Kentishbookboy Goes It Alone

A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

As I said in my last post I've been reading for various projects recently and so I haven't had time to keep up with the Kentishbookboy, however this year as well as having our book group we also taking part in a family Book Bingo challenge.

This lets chart lets me, KBB, his mum, his nanny and his great aunt all count other reads towards our game - although we are all planning on sharing lots of books too! 

(just one review this time - all from Kentishbookboy)

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

Synopsis:
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent 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 are at the beach and receive terrible news, through to itchy clothing, a plot to steal the family fortune and cold porridge for breakfast, the children have much to overcome,

Dilemma:
The Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their distant relative, Count Olaf. From their first day, they experience nothing but non-stop torture. They need to work together and stop Count Olaf from getting hold of the Baudelaire fortune.

Morals/Themes:
There are a few themes for this book. I think cunning, greed, courage, love and family are the main ones. I think courage is one because in chapter 10 the eldest Baudelaire, Violet, tries to save her sister, Sunny, by making a grappling hook to climb up the forbidden tower. She shows courage when she climbed up, she hoped it didn't fall down to the ground.

Recommendation:
This book is an interesting story and it contains from weird bits too. I think Lemony Snicket is a great author and has a talent for writing stories. I would like to read the next book: The Reptile Room and give it four stars.

I'm really glad that Kentishbookboy enjoyed this book - I remember reading both this one and The Reptile Room when they were first published in the UK and quite enjoying them but I don't think I read on past these two. I definitely haven't seen the film or TV series, although I did get to meet Lemony Snicket's alter ego Daniel Handler once...