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The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)

Lemony Snicket,

Brett Helquist (Illustrator)

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Mar 07, 2008 Sara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014, children-s-books

Originally read in 2006 or so.

It's been really fun going back and re-reading these. It is a different experience reading them aloud rather than reading them to yourself -- I am noticing a LOT more how repetitive they are. I'm reading this aloud with KC, and I think the repetition kind of drives him crazy. I kind of love it.

And I kind of freaking love Count Olaf. He is SO evil. This is not your usual "mwahahaha" mustache-twirling incompetent villain. I forgot how genuinely terrifying he is. He ...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Merwyn Haskett rated it it was amazing

Now I started a new series - we'll see if I'll finish it. The author followed through with his threat that there wouldn't be a happy ending.

I can handle "bad endings" (like Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, etc.) but I usually can't handle stories where the grim happenings never let up and the protaganist never sees relief (like The Chocolate War, Night of the Moonbow, etc.)

This book, however, becomes an exception since it's so over the top and meant to be humorous. ...more

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Mar 12, 2013 jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, audiobook-d, yaf

I really enjoyed this audiobook. It's read by Tim Curry. It's different from other children's books, in that it's dark and scary and uses a lot of big words, defining them along the way, and has no happy ending. The story is compelling enough to get an adult through it, though. The Baudelaire orphans are quite charming, albeit unlucky.

How old do my babies have to get before I can read this series with them?

The interview at the end was weird. Was Daniel Handler affecting a personality for the s ...more

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Sep 23, 2007 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it liked it

Shelves: childrensbooks, gothic

I didn't like this book when I first read it - too much Count Olaf. He needs to be treated like leavening - just enough to lighten the story, not enough to make it taste bad.
Later entries in the series won me over. ...more

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