I first heard about A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket a few years ago when I first read some reviews of a few of the books. They sounded interesting but I didn’t pick up any of the books then. It was shortly before the movie, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was released that I finally picked up a few of the books. I’ve had the third book of the series, The Wide Window, in my pile to read for a while. I finally read it recently.

This review will have information that would be spoilers for people who haven’t read the first two books in A Series of Unfortunate Events. So far I have only read the first three books. If I remember correctly, there are thirteen books planned for the series. The books tell about what happened to the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, after their parents were killed in a house fire. The Baudelaires left behind a fortune that the children would inherit once Violet came of age. Mr. Poe, a banker that was in charge of the inheritance, took the children to live with a guardian, Count Olaf, that was a distant relative. He was an actor that was obsessed with getting the inheritance. The children were able to prove that and Mr. Poe took them live with a new guardian, Uncle Monty. The children were happy there until Count Olaf turned up in disguise with a new plan to get the money. The plan didn’t completely work and the children were being taken to a new guardian again.

Mr. Poe took the children to their new guardian, Josephine. She was another distant relative and wanted the children to call her Aunt Josephine. Her house actually hung over the side of a hill overlooking Lake Lachrymose. Aunt Josephine was a kind woman that was terrified of everything from the welcome mat to the leaches in the lake. The children liked her but they weren’t really happy because of all the things she wouldn’t let them do. One day they went into town for groceries and met Captain Sham. Aunt Josephine was taken with him and wouldn’t believe the children when they said he was Count Olaf in disguise. The children started planning how they would escape Count Olaf once again.

The Wide Window picked up right after The Reptile Room ended. The plots of the first three books have been connected to each other. Every book has had a separate plot, but each builds on the previous so they should be read in order. Events from previous books were mentioned a few times in The Wide Window. Anyone that hasn’t read the first two books could be confused by those things. I don’t think that this book would have made as much sense if I hadn’t already read the first two books.

The books in A Series of Unfortunate Events are aimed at children. I do know of many adults that also enjoy the books. These aren’t typical children’s books with happy endings. The books are dark and deal with serious things like the death of parents and murder. There have been some disturbing moments in the books even though there really hasn’t been any graphic violence in them. There have been events in every book that could be upsetting to children. I knew that these books were darker when I first started reading The Bad Beginning, but I was still a bit shocked by some of the things that happened. These books probably aren’t for everyone because of how different they are. There was a small amount of mystery in the book related to what the children would think up to deal with Count Olaf. The mystery should be enough to keep children interested in the book even though it wasn’t that strong.

The books in A Series of Unfortunate Events have been written in a unique way. Lemony Snicket, the author, inserted himself into the books. He has said things in each book that made it seem like he was near by somewhere observing and interviewing people about what had happened to the children without actually getting involved in what was going on. Snicket has stated in each book how depressing the books would be so people should put them down and read something else instead. I’ve never written any other books written like this before. Every so often, Snicket would include the definition of a word or phrase that children might not know. The definitions were added in a way that flowed well with the story and didn’t detract from what was going on. It didn’t seem like Snicket was talking down to the children when the definitions were added in. Throughout each book, explanations were also given for Sunny’s babblings. Those explanations did add a little bit of humor to the book.

The Baudelaire children and Count Olaf have been the main characters in the first three books of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Violet, the oldest, liked to invent things and was able to use those inventions to help herself and her siblings out of bad situations. Klaus loved to read and remembered everything he’d read which allowed him to help Violet with plans. Sunny was still a baby. She had four very sharp teeth and loved biting things. That also proved helpful at times. The children were very resourceful. Count Olaf wasn’t a nice man. He was a creepy actor that only cared about getting his hands on the inheritance left behind for the children. He was ruthless. Mr. Poe has been in all the books as a minor character. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to the children, but he was so distracted with his own work at the bank he didn’t realize what was going on most of the time.

Aunt Josephine was really the only new character in The Wide Window. She loved grammar and went around correcting everyone. She was still morning the death of her husband Ike. From things she’d said, she had been able to keep her fears more under control while he was still alive. She was very timid because of all the fears she had. She was terrified to do anything and she let her fears rule her life. She wouldn’t let the children do much of anything because of her fears either. She seemed to be kind, but she really wasn’t a good guardian.

In December of 2004, the movie Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was released. The movie was based on the first three books in the series. I wasn’t sure it would work to have one movie cover three movies at first, but once I started reading the books I saw it would work fine. Each of the first three books has been very short and none of them would be long enough on their own to support a movie version. I think the movie was a good version of the books. Some events were changed a little bit, but that is normal when a movie is based on a book. When I saw the movie, I had only read the first book, so people could see the movie without having read the books first.

The Wide Window was an entertaining addition to A Series of Unfortunate Events. People that have read and enjoyed the first two books should also like this book as well. The book was very short, so it shouldn’t take long to read. The character development could have been a bit better, but the book was still entertaining and worth reading.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Reviews
The Bad Beginning ~ The Reptile Room ~ The Miserable Mill ~ The Austere Academy ~

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events




Recommended: Yes