morningtide's reviews
217 reviews

The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

The Baudelaires are officially fending for themselves. As they are making more active choices for their own well-being, they are forced to come to terms with the reasoning behind those choices. Can good people do bad things and still be good people? Even if those things will save them from the bad decisions of the adults around them? Can they handle the guilt of their choices? I do love a moral dilemma.

The stakes definitely feel as if they just keep getting higher, and the kids quick thinking is still saving them, but it feels like they only just keep squeezing by. Isn't is suspicious how much arson seems to happen, too? Hmmmm.

(My favorite humorous bit in this one was the silly filing system. Paperwork is the most important thing, but also, no one ever read it again please, so you might as well file it under the fifth word in the last sentence.)
The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket

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adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

3.75

In The Vile Village, the Baudelaires are now being cared for by an entire village... but not really. They get to do all the chores of the entire village, while living with the village handyman, Hector. We can almost get our hopes up about Hector - he's a secret rebel against the ridiculous rules of the Village of Fowl Devotees - unfortunately he's also another adult in the Baudelaire's lives with not much of a backbone. We know better by now anyway - even though Hector finds a way to escape the vile village, and even save a couple deserving souls along with him, it's just not meant to be for the Baudelaires.

As we're halfway through the series, the children have learned enough from the miserable world they're trapped in that they can only count on themselves, and choose to stick together even if it's on their own. Between the mystery of VFD, the precarious well-being of the Baudelaires and the Quagmires, and knowing Count Olaf isn't the only person out there with the Eye tattoo, I think I'm fully invested in the storyline. If I read this far the first time I was reading the series as a kid, this must have been the last book I did read, and I'm very excited to pick up the clues and details in the remainder of the series. 
Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story was cute and definitely in the lighthearted area. I don't know if I would have picked it to read on my own, but it was mentioned a few times and then set up as a big buddy read, so I felt more inclined to check it out.

I loved that the main character was middle aged rather than a 20-something, which you don't often get to see in these period style novels. Mildred obviously had her flaws, but I didn't find them frustrating. She was aware of her flaws as well, but when push finally came to shove, she stood up for herself. The romance was cute and just enough of the story without taking over.

I was in a bit of an overall reading slump when I started this, so I read it in very small bits and pieces - which made it feel like it took quite a bit of time to pick up. I think if I had had more motivation to read this in longer sittings I would have enjoyed it much more. 
The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0

The Baudelaires are passed back to actual relations for guardians again - with the excuse that Esmé and Jerome Squalor couldn't take in orphans until it was on trend. Our archetypes for the adults in this book are The Influencer and The Pushover - Esmé actually seemed more ridiculous to me when I was younger, but that was pre-social media. Now, the concept of adopting orphans because it's trendy doesn't feel quite so absurd (unfortunately.) Jerome might actually care about the kids and wants to get them gifts relevant to their interests, and it almost seems like they will have an okay home - sadly Jerome has no backbone and "doesn't want to argue," which will always leave him falling in line with the other adults over any of the children. Still wouldn't be too bad if Esmé was just a vapid trend follower, but that isn't all there is to her. Even in their more pleasant times with the Squalors, the kids still realize their grief will be there whether they tell themselves they should feel lucky or happy or anything but what they actually inevitably feel.

This entry in the series definitely feels the most adventurous so far - the Baudelaires aren't just hiding from Olaf anymore, they're trying to fight back for the sake of their friends. The elevator climb was thrilling while being quite a bit over the top, but if you haven't suspended your disbelief enough by now you may have to give up.

It was frustrating to have the Baudelaires so close to helping the Quagmires, or at least learning more about VFD, only to be thwarted by their own limitations and putting their trust in the wrong adult. The adults being a letdown is not new, but as the orphans begin to put more and more weight on their own shoulders their failures become more heartbreaking - and their lesson is quickly learned on having "hope." Jerome exits as a passive villain - not much better than the active villains simply by doing nothing.

I know the repetition is annoying to a lot of older readers, and I get that in the formula of the books, but I do love the repetition of language and phrasing in this series. With the book titles beginning to use more expanded vocabulary, I loved seeing "ersatz" applied throughout the story. 
The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

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funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

I'm glad I pulled through on The Miserable Mill despite being tempted to call it quits on A Series of Unfortunate Events due to how ....miserable I found it. Things definitely picked back up for me in The Austere Academy. The audiobooks also have Tim Curry back as the narrator for this one, and he is a delight.

Olaf's approach is a little more underhanded in this one, along with adding the world's rudest principal into the mix of villains. Things are getting continuously unfortunate for the Baudelaires, but we get breaks from it when they make friends with the two Quagmire triplets and their suspiciously similar backstory, and some humor imbued by Sunny's secretarial career and the toe-pinching crabs in the orphan shack.

We're beginning to pick up hints of something beyond the Baudelaires latest terrible guardian (once again, while hyperbolic - I've definitely had one or two 'educators' who could align a bit too much to Principal Nero) and that Lemony Snicket is seeming to have more of a role in the story outside of just narrating it. The mystery is definitely becoming genuinely intriguing to me.
The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced

3.0

I did not care for this one at all, and it almost caused me to end my Series of Unfortunate Events spree, but I did stick it out. Their guardian is a seemingly random person - I don't think it's explained why they qualify in the first place? If they're not a distant distant relative, at this point the Baudelaires could have gone to Justice Strauss or something - so I'll tell myself Sir was a distant distant relative. There wasn't much happening here to distract from the basic formula applied throughout the series. I can't blame a middle grade series for having so much repetition as that's basically a staple for the age group and I am not the intended audience, but it feels easier to look past in the other books where more interesting things are happening. 
The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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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.
 
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A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination by Philip Shenon

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informative mysterious slow-paced

4.0

A Cruel and Shocking Act is an in-depth look of the aftermath of the J.F.K. assassination - Philip Shenon provides us with as much as it seems possible on the people, commissions, and agencies involved. This was my first foray into this particular subject (About two years previous to this, I read 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents by Rufus W. Youngblood, the secret service agent that dove on top of Lyndon B. Johnson during the assassination, so his memoir inevitably touched on the topic and I believe prompted me to add this book to my reading list.)

This is one of those events in U.S. history that regardless of what you seek out, you are going to know things about just by growing up here. I learned about the Single/Magic Bullet Theory in a high school class, there were many pop culture references to "the grassy knoll," and would say I probably had a loose grasp of the overall events; and was aware that there were a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding it.

This book provided a linear timeline of the events and then a deep analysis of how all the people involved ended up handling them. The answers to most of the questions proffered by this report seem to be along the lines, "It may not be possible to know." If you would like to learn the details of multiple bureaucracies and individuals completely bungling the collection of evidence and interviewing of witnesses (whether for well-meaning or selfish reasoning), this is the gift that keeps on giving. If this book does answer one question, it surely explains just why there would be so many conspiracy theories developed.
The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

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dark emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

For the audiobook version moving from The Bad Beginning to The Reptile Room, we lose the full cast option for voicing the different characters, but Tim Curry really did a phenomenon job doing the second book on his own. (And reader, I'm sorry to say that we will miss him dearly. Until he is back for the sixth book, that is.) His coughing fits as Mr. Poe had me physically cringing every time, which I can't decide if it added or subtracted to the atmosphere.

We've continued into the unfortunate events of the Baudelaires, sometimes feeling a dash hyperbolic, and sometimes having me wonder, "Well, maybe a grown adult would be more likely to think his coworkers are trying to use a spy to steal his research rather than that suspiciously timed new assistant being Count Olaf in disguise." Because, that egotistical mindset wouldn't truly surprise me. I did love Uncle Monty and his love for the children, even if it couldn't last.

But I adore this one paragraph the most, in regards to loss of a loved one:


At the sight of the Reptile Room, which Uncle Monty had filled so carefully with his specimens and in which he was now a sort of specimen himself, the weight of the Baudelaires' despair was too much for them and they quietly began to cry. It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things. The Baudelaire orphans were crying not only for their Uncle Monty, but for their own parents, and this dark and curious feeling of falling that accompanies any great loss.


The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

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

4.5

I read most of these books as a kid and then the first 3 or 4 again as an adult a little before the Netflix series was released. I don't think I finished the series either time (it wasn't complete until I was 16 and had lost interest) - my viewing history said I finished the Netflix show and I recall bits and pieces of the End but not much of the overall story, and I've been in a bit of a listening/reading lull and middle grade books always are a delight at these points for me.

I know that this is literally A Series of Unfortunate Events - and maybe it was because this time I was listening to the full cast audiobook, where the voice actors remind me I'm hearing a story about such young children, and maybe I was just extra emotional, but this time around it just felt like a truly tragic story to me, and had me in tears at some moments.

The Bad Beginning seems so wretched through adult eyes. It makes me think of how often I see adults trying to keep their kids "safe" by not exposing them to concepts they think they can't handle. But as a kid reading these books, they were just stories. And I think they were also stories that introduced me to some less savory aspects of society, before experiencing/witnessing them in real life. Like, I am pretty sure this book was the first time I learned a legal guardian could marry a 14 year old by giving themself permission to. Barf. But that happens in real life!!! And it's gross!!! And the cruelty of having someone who want's to love and care for the Baudelaires, but the legal documents state otherwise, and there's no happy fix. And while it can feel very hyperbolic in certain parts of the series: sometimes adults will lie to you, or dismiss you, in a way that can effect your own safety. Sometimes your hunches are right, even if you're just a kid. It's upsetting but it's real life, and I'm glad A Series of Unfortunate Events was around for me to read as a preteen to introduce it to me with the cushy landing of fiction rather than the complete shock of the real world.

And while I couldn't relate to it as a kid, having experienced loss as an adult - I love the way grief and loss is handled here. I am writing this review as I'm already up to Book Five, whoops, so it may be more touched upon throughout the whole series more than just in The Bad Beginning. There are times where the Baudelaires sob all night long, there are times when they feel joy (touched with guilt of feeling that joy.) There are times when they feel miserable even when things are at a high point, and they tell themselves they should feel lucky - but they still just wish they were in their own home with their parents and won't apologize for feeling that way. I can't think of another book I read around that age that dealt with the nuances of long term grief, and it feels cathartic even as an adult.

“‘Perished,’” Mr. Poe said, “means ‘killed.’”

“We know what the word ‘perished’ means,” Klaus said, crossly. He did know what the word “perished” meant, but he was still having trouble understanding exactly what it was that Mr. Poe had said. It seemed to him that Mr. Poe must somehow have misspoken.