The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

Title: The Reptile Room
Author: Lemony Snicket
Published: 1999
Pages: 190
Rating: 3/5
Summary: Do snakes make you nervous? How about salamanders? Does the mention of a brass reading lamp give you conniptions? Is a long knife something you wish to avoid? A car accident? An odor? Cake? Clues to a bloodthirsty crime?
It is likely that your answers will reveal A Series of Unfortunate Events to be ill-suited for your personal use. A librarian, bookseller, or acquaintance should be able to suggest books more appropriate for your fragile temperament. But to the rarest of readers we say, “‘Beware’ doesn’t begin to cover it.”
BE CAREFUL! This volume constitutes only one-thirteenth of Mr. Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Readers unbothered by inclement weather will want to continue with the third installment, The Wide Window. Others will not.
 
Review: After reading the first one I didn't know what to expect.
 
The story continues the misfortunes of the Baudelaire orphans. Once again they must go live with a relative that must care for them. This time they have a bit more luck and they get a guardian who isn't trying to make do everything around the house and who has a library. But then, being the Baudelaires, their worst nightmare appears and messes everything up.
 
Having read the first book I sort of knew how the characters were different from each other. I was glad to see the siblings try to help each other out and stick together even though it might have been difficult. Even though they had been through many things, they tried to have happy moments while they could.
 
Of course you need to have some complications, which is why there is always a villain. In this case it was Count Olaf. He seems to always want to ruin the lives of the Baudelaires and will stop at nothing to accomplish it. As before, he got me really mad since they only thing that he wants is the money.
 
It still had that different experience that the first book gave, which I'm glad of. I doubt many infants would know what was going on but I was fine with it. I really enjoyed reading more of the misfortunes of the orphans even though most of the time it seems unfair what they go through.
 
I was glad that the author didn't change things since I think it's one of the things that make this series so unique and different from what a reader would usually find. I'm very interested to see what will happen to the Baudelaires, since it seems that their lives revolve around misfortunes.