The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket ★★★☆☆

Different than the everyday happily-ever-after story, but in a good way.

Fiction – Juvenile

Age Range: 8 and up

176 pages

Publication Date: 1999

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1

Literary awards: Nene Award (2003), Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book for Children's Literature (2001)

 

This is the unhappy story of the Baudelaire’s; Violet, the family inventor, Klaus, the family brain and Sunny, the family biter.  After a fire leaves them orphaned they were put into the care of the horrible Count Olaf, who only wants the fortune left to the Baudelaire orphans by their parents.  Violet, Klaus and Sunny must find a way to stop the Count’s dastardly or face the fatal consequences.   But be warned there is no happy ending.

I liked the voice of the narrator enormously and the difference from the everyday happily-ever-after type of story.  The story was very interesting and easy to get through.  The narrator’s direct interaction with me as the reader was a treat and though he used words rather sparingly he made the characters very vivid for me.  The simple, non-flowery style of writing fit the story incredibly well, in a way I would not have expected before reading this book, and I would think very appropriate for a Juvenile reader.  The writing style actually kind of reminded me of C.S. Lewis from the Chronicles of Narnia.  C.S. Lewis wove together magical epic tales in his books, but the details were very sparse and left up to the imagination of the reader to fill in.

ISBN  0439206472 (ISBN13: 9780439206471)