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ssweeny's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
The children are placed with their aunt Josephine who is defined by her fear of everything. It's a bit of a change of pace from the first two. Josephine's fear of everything comes off a bit one-note, even among the typically clueless adults in the series.
Olaf's plot is pretty obvious from the start too.
There is a scene that stands out with a bit of gratuitous transphobia and fatphobia as well.
Despite all that the relationships between the siblings and the fun of watching them work to free themselves from their situation make up for a lot and leave this a pretty enjoyable story.
Olaf's plot is pretty obvious from the start too.
There is a scene that stands out with a bit of gratuitous transphobia and fatphobia as well.
Despite all that the relationships between the siblings and the fun of watching them work to free themselves from their situation make up for a lot and leave this a pretty enjoyable story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Murder
Minor: Suicide and Death of parent
mxmorganic's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
tallywinkle's review against another edition
4.0
This one was another childhood favourite, although it felt weaker on the reread. I think child-me would have rated 3 over 2, but I'd put 2 over 3 in 2023.
I loved the clever note with grammatical errors that they decoded to find Josephine. It was a childhood favourite and still stands today.
The description of Olaf's androgynous hechperson hasn't aged well at all, ooof. This book is a lot more transphobic than I realized. Rolling my eyes at this book having a theme of "grammar is everything" and it keeps using "his or her". Why do I feel like Aunt Josephine would probably argue that sigular isn't gramatically correct.And are we dehumanizing because they're a villain or because they are large? If you have to ask, it's probably anti-fatness.
Weird audio choice to play a song between each... part? of the story? Why was it there? It was so unnecessary. I miss Tim Curry.
The description of Olaf's androgynous hechperson hasn't aged well at all, ooof. This book is a lot more transphobic than I realized. Rolling my eyes at this book having a theme of "grammar is everything" and it keeps using "his or her". Why do I feel like Aunt Josephine would probably argue that sigular isn't gramatically correct.And are we dehumanizing because they're a villain or because they are large? If you have to ask, it's probably anti-fatness.
Weird audio choice to play a song between each... part? of the story? Why was it there? It was so unnecessary. I miss Tim Curry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Fatphobia
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
As books for children these are relatively informative.. on a .. vocabulary level, but they are samey. Props for incorporating the word Brobignagian though. In this story the children are housed with yet another distant relative, this time on the shores of Lake Lacrimose.
Again the names of the locations are witty. (Lacrimose, here, means to do with tears.) Damocles Dock is a more alliterative way of saying perilous dock.. or maybe we could have gone with perilous pier..? but I digress. Again we have fanciful creatures. Again we have a library full of books that help the children solve a puzzle, a fancy-dress nemesis, and a consumptive banker who refuses to listen to young people.
The children face their fears and flex their bravery and creativity... but I'm really getting sick of the depiction of the scary hench being a gender-indeterminate fat person. I don't know what bothers me more; the fat-phobia or the dehumanisation of a person who defies gender norms, bt referring them as "it", a monster, and all the other slurs. I find it cringey and obscene.
Story is cute, absurd, and short. The soundtrack music is excellent (thanks, The Gothic Archies). Unlike the first two instalments, Tim Curry is not the narrator of this Audiobook. The patter is distinctive and the characters are consistent. Could do without the bigotry though.
Again the names of the locations are witty. (Lacrimose, here, means to do with tears.) Damocles Dock is a more alliterative way of saying perilous dock.. or maybe we could have gone with perilous pier..? but I digress. Again we have fanciful creatures. Again we have a library full of books that help the children solve a puzzle, a fancy-dress nemesis, and a consumptive banker who refuses to listen to young people.
The children face their fears and flex their bravery and creativity... but I'm really getting sick of the depiction of the scary hench being a gender-indeterminate fat person. I don't know what bothers me more; the fat-phobia or the dehumanisation of a person who defies gender norms, bt referring them as "it", a monster, and all the other slurs. I find it cringey and obscene.
Story is cute, absurd, and short. The soundtrack music is excellent (thanks, The Gothic Archies). Unlike the first two instalments, Tim Curry is not the narrator of this Audiobook. The patter is distinctive and the characters are consistent. Could do without the bigotry though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Abandonment
holiday7's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
As much as I think this book was good, it felt very boring at times + everyone was so unlikeable in this book (even the Baudelaire's).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Transphobia
The portrayal of one of Count Olaf's allies is very fatphobic and transphobic. The book connects being evil with being fat and/or androgynous. At one point, the Baudelaire's and the narrator refer to this character with the pronoun "it."inkdrinkers's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
“There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.”
The Baudelaire orphans are back and more miserable than ever. Following the events of the Reptile Room, the three children find themselves relocated to a distant relative's home on a dark lake. But with Count Olaf hot on their heels, they must navigate more than murky waters and terrible guardians.
Unfortunately, the above quote from this book is right. A sadder sight is returning to an old favorite and realizing it aged really, really poorly. I remembered the Wide Window not being my favorite of the series as a kid - what I didn't realize was that it's because unlike the first two in the Series of Unfortunate Events, it has nearly no bearing on the rest of the story. Everything that happens to the orphans in this book has no plot relevance, and it's tied up in a nice little package with some transphobia and fatphobia just... for fun, I guess?
I'm not going to reiterate what many other reviewers have said about the transphobia and fatphobia in this book. It's bad. It made me nearly DNF and it's honestly kind of sad to return to these pages and realize how poorly it's handled. I will say the audiobook didn't even help ease the misery because Daniel Handler was the narrator. I set out for a good time with Tim Curry and instead got... this.
Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the Miserable Mill. But just know I'm listening to these 2x speed to get back to Curry's narration. (which starts back up for book six and carries through to The End)
Content warnings: Death, Transphobia (pretty rough, refers to a character as "it"), Murder, Grief, Death of parent (past), Suicide, Fatphobia
The Baudelaire orphans are back and more miserable than ever. Following the events of the Reptile Room, the three children find themselves relocated to a distant relative's home on a dark lake. But with Count Olaf hot on their heels, they must navigate more than murky waters and terrible guardians.
Unfortunately, the above quote from this book is right. A sadder sight is returning to an old favorite and realizing it aged really, really poorly. I remembered the Wide Window not being my favorite of the series as a kid - what I didn't realize was that it's because unlike the first two in the Series of Unfortunate Events, it has nearly no bearing on the rest of the story. Everything that happens to the orphans in this book has no plot relevance, and it's tied up in a nice little package with some transphobia and fatphobia just... for fun, I guess?
I'm not going to reiterate what many other reviewers have said about the transphobia and fatphobia in this book. It's bad. It made me nearly DNF and it's honestly kind of sad to return to these pages and realize how poorly it's handled. I will say the audiobook didn't even help ease the misery because Daniel Handler was the narrator. I set out for a good time with Tim Curry and instead got... this.
Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the Miserable Mill. But just know I'm listening to these 2x speed to get back to Curry's narration. (which starts back up for book six and carries through to The End)
Content warnings: Death, Transphobia (pretty rough, refers to a character as "it"), Murder, Grief, Death of parent (past), Suicide, Fatphobia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Murder, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Suicide
jackieines's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Fatphobia
Moderate: Ableism
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
every book i read in this series makes me want to pull my hair out!!! literally i want to scream at the adults to listen to the kids please for the love of god just fucking listen to them i swear to god you are going to get them killed like oh. my GOD
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Grief, and Death
Minor: Fatphobia and Transphobia
forsidious's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Woof this book does not hold up - the treatment of the androgenous villain is frankly despicable - they're bigger and you can't tell if they're a man or a woman, therefore, they're a "creature" and "it" not human. I tried to be forgiving because it was of course written during a different time, but even then, the dehumanization is awful. On top of that, Aunt Josephine is possibly the worst character ever written. Her grammar police schtick is obnoxious and she ends up having zero redeeming factors as she is willing to sacrifice the orphans to save herself.
The puzzle with the last will was interesting at least, but the payoff was low since Aunt Josephine set it all up herself out of fear rather than cleverness. Honestly the first moment I'm realizing the Netflix series is better than the books and improved upon them. Hopefully the next will be better since I didn't hold fond memories of this one in the first place.
The puzzle with the last will was interesting at least, but the payoff was low since Aunt Josephine set it all up herself out of fear rather than cleverness. Honestly the first moment I'm realizing the Netflix series is better than the books and improved upon them. Hopefully the next will be better since I didn't hold fond memories of this one in the first place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Transphobia
Moderate: Suicide
booksthatburn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Baudelaire orphans are passed to yet another relative, this time to a woman who lives on a rickety clifftop house overlooking the lake where her husband drowned.
I like how well-developed the relationships between the siblings are. The books are short so there isn’t a lot of room for it, but most of the space available is used for interactions between them as they deal with whatever misfortune has happened next. Aunt Josephine is a pretty one-note but understandable character, she’s yet another adult who seems completely unable to help or fully understand what’s happening and why it’s bad.
There’s a sequence involving one of Olaf’s accomplices, the one where the children can’t tell if they’re a man or a woman. The whole scene is a mess of transphobia and fatphobia, with part of the terror derived from Violet not knowing what pronouns to use, and not knowing whether they should be addressed with “Sir” or “Ma’am”. Given that they are helping Olaf, the children’s inability to guess their gender should be irrelevant to their characterization as probably evil, but instead the whole thing is handled badly and it brought my enjoyment of the story to a screeching halt. It makes as much sense as justifying fright from not being able to determine someone’s hair color, and it’s just bad. It’s combined with fatphobia, using language like “monstrous” and “creature”, commenting on their size as an additional frightening characteristic. As their terror increases the text begins referring to the person as “it”, further dehumanizing them. They’ve never spoken, which also seems meant to be scary, and at minimum reinforces the dehumanizing characterization.
Other than just being the next step for the children, this doesn’t wrap up anything specifically left hanging from the last book. The storyline is new and has a major thing that’s introduced and resolved. It leaves a few things for later books to carry on. The narrator didn’t change and continues to ominously talk about his own life and the children’s fates. It could make sense to start here, but there’s important backstory about Count Olaf as a villain and the children’s situation until now which is best conveyed by the earlier books.
The plot is good, it has a great setup and execution. There’s a pretty cool mystery that the kids have to figure out, and it’s one where the reader genuinely can solve it along with them. Olaf’s latest scheme hits a great balance between horrific and absurd, which is tonally appropriate for the series. Mr. Poe is useless, as always, and Aunt Josephine is handled in a way that makes her flaws understandable even as they’re exaggerated to a ludicrous level to make the situation as bad as possible for the Baudelaire orphans. I found myself enjoying it a lot until the transphobic and fatphobic sequence happened. Unfortunately it was even worse than in the first two books, and so I can't recommend this one at all.
I like how well-developed the relationships between the siblings are. The books are short so there isn’t a lot of room for it, but most of the space available is used for interactions between them as they deal with whatever misfortune has happened next. Aunt Josephine is a pretty one-note but understandable character, she’s yet another adult who seems completely unable to help or fully understand what’s happening and why it’s bad.
There’s a sequence involving one of Olaf’s accomplices, the one where the children can’t tell if they’re a man or a woman. The whole scene is a mess of transphobia and fatphobia, with part of the terror derived from Violet not knowing what pronouns to use, and not knowing whether they should be addressed with “Sir” or “Ma’am”. Given that they are helping Olaf, the children’s inability to guess their gender should be irrelevant to their characterization as probably evil, but instead the whole thing is handled badly and it brought my enjoyment of the story to a screeching halt. It makes as much sense as justifying fright from not being able to determine someone’s hair color, and it’s just bad. It’s combined with fatphobia, using language like “monstrous” and “creature”, commenting on their size as an additional frightening characteristic. As their terror increases the text begins referring to the person as “it”, further dehumanizing them. They’ve never spoken, which also seems meant to be scary, and at minimum reinforces the dehumanizing characterization.
Other than just being the next step for the children, this doesn’t wrap up anything specifically left hanging from the last book. The storyline is new and has a major thing that’s introduced and resolved. It leaves a few things for later books to carry on. The narrator didn’t change and continues to ominously talk about his own life and the children’s fates. It could make sense to start here, but there’s important backstory about Count Olaf as a villain and the children’s situation until now which is best conveyed by the earlier books.
The plot is good, it has a great setup and execution. There’s a pretty cool mystery that the kids have to figure out, and it’s one where the reader genuinely can solve it along with them. Olaf’s latest scheme hits a great balance between horrific and absurd, which is tonally appropriate for the series. Mr. Poe is useless, as always, and Aunt Josephine is handled in a way that makes her flaws understandable even as they’re exaggerated to a ludicrous level to make the situation as bad as possible for the Baudelaire orphans. I found myself enjoying it a lot until the transphobic and fatphobic sequence happened. Unfortunately it was even worse than in the first two books, and so I can't recommend this one at all.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Transphobia, Grief, Fatphobia, and Murder
Minor: Suicide, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Death
CW for anxiety disorder.