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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
starburns's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Transphobia
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
libbyhb's review
adventurous
dark
funny
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
3.5
I enjoyed this one a little more than the previous ones, mostly because of the change in scenery and plot. I liked the added mystery in this, with Aunt Josephine being kidnapped and the clues and everything. I was so irritated by her whole schtick though, god. I'm glad that my guess that I liked these books more as they went on in the series has so far turned out to be correct!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Death
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
delvie's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
I can't give this book a good review. The transphobic language to describe an androgynous character was grotesque on its own, but it really gets bad when you think of how influential these books were when we were kids. I can't help but wonder how much hatred was learned from this book.
The audio quality in itself took a straight nosedive, as the author himself narrated this one. He should probably stick to his day job. The song they used to bookend each act was atrocious too.
Going to continue reading with the heaviest of side eyes.
The audio quality in itself took a straight nosedive, as the author himself narrated this one. He should probably stick to his day job. The song they used to bookend each act was atrocious too.
Going to continue reading with the heaviest of side eyes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
laurenbowes's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
moonbin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia, Grief, and Gaslighting
Minor: Abandonment, Death, Murder, and 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.laurenleigh's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
5.0
Ben and I are leaving for a road trip today, so I’ve been enjoying these short reads that I can finish before we start the drive. That way I’ll be ready for whichever audiobook Ben picks from my list! This latest Unfortunate Events installment, The Wide Window, is really driving home what makes these novels so successful. I generally believe that underneath farce is a message or a moral. Here, it feels like through outrageousness, the lesson is subtle but important. Young people are too often not taken seriously by adults, but that doesn’t mean they should give up their convictions or sway their beliefs. The Baudelaire kids are always dealing with incompetent guardians and clueless adults, but they rely on their cleverness and sibling bonds to get them through. There’s some mild transphobia in this one, heads up. (I know the pronoun “it’s” was a part of the plot overall, but using “it’s” for a person who doesn’t fit into the gender binary hasn’t aged well to me.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Transphobia