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juushikaTitle: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 1)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 1999
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 162
Total Page Count: 118,052
Text Number: 344
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Newly orphaned, the wealthy Baudelaire children are swept off to the home of a distant relative, the mysterious and cruel Count Olaf. Though no one believes them, the children know he will do anything to steal their fortune, and they must stop him or lose their lives. I've wanted to read the Series of Unfortunate Events, and this first volume firmly lives up to but does not exceed expectations. It's short and simple, but it sets the tone for the series: a strong and self-aware authorial voice which is a dark mirror to the moralistic Victorian children's book narrator and its progeny; a gothic sensibility concerned less with indulging in fearful pleasure and more with wallowing in misfortune, which is its own way a delight. The exaggerated squalor, cruelty, and the frustration of adults (whether they be dangerous, disbelieving, or simply ineffectual) is well balanced by modestly believable and strongly self-reliant characters. In all the book is a success, but its selling points—voice and atmosphere—will not be able to sustain the series on their own. I enjoyed this beginning and I'll pick up the next volume, but I hope the rest of the series offers something more substantive in the way of character or plot.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 1999
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 162
Total Page Count: 118,052
Text Number: 344
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Newly orphaned, the wealthy Baudelaire children are swept off to the home of a distant relative, the mysterious and cruel Count Olaf. Though no one believes them, the children know he will do anything to steal their fortune, and they must stop him or lose their lives. I've wanted to read the Series of Unfortunate Events, and this first volume firmly lives up to but does not exceed expectations. It's short and simple, but it sets the tone for the series: a strong and self-aware authorial voice which is a dark mirror to the moralistic Victorian children's book narrator and its progeny; a gothic sensibility concerned less with indulging in fearful pleasure and more with wallowing in misfortune, which is its own way a delight. The exaggerated squalor, cruelty, and the frustration of adults (whether they be dangerous, disbelieving, or simply ineffectual) is well balanced by modestly believable and strongly self-reliant characters. In all the book is a success, but its selling points—voice and atmosphere—will not be able to sustain the series on their own. I enjoyed this beginning and I'll pick up the next volume, but I hope the rest of the series offers something more substantive in the way of character or plot.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
