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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For fans of Gorey (who need to fill the Harry Potter wait),
By A Customer
This review is from: The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3) (Hardcover)
If you enjoy the dark humor of Edward Gorey, this series will probably enchant. The characters are intelligent and sympathetic. However, while the books may be a tad bit dark for some younger readers, portions of this series are too simplistic for more mature readers. Snickett often writes in definitions for "big" words used. When the definitions stay in context, they're amusing and maintain the atmosphere. When the definitions are more dictionary like, they distract. The Series of Unfortunate Events, nonetheless, is a great series that children of all ages can enjoy. If anything, kids will sympathize with the Baudelaires frustration with the adults around them. For a turn on the lighter side - I recommend Gail Levine's "Princess Tales" series.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Snicket's best, so far,
This review is from: The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3) (Hardcover)
As far as "darkness" or "inappropriateness" for youngsters goes, I tried reading *The Bad Beginning* to my 7-year-old a while ago and he begged off after one chapter, saying that it made him feel too sad; but the other day he took it off the shelf and -- on his own -- is now half-way through "Book the Second" of this series, *The Reptile Room.* I'm happy to report that he has a real treat in store when he turns to this volume of the Baudelaire orphan's adventures, for it is easily the best of the lot. Longer than either of its predecessors, it is also more relaxed and assured -- not that the pace is slack (far from it), it's simply that Snicket is more at home with his bag of tricks and is beginning to manipulate his deliberately limited, muted palette with a master's verve. Fearful, grammar-haunted Aunt Josephine is a wonderful, painfully funny addition to the improbable constellation of distant "family" through which it is the Baudelaire's sad fate to pass, and her second most notable quirk bears an interesting relationship to Snicket's own frequent definitions of "big words." This last feature seems to bother a lot of people, but I think these folks are trying to bully something which is primarily an *aesthetic* device of great flexibility into an overly-rigid pedagogical frame. These books aren't nasty things which are -- like certain exilirs --nevertheless good for you, they're wonderfully entertaining works of verbal art, and if one had to troll their depths for messages, one would find, cumulatively, that these have more to do with self-reliance and competence than with any of the hideous treatment the Baudelaire's endure or the corpses that are left in their wake.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cleverly written dark, funny tale,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 3) (Library Binding)
I will agree with the comparison to Edward Gorey, this is definitly a great series for fans of his dark hilarious work. I work in a book store and this series has lately been our latest addiction. Sad & dismel yes, but the clever wrting by Mr Snicket keeps the reader from despair. Wonderful quick reads for the "adults" who grew up with a black sense of humor.
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