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Title: The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 3)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 2000
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 214
Total Page Count: 123,287
Text Number: 359
Read Because: continuing the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This time, the orphaned Baudelaires are sent to live with their Aunt Josephine in a house that teeters above the deadly Lake Lachrymose, to be greeted with phobias, leeches, and another appearance of Count Olaf. The Wide Window sustains but does not progress: the series has reached the point of a strong, delightfully dark narrative voice and deceptively robust characterization; this book adds an indulgent gothic atmosphere (backed up by a few fantastic illustrations), but little more in the way of character development or overarching plot. A series that runs this long needs more motion than momentum to carry it along, and so while this installment is perfectly competent it remains something of a disappointment. Fortunately, its last two pages are a perfect—their contrasting tone flatters the book in retrospect and ends with a quiet flourish. I'll continue with this series, because what it does well delights me—but I'll need more from it, next time.
It's also worth noting that the story's secondary, gender-undefined antagonist is a huge pile of bigotry and gender essentialism and simply distasteful; disappointing, from a series that has consistently strong female characters and is otherwise willing to see beyond gender roles.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 2000
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 214
Total Page Count: 123,287
Text Number: 359
Read Because: continuing the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This time, the orphaned Baudelaires are sent to live with their Aunt Josephine in a house that teeters above the deadly Lake Lachrymose, to be greeted with phobias, leeches, and another appearance of Count Olaf. The Wide Window sustains but does not progress: the series has reached the point of a strong, delightfully dark narrative voice and deceptively robust characterization; this book adds an indulgent gothic atmosphere (backed up by a few fantastic illustrations), but little more in the way of character development or overarching plot. A series that runs this long needs more motion than momentum to carry it along, and so while this installment is perfectly competent it remains something of a disappointment. Fortunately, its last two pages are a perfect—their contrasting tone flatters the book in retrospect and ends with a quiet flourish. I'll continue with this series, because what it does well delights me—but I'll need more from it, next time.
It's also worth noting that the story's secondary, gender-undefined antagonist is a huge pile of bigotry and gender essentialism and simply distasteful; disappointing, from a series that has consistently strong female characters and is otherwise willing to see beyond gender roles.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
