Get Your Hands On A Series Of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 1-13 With Bonus Material: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carnivorous Carni... Designed And Illustrated By Lemony Snicket Provided As Textbook

I have enjoyed throughout this series is the way the author makes the reader think, By think I mean, research, investigate and remember important events, words, etc, You are encouraged to keep a journal to write down your thoughts and insights, It is dark humour and probably appropriate for about ageand up depending on the sensitivity of the child, It does deal with some sad things like the fact that our protagonists become orphans and the adults are either trying to off them or are too incompetent or oblivious to help them.
That aside, there are enough wonderfully witty and sensitive moments to keep the books brilliant all the while teaching large and obscure vocabulary, The books get a bit formulaic through the middle of the series but stick with it and you'll be out of the mundane mire soon, The last four books were particularly good I thought, If you have been "keeping your notes

up" I did it easily in my head, The End should close things up rather nicely, if you didn't or only followed haphazardly, you may be disappointed.
I would encourage parents to read along with their children as there are so many opportunities to discuss important "growing up issues" such as the fact that nobody is all bad or all good, that we don't know and can't know everything about another's life, and that you cannot escape all the bad things that happen in the world so we need to learn to deal with them.
I thought the end of THE END was a rather sweet but not sickeningly adieu to a great series, I really like Lemony Snicket's style of writing, asking us to stop reading throughout the book, giving definitions of the words, the books are totally funny, I have learned many new words and phrases by reading the series, I recommend the whole set! As far as a series of books, a more accurate rating might bestars, However, when combined with the experience of reading them as a family along my husband to ourandyear old boys, I give the seriesstars,

I found these books incredibly engaging and clever, As much for the adults as it was for the kids, And the final chapter brought me to tears,

My boys remember so much of these books and are better at the trivia aspects than myself, I loved the way Snicket played with words, And I loved reading all the different explanations for the initials of V, F. D.

I strongly recommend reading these books to your kids, And I guarantee your kids will have lasting meanings to words that are sometimes hard to comprehend at such young ages, Just ask myyearold what an optimist is, Witty, wild, amp wonderful! Words which here mean, I thoroughly enjoyed this series! Such a unique style of writing!! I got lost in these unfortunate tales and don't wish to be found!but actually.
. this was so beyond anything I was expecting when I picked these books up again, I read most of them as a kidthrough maybe Grim Grotto definitely Slippery Slopebut I mostly remembered the early series, VFD, and feeling more than a little out of the loop.
and now I'm sitting here both amazed and also completely BAFFLED,

I love the framing device of the narration and the complexity of the series, including all its many red herrings and purposeful loose ends and dropped plot points.
and I do think there is value in leaving questions unanswered, so there is much I am going to be left to parse through as I think about this series,

very repetitive start though, very strange ending. I enjoy the strangeness of the ending but there is something not wholly satisfying about it, perhaps that's the point. a strange point to make, afterbooks, but it is a strange series,

strange but good strange but good, When I was little, my school's library had the Series of Unfortunate Events series, but they had two red dots on their spines, One read dot meant that you had to be at least in sixth grade to check it out, and two red dots meant that only eighth graders could check it out.
However, by the time I reached sixth grade, I realized that the local public library had no such age restrictions and read the entire series within a month, I thoroughly enjoyed the series, but I didn't quite understand why the series was restricted to the older kids, Yes, it was a bit sad at times, but nothing my little eleven year old self couldn't endure,

However, having read it for the second timethis time at twenty years old, I can wisely say that my ten year old self was dead wrong, I don't know what I missed as a kid but these books are SO FRICKING DEPRESSING, For example, the series opens with the Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire's lovely day at the beach being interrupted by the news that their house burnt down in a fire that also claimed the lives of their parents.
Did I mention that their respective ages are,, and under

Anyways, after getting this news the orphans are placed in the custody of Count Olaf, who is their "third cousin four times removed or fourth cousin three times removed" according to Mr.
Poe, the incompetent banker in charge of the Baudelaire fortune until Violet turns eighteen, However, after spending some time at his filthy mansion, the orphans discover that Olaf is only after their fortune, I really don't want to give too many spoilers away in this reviews, but the Baudelaires are able to stop his scheme and placed in the custody of another guardian.
But Olaf is not so easily assuaged and hunts them down and comes up with a scheme to once again steal their fortune, And this is pretty much the formula for the first few books: orphans arrive in custody of an eccentric new guardian, things are relatively okay sometimes not as they adjust, Olaf shows up and causes trouble and/or deaths, then the kids are shipped off to another home.


While this formula is quite obvious for the first seven books, it doesn't get tiring at all, Each new guardian is more absurd and quirky than the last, In the third book, The Wide Window, they are put under the care of their Aunt Josephine who is cripplingly afraid of everything, For example, the kids can't even turn on a stove to heat up food because she's terrified it might result in the house burning down, But outside of those, she is truly a loving guardian, They spend the fifth book, The Austere Academy, at a boarding school that has teachers who give the Baudelaire's a hard time because their orphans and where Sunny the baby is forced to become a secretary for the principal.
However, while there they meet another set of orphans, the Quigley's who become very important as more secrets are discovered in the series, The Vile Village takes the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" proverb literally and the orphans spend the seventh book in the legal care of an entire and quite strange village.


The ending of The Vile Village also drastically changes the tone and direction for the remaining books of the series, The Baudelaire orphans are framed for a crime that they did not commit and must spend the remaining books on the run as they try to discover more about the mysterious V.
F. D a secret organization of which many characters they encounter and their late parents are members, There are so many questions that are raised in the second half of the book such as: what is the connection between the Quigley's and the Baudelaires Why does Count Olaf harbor such a deep grudge against the Baudelaires What exactly is V.
F. D and what happened to it What is the sugar bowl and why is it so damn important And many, many other questions since the second half of the series isn't just about the Baudelaires but is also about V.
F. D and the other characters they encounter,

However I'm sad to report that not all these questions get answered, The Baudelaire's chapter of the story get full closure for the most part, but the larger story of which they only play a part, doesn't really get answered, And while reading, it's clear that it's not a result of laziness on the part of the authorhe knows everything, but just isn't telling, It is a bit frustrating having all these questions that never will get answered, but I promise you this series is still worth a read, So I guess I'll talk about the things this series does right,

One aspect of the series that I appreciated a lot as an adult was the moral ambiguity, In the beginning, good and evil is as defined as black and whitewhich was something that I expected of a children's book, However as the series goes on, determining who or what is good and bad is not as simple anymore, Especially since the Baudelaires are forced to do things that are clearly quite horrible especially in The Penultimate PerilBookgt, lt, but they are still good kids and those things were only done in order to protect themselves, A character in the tenth book, The Grim Grotto, says it the best:

"People aren't either wicked or noble, They're like chef's salad, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict"

In addition, Lemony Snicket is the best narratorhis writing style is so unique and mature that you won't even feel like you're reading a children's book.
He spends a good amount of each book urging you not to read it because of how depressing the subject matter is and has the best sense of dry humor.
I guess the best way to say it is that he doesn't seem to care what he does, but that's not quite getting at it, so I'll try giving some examples.
In the sixth book, The Eratz Elevator, there a a few pages that are just black, in order to show just how dark the environment was for the orphans at that point in the book.



There is a point The Bad Beginning when Klaus, the bookworm up late at night reading a book, and Lemony Snicket writes this:

"The book was long, and difficult to read, and Klaus became more and more tired as the night wore on.
Occasionally his eyes would close, He found himself reading the same sentence over and over, He found himself reading the same sentence over and over, He found himself reading the same sentence over and over, "


And, my personal favorite which technically is not from the Series of Unfortunate Events series, but it's still amazing

"If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuytbn pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
" Horseradish

However, in addition to writing ridiculous sentences like these he also manages to write some of the most true things that I have ever read:

“The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world.
If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain, but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire.
You might find it difficult to see anything but your own sadness, the way smoke can cover a landscape so that all anyone can see is black, You may find that if someone pours water all over you, you are damp and distracted, but not cured of your sadness, the way a fire department can douse a fire but never recover what has been burnt down.
” The Bad Beginning

So this post is already much longer than normal so I'm going to cut myself off here, but let it be said that I have not even covered half of what makes this series so amazing for me.
There is so much more about the plot that could be said, so many unique characters that I've fallen in love with, and so many quotes that I am dying to share with you.
However, I shall cut myself here in hopes that you will take it upon your self to read this wonderful series, I can promise you that you will not regret it.

"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, "

My short review consists of the suggestion that you heed this advice, and read something other than this aptly named "complete trainwreck", My long reviews are linked below,

: sitelinkThe Bad Beginning
: sitelinkThe Reptile Room ½
: sitelinkThe Wide Window
: sitelinkThe Miserable Mill ½
: sitelinkThe Austere Academy ½
: sitelinkThe Ersatz Elevator ½
: sitelinkThe Vile Village
: sitelinkThe Hostile Hospital
: sitelinkThe Carnivorous Carnival
: sitelinkThe Slippery Slope
: sitelinkThe Grim Grotto
: sitelinkThe Penultimate Peril
: sitelinkThe End Some things are best communicated in person.
Among these things are sign language, marriage proposals, and infectious diseases, However, in many cases personal communication is simply not feasible, While I would like to declare to each of you personally the release of theth and final book in Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events," I must resort to an impersonal means of making this most important announcement, so I am posting it here.


For the sake of those who are unfamiliar with the series and no, seeing the movie does not count as being familiar with the series, I will give you a small taste of what you are missing.
The following is the opening paragraph from the tenth book:

A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled," describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used.
The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be sitelinkon the road more frequently traveled and so couldn't hear him as he cried for help.
Sure enough, that poet is now dead, "

As is evidenced by the above excerpt, this book series is not for the faint of heart, If you want to read a book with a formulaic fairytale ending, or one that transports you to a land replete with butterflies and lollipops, then look elsewhere, So why am I so excited to read a book that is sure to be fraught with tragedy, woe, and death Because it's funny as hades, If you want to read a book that takes life with all its maladies and presents it with such cleverness and wit that you can't help but laugh, then look no further.
You'll be glad you took the road less traveled, .