The Bad Beginning

When I first read this series as a child, I was surprised and delighted to find the pseudo-author Lemony Snicket breaking the fourth wall to comment on the pathos of the action, the meaning of obscure words, and the telling of stories.

Behind a veil of whimsy, Lemony gave my child-self a dark metaphor I didn't (yet) realize I needed and a new literary language. I wouldn't be the person I am without him.

While this series is very different than the other books on the list, it deserves a mention because it resulted in the fourth-wall-breaking device getting a new name: the Lemony Narrator.

The series follows a set of orphans who are constantly met with misery, but refuse to let evil, idiocy, or incompetence (which they often encounter in both well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning adults) beat them.

Lemony Snicket is the invented character, unseen in the plot except as the narrator, who tells their story out of an unrequited love for their mother.

He frequently interjects his opinions and other commentary, which earned… show more.

The first installment in the Series of Unfortunate Events collection, The Bad Beginning establishes the premise of the extended mystery throughline that runs through all the books. In this first novel, the crime in question is Count Olaf’s attempt to steal the orphans’ inheritance. Yet, a deeper and more complex mystery undergirds this and each of the novels, culminating in the meaning of the tattoos and the mysterious letters VFD.

I read all thirteen of these books and I found them to be a fast read. I found them to be riveting because I kept wondering how bad things were going to get for the children in the story.

I liked how the author kept you concerned for the children to the very end. I kept asking myself, when will someone stop Count Olaf? I loved how unusually bright and innovative the Baudelaire children were. I connected to this story because I like stories of unique people who face challenges and eventually come out on top.

I just love Count Olaf, such a despicable, loathsome individual. It’s the perfect set-up. Three kids, all intelligent and reasonable get to live with a mean, spiteful and horrid individual. It reminds me of Roald Dahl’s Matilda. And who doesn’t like a horrible villain? There’s also the real-life element. The kids go through hard times, like we do in life, and sometimes there isn’t a happy ending. This breaks the formula which you expect to see; that all things end up right at the end, in life they sometimes don’t. But, we can laugh, and we can laugh at… show more.

Laced with literary allusions to famous poems and works, this series follows three intrepid orphans through misadventure after misadventure. Behind it all is a constant reference to a schism that happened in the past, which is the cause behind their parents’ demise. As someone who grew up in a household that spoke Mandarin, this series helped me learn a lot of English literary colloquialisms and idioms, such as “to follow suit” or “takes the cake.” The author does not shy away from dark topics, balancing them with the right amount of irony and humor.