtext and foreshadowing. Also, I just added this to my favourites shelf because geez this is a favourite!

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to tell you this but that is how the story goes.I am ashamed to say that I have had this 13 book hardback boxset since 2013 and I am just now getting around to it. I put it on one of my challenges for this year but now I'm thinking I might should wait for the tv show on Netflix. I wonder when that is coming out. ***SOME SPOILERS***These poor kids! They are just having a day of play when they find out their parents die in a fire at their house and they have nothing. And Mr. Poe who is oblivious and lives in his own little world sends them to life with a distant relative - the evil Count Olaf! All he count wants is the children's money that Violet is to get when she comes of age. Olaf makes the children do horrible chores, cook, sleep in one bed and the house is atrocious! But the kids do find some peace with the neighbor, Justice Strauss. She lets them cover over and read books from her library. Oh the joy of that =) But the evil Olaf has a plan to get the money all for himself and he almost succeeds but Violet is a little too smart for old Olaf and I loved it! I saw the movie for this years ago and I think someone told me it is compiled of the first three books. I thought it was good though. I am really looking forward to the Netflix tv series and the rest of the books! MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List

so depressing omg