"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." — Madeleine L'Engle

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

Title: The Bad Beginning
Author: Lemony Snicket
Published: 1999
Pages: 197
Rating: 3/5
Summary: Just as they are enjoying a day at Briny Beach, the three Baudelaire children--- 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus and baby Sunny--- receive some bad news. Mr. Poe, a friend of the family, comes trekking across the foggy beach to tell the Baudelaires that their parents have died in a fire that also burned down the family mansion. Now orphaned, the Baudelaires face an uncertain future. They are soon packed off to their new guardian--- the icky Count Olaf, who is a distant cousin. But when they move in with the Count, the Baudelaire children are certain that he does not care about them--- he only wants to get his hands on the fortune Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire left behind. See if they are right, as you read this exciting and humorous tale of mystery.

Review: The reason that I started reading this book was because I had seen it around a long time.

The Baudelaires were a happy family until a terrible thing happened. Their parents died in the fire that took them and their house. Now they don't have anyplace to go to. They are forced to go with Count Olaf who only wants their money. There the children go through many hard things that they had never faced before.

Violet was the oldest, making her want to take of her siblings, which I thought was a good thing. Klaus was the sibling that liked to read books and apparently had read more books than most people had. Sunny was a baby but knew what was happening around her and even took part in the conversations her siblings had. I thought that they all had something that distinguished them.

Count Olaf made me really annoyed me. I couldn't understand why someone would go to the extremes that he did just to get money. He only ordered the Baudelaires around and didn't think about them. His friends were very different and they all said bad things about them and also made their lives impossible.

I don't know what I was expecting but it sure wasn't what I got. They were very unique and something that I hadn't read before. It sometimes gives the reader definitions of words that are used and at times the narrator talks to the reader. I will keep reading the rest of the books to see where the story goes.

*Summary was from Goodreads

1 comment:

  1. I remember reading these books when I was like 11 years old, I absolutely loved them. And, they do get better.

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