Oh, despair for the poor little Baudelaire children! Inventive Violent (age 14), bookworm Klaus (age 12), and baby Sunny, who likes to bite, have absolutely no happiness in store for them—and we are assured of that fact from the beginning by a wry narrator who cautions that “If you like stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.” Orphaned when their beloved parents and home are consumed by a fire, the trio of Baudelaire siblings are installed in the gloomy home of distant relative Count Olaf. Count Olaf, of course, is a wicked villain with dastardly designs on the hefty Baudelaire fortune. Since every other adult in the book is completely clueless, Violent, Klaus, and Sunny must rely on their own pluck and resolve to get out of this sticky situation. But remember that the title of this series is, after all, A Series of Unfortunate Events. The adults get no wiser, the children no luckier, and at the end of The Bad Beginning the Baudelaires are no better off than they were before. The reader, however, has been in a fit of giggles since page one. Author Lemony Snicket tells his tale of woe in a gleefully tongue-in-cheek fashion. Satirizing the literary conventions of many an old-fashioned classic, Snicket takes the orphan story to wonderfully absurd new heights. His flair for the comically melodramatic continues in The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, and ten other cunning titles.

posted Aug 17, 2010 at 11:38AM

I just started reading these books and they have surprised me how good they are. For such a short book lots of exciting things happen. Cant wait to read the next one! recommend it it to anyone who likes mystery.

posted Jun 16, 2012 at 10:06AM

this book was good. It was not one of my favorites because I felt like it moved kinda slow. I think the books are kinda predictable. But still very interesting.

posted Jun 22, 2012 at 10:44AM

i love this book and it’s suspens

posted Jul 17, 2012 at 2:32PM

Book one of the Series of Unfortunate Events. I remember reading this as a child when this first came out, and loving it. At age eight, it was something so different and like nothing I had ever read before. Being much older and wiser now, I still think that it is one of the most different series I have ever read. Everything about it is so creative, from the unique characters to the plots marred with strange twists and turns. Everyone should read this series at one point in their life, just to say they did-I’ve read it twice.

posted Sep 15, 2012 at 4:21PM

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