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A review by idahobekah
The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
4.0
What I loved:
- Tim Curry’s narration. For the first book, I listened to the one with the full cast. When this started, I didn’t know how this one would feel without the other voices. Amazingly, it feels just as good- if not better.
- The sayings and metaphors, along with the explanations of what they mean. This was far and away the best part of the book as a whole. It was witty and fun, and always had me smiling whenever they popped up. Especially carrying forward some of those sayings and metaphors to steam ahead and keep the reader engaged.
- The skills of the Baudelaire orphans. The Baudelaire’s have to get creative when considering how they wiggle their way out of The Unfortunate Events, and I love how inventive each of them can be in their own ways.
Where it fell short:
- It felt a little repetitive at times. Particularly the “who rides with who?” section— and the “ever” section. All of this to say it felt like filler. Another portion has Violet and Claus say “That scream was absolutely fake,” right after the omniscient narrator explains they were thinking it was absolutely fake. It feels like they were trying to reach some kind of “word count” for the publisher. This affected the pacing for the middle portions of the book, but luckily it doesn’t drag the book down too far.
- I felt like I was sitting in a vocabulary lesson. The first book didn’t have nearly as many “which in this case means…” as this one did. I like it on occasion in juvenile fiction, as it helps kids expand their vocabulary, but this phrase felt overused. At what point should you stop holding your reader’s hand? They can probably look it up if they don’t know.
- Tim Curry’s narration. For the first book, I listened to the one with the full cast. When this started, I didn’t know how this one would feel without the other voices. Amazingly, it feels just as good- if not better.
- The sayings and metaphors, along with the explanations of what they mean. This was far and away the best part of the book as a whole. It was witty and fun, and always had me smiling whenever they popped up. Especially carrying forward some of those sayings and metaphors to steam ahead and keep the reader engaged.
- The skills of the Baudelaire orphans. The Baudelaire’s have to get creative when considering how they wiggle their way out of The Unfortunate Events, and I love how inventive each of them can be in their own ways.
Where it fell short:
- It felt a little repetitive at times. Particularly the “who rides with who?” section— and the “ever” section. All of this to say it felt like filler. Another portion has Violet and Claus say “That scream was absolutely fake,” right after the omniscient narrator explains they were thinking it was absolutely fake. It feels like they were trying to reach some kind of “word count” for the publisher. This affected the pacing for the middle portions of the book, but luckily it doesn’t drag the book down too far.
- I felt like I was sitting in a vocabulary lesson. The first book didn’t have nearly as many “which in this case means…” as this one did. I like it on occasion in juvenile fiction, as it helps kids expand their vocabulary, but this phrase felt overused. At what point should you stop holding your reader’s hand? They can probably look it up if they don’t know.