Reviews

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

paigespages's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

4.5

nadineeeeeee's review against another edition

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4.0

the narration >>>>>>> i love lemony snicket (20.5.24)

bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition

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3.0

This will be the last book I will read of the series.

Its templative episodes of bumbling adults is not enough to keep me. Snicket has a fun and clever prose that keeps you reading, but the books are not very satisfying. It is like a sitcom in that the main characters do not change from book the book. They go through the same story of being placed with a naive new caretaker, who is killed by Count Olaf. Then Olaf escapes only to plot another way to kill their next caretaker in hopes of getting the children's fortune. Seen Scooby Doo much?

All my complaints aside. I think these are great books for children. They provide a fun way to learn new vocabulary, and to laugh about the many unfortunate things we experience in life.

It is nice to see someone follow in a tradition similar to the children's books of Roald Dahl.

aomidori's review against another edition

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dark funny informative mysterious fast-paced

5.0

bjlongchamps's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

noorisreading's review against another edition

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it was really good and interesting.

whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition

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3.0

Love these books. Not only is there vocabulary humor, there's also a grammar fan!

idahobekah's review against another edition

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3.0

Aunt Josephine is so… silly, eccentric, emotional, and fun to read about of course! I loved Meryl Streep’s portrayal of this character more than this one, in fact I’m amazed at how much of her fears they fit in the movie, but she’s still such a good character to read about. She’s frustrating near the end of the book but this is a series of unfortunate events… all of the adults get frustratingly dense and annoying.

I hate Captain Sham. Definitely the most weak iteration of Count Olaf’s performances thus far. Jim Carrey’s performance was very well done and likable (never got that far in the Netflix series), and this original version of him is just annoying. The best part of Captain Sham is his name, which in this case means “fake” or putting on a performance.

I listened to the audiobook version of this, and I can’t tell you how much I MISSED Tim Curry’s narration. I still liked Lemony Snicket’s narration, but it just doesn’t have the same magic of Tim Curry’s.

The pacing was so quick and satisfying! Because the movie adaptation looped most of this book together with the first book, it really made me wonder what direction this story was headed. Everything that was in this book needed to be here. No useless information in sight.

Overall Rating: 3.75 ⭐️

kriavidar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

erinsreadinglist's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25