Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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181 of 195 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I can't wait until my toddler grows up!, January 9, 2002
These books are amazing. As a big fan of quality children's writing, I was completely engrossed in these books. Each narrative is strong, compelling, and unique. The author retains his structure while not allowing the plots to get too formulatic and boring. While you can see by the end of book 2 that a pattern is emerging (that is all I'll say here) -- and the fact that the series continues -- it seems to me that this helps the reader know that somehow the children will survive whatever ordeal they find themselves in, which is a great device. It alleviates our anxiety, and more importantly, a child's anxiety, that real harm might come to the kids, while letting us relax enough to enjoy the story as it unfolds. I once read an essay by Maurice Sendac in which he described how hard it was to get published. The common thinking was that you can't wirte about things that scare children, like death. These dark fears are tabboo. He argued that children do think about such things, and that writing about them in a careful way respects children and their real concerns and provides them with a place to air their deepest fears. The success of his books, I believe, is in large part due to his respect for children. These books, I believe, provide the same sort of thing, though they are much funnier than Sendac. The children are so bright and clever that they are wonderful heros. The grownups never seem to listen to them or realize that these are really insightful and intelligent people. I suppose this might be interpreted by some parents as undermining adult authority, but the writing is so good and the characters so ridiculous that bright kids would not see them as actual representations of real adults. This is very much along the lines of Roald Dahl, who is known for his horrible grownups who treat children as foolish little no-nothings. Children are much more insightful than many adults give them credit for, and bright kids love reading stories in which they can be the smart heros, solving the mysteries and beating the villain. This has been such a standard plot device for so long that I needn't list how many classic books have used it successfully. Just a few are the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Matilda (and many of Dahl's books), Treasure Island, The wonderful Tintin series, of course harry Potter, etc., etc.). Kids love being the heros, and, like Harry Potter and many of these others, the key is in making the children heros, while allowing them to be terribly afraid while scary things are happening to them. Without this fear they feel, the stories would, of ocurse, be flat and stale and not ring true. If Snicket didn't apply the assorted techniques to prepare his readers, I might feel otherwise, but I would have LOVED these books as a kid, and I can't wait until my 3.5 yr old is old enough to read them to her (in several years). Finally, one must read things as they are intended. Many of Grimm's Fairy Tales are very scary and violent, but alas, they are fairy tales. These books are contempory fairy tales. If they one day get produced as movies, they should be made by Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.) who is one of the few people who could give them that air of unreality which would make them so thrilling and fun, without terrifying children and scaring them for life. These are fantastic books which I highly recommend buying for the children in your life -- those who are old and bright enough to appreciate them as they are intended. Before you give them away as a gift, though, do sit down for a couple hours one stormy evening, make some tea, turn off the blasted television, and enjoy (at least the first of) these highly entertaining books.
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139 of 157 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mad! (which in this instance means both crazy and very good), October 15, 2002
I absolutely had to write a reveiw of this book after reading some of the idiocy posted here. First of all, they are called UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. Not HAPPY ENDINGS. These are NOT "The Happy Golden Years." They are not about Children as victims. They are about two smart cookies and a baby who don't accept the world around them as inevitable or inherently right. They have the best quality any person can have above intelligence: resourcefulness. To those who dislike these books, I can only imagine what technicolor idealist rubbish you would have your children read. Children these days know better than to believe everything ends happily. I believe that they are relieved to finally find in Lemony an adult who understands and acknowledges *sometimes it's tough being a kid*. Children are smart enough to see what is pretend, and surely grow bored with books that have underlying psychological agendas, games where everyone wins, and protagonists who go through life with no negative events. Who can relate to that? As in the case of Cleary's Ramona books, life just isn't like that.I think that children who read these books (aside from those who have lost a parent or a have a fear of losing parents) will see right through the farce and root for these small heros. Sure, there are some shockers in plot, but the children solve their problems ingeniously. This story has great lessons, and smacks of epic poetry (If you can keep your head about you when everyone else is losing theirs and blaming it on you...) It is no more terrible than Hansel and Gretel. In fact, these children lost their parents to an accident, and I would fear that a child reading Hansel and Gretel would believe that a parent could be convinced to abandon his children. These books are cautiously dangerous, creating the terrible in a careful way. In the case of this book, it may prompt your children to ask, "Where will I go if you die?" and you, hopefully, will be able to allay their fears with a relative much more pleasant than Count Olaf. These are wonderful books about children who try very hard, love each other, who keep their brave faces and wits about them even when all alone, no matter what this brutal but loving author throws at them. Violet and Klaus make reading, research, creativity, and cunning wit very very cool. This is so important to our flawed culture that promotes winning through physical force alone. These books are written in an entertaining hand, with wit and sarcasm and a worthy nod to Nabokov. I can't wait to read the rest. I give it four stars because they are not quite the best of their genre, and are definately not long enough. Otherwise, they are excellent tomes I will treasure, and enjoy sharing with the pint sized protagonists in my life.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sparked my reading life!, January 4, 2003
A Kid's Review
Before I discovered this series, I felt numb about reading. I really didn't care much for anything in the form of words. As a gift for Christmas I recieved these, and I thought, "This had to cost a fortune. My uncle really wasted his money." On New Years Day, I got bored and I looked for something to do. I pulled out book 1 still in place in it's box. As I put it down, I looked at the cruel face of Count Olaf (one of the charecters), and it sparked questions like *Why does he look mean?* and *How do the kids feel?* so I started reading it. Since, I couldn't stop! I had to know what horrible event would happen next! I suggest this book for any person who is in my case. They are great! I can't wait to read book 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9! :)
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