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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
sarahbethhh's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
watermelleon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Reread - this was absolutely wonderful, but.
I feel very disheartened about the henchperson of no clear gender. I've tried to do a bit of reading around this, and I believe that handler is a strong queer ally with better representation elsewhere, but I'm not sure if the right balance was met between "there are horrible people in this world including transphobes" and "children are scared of this person because they can't figure out this person's gender." I would be concerned with a child reading this in terms of instilling the idea that being trans is not favourable - which is such a shame considering the other diversity on display within this book.
It also does not keep in line with the characters of the triplets, who are very neurodivergent coded, very intelligent and absolutely would not fear a trans person for being a bit mysterious.
I feel very disheartened about the henchperson of no clear gender. I've tried to do a bit of reading around this, and I believe that handler is a strong queer ally with better representation elsewhere, but I'm not sure if the right balance was met between "there are horrible people in this world including transphobes" and "children are scared of this person because they can't figure out this person's gender." I would be concerned with a child reading this in terms of instilling the idea that being trans is not favourable - which is such a shame considering the other diversity on display within this book.
It also does not keep in line with the characters of the triplets, who are very neurodivergent coded, very intelligent and absolutely would not fear a trans person for being a bit mysterious.
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia
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
morningtide's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
With each book in this series, I'm appreciating more and more that at the heart of it, we are learning along with the Baudelaires to just... cope. In The Wide Window, the theme is definitely coping - Aunt Josephine as their new guardian, who as one of the more well-meaning ones has still not learned to deal with her own grief and loss of her husband, causing her to let the children and herself fall into the clutches of Count Olaf. I found the mystery in this one to be quite a bit of fun - and to have the children solve it only to have Aunt Josephine continue to be ridiculous. But despite her weakness of falling too far into her grief and fear, the children still love her and do not seem to blame her too much for her struggles, as silly as they can seem.
Violet opened the peeling white door, and there stood Mr. Poe in the gloomy light of dawn. "Mr. Poe," Violet said. She intended to tell him immediately of their forgery theory, but as soon as she saw him, standing in the doorway with a white handkerchief in one hand and a black briefcase in the other, her words stuck in her throat. Tears are curious things, for like earthquakes or puppet shows they can occur at any time, without any warning and without any good reason. "Mr. Poe," Violet said again, and without any warning she and her siblings burst into tears. Violet cried, her shoulders shaking with sobs, and Klaus cried, the tears making his glasses slip down his nose, and Sunny cried, her open mouth revealing her four teeth. Mr. Poe put down his briefcase and put away his handkerchief. He was not very good at comforting people, but he put his arms around the children the best he could, and murmured "There, there," which is a phrase some people murmur to comfort other people despite the fact that it doesn't really mean anything.
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia
There are scenes (mainly in Ch. 9) where the henchperson of indeterminate gender is spoken of in a way that feels a lot less about how evil they are and more about their indeterminate gender - they get referred to as "it" in a way that feels gross and are talked about more as a monster than a human. All of Olaf's henchpeople are monsters, obvs - but these particular moments did not age very well. I do believe the author apologized for this and did better in the TV series, but it did very much remind me this book is from 2000.memazz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
lilshelly's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
2.0
I didn't like this one as much. There are always weak stories in a series. What really upset me was the way they integrated a character that was briefly mentioned in the previous books - a character that looks neither like a man nor a woman. These passages did not age well at all, with the children flopping between addressing the person and even calling them "it." Yeah, definitely would benefit from revision at this point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Transphobia
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Suicide
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