Twelve-year-old Klaus loves nothing more than to do research and remembers everything he has ever read, thus accumulating extensive book knowledge. Fourteen-year-old Violet is an inventor and engineer who can make useful devises out of whatever is lying around. They help each other and use their individual talents to best Count Olaf and his troupe of comical but evil henchmen. Still, there is hope: the children are smart, kind and resilient. He emphasises how horrible the Baudelaire’s situation is, how awful Count Olaf is, how sad the children’s story is and how the reader should put the book away and read something happier. It is no wonder than, that Lemony Snicket’s style of constant hyperbole works in a children’s book. Someone recently told me that children are drawn to extremes and that sounds plausible. This comedy doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the subjects and situations that it deals with, it just makes thoses themes understandable.

This synopsis sounds quite dark, but the book is full of comedy. I won’t spoil the ending by telling you if they succeed, but the first book is followed by twelve sequels, so suffice it to say that the children won’t be out of trouble anytime soon.

None of the adults they reach out to wants to listen when they raise the alarm, so Violet, Klaus and Sunny have to rely on each other to escape. In Count Olaf’s house, the siblings are nothing more than slaves while their guardian tries to gets his hands on their family fortune. His name is Count Olaf, leader of a theater groupe and hatcher of evil plots. The children are to be put in the care of a distant relative who lives nearby. All things children and adults alike could stand to hear more often.Īt the beginning of The Bad Beginning Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny Baudelaire are playing on Briny Beach when a man with a top hat and an eternal cough comes to bring them terrible news: their parents have died in a fire that has also destroyed their home. It is packed with dry wit, appreciation of learning and warnings to listen to children. The series, which starts with The Bad Beginning, tells the story of three unlucky siblings who take on an evil villain. That means you have to find a darkly humorous children’s book yourself and if you’re lucky, that means you find ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. Unless you have really cool grown-ups in your life, you won’t be introduced to dark humour until a few years after you could do with a dose.

The bad beginning full book