Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) by Lemony Snicket

Author: Lemony Snicket
ISBN # 0749746114
Publisher: Harper Collins
First Published: 1999
162 pages

The blurb:
Dear Reader,
I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune…

Review:
To tell the truth, I was expecting great things from this book and already had plans to get hold of the entire series to read. Shortly after picking up this book, I changed my mind. The author has seen fit to include words in the story that will challenge a young reader and then adds a little bit explaining the word with another challenging word, which I find rather condescending -which here means patronising (see, I bet you don’t like it either!). The characters are not endearing in the slightest and the plot is all detailed on the back of the book, so if you’ve read all that (I only included part of it at the top of the review here), you may as well save your money and not bother. Highly disappointing.

Rating: 6

5 Comments:

Blogger tessafm said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

7:22 pm  
Blogger The Book Fiend said...

So, you've never disliked a book? The reviews on My blog ARE MY OPINIONS and nobody else's. I know full well that some people find this series to be excellent - I just happen not to be one of them. It would be a boring world if everyone liked the same things.

As for your comment regarding criticism, well, nobody forced you to read any of my reviews - if you don't like them, don't read my blog - it's as simple as that!

10:59 pm  
Blogger MattTheMan said...

I find A Series of Unfortunate Events great, and very far from "highly disappointing". Lemony Snicket is a great writer such a shame you're one of the ones who doesn't appreciate his work.

10:01 am  
Blogger The Book Fiend said...

As I've previously mentioned, it would be a boring world if everyone liked the same things. I'm glad you enjoyed the series. You'll notice I did actually grant the book a very generous 6/10, despite not being a fan of the writing style. This was because I actually rather liked the story and the ideas presented in it, just not the style in which the author wrote it.

10:38 am  
Blogger Unknown said...

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11:58 am  

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