Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett
Genre: Mystery/Adventure
Series Overall Rating: No Rating
Synopsis of the first book
Dear Reader, I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in you hands is extremely unpleasant.It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children.Even though they are charming and clever,the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe.
Review/Thoughts
One of the things that might have struck you from the above information is that I did not rate these books. It is certainly no indication of dislike for these first six books of this middle grade series. I’m just unsure as what to rate them. And I decided that it was best to keep them unrated. No rating really seemed to fit them in my head.
This book introduces us to the Baudelaire siblings. As the series title suggests, they start of into a set of unfortunate events. In places the books are a bit ridiculous. Things that couldn’t really happen in real life. But in the way it was written, it didn’t bother me all that much. Though I think the baby is more frightening that Count Olaf. The children get a new setting in each book, but it always dwindles down to the same thing. Count Olaf. I do have to say that I did enjoy book 5 and 6 a tad more as it moved away slightly from the same formula that the previous books used, though nothing truly unexpected happened.
As an adult I do have to say that I miss a huge amount of depth in some of these characters. But I can also see the appeal to these books for the younger generation. Let’s be honest, adults have the bad tendency to not listen to children when in a lot of situations they can be right. So in that I feel these are great books to read for children. There is a huge amount of imagination running through these books but at the same time they still relate to our real life in some way.
Have you ever had a book you felt incapable of rating?
A Dance With Books 
I had many of the same feelings you had reading these books and finally gave up at about the 10th one.
As for your question, I feel like I have read a few books that I couldn’t rate but off the top of my head I can’t think of what those might be. What I find hard, I think, is rating books like cheesy contemporary that I read to get out of a slump (I’m thinking gamer girl by Mari Mancusi) next to something like Harry Potter or a Tamora Pierce book. Sure they all got 5 stars, but the later two types of books are soooo much better then the first one in all ways (originality, construction, characters, etc) but the first one was what I needed to read at the time, as predictable as it was, so it got 5 stars because it did it’s job. Know what I mean?
Also just noticed you are reading Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima, a book that is on my ‘soon’ list that I don’t see too many people talking about. Just need to read the last of the seven realms books first….
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I now have up until the 10th one, but I feel I am collecting them more for my future child(ren) than me, haha.
I completely understand. Enjoyment at the moment of a book can sometimes mean you rate it higher than quality wise you would give it otherwise. I’ve had that with some books too.
Oh yes, finish the Seven Realms~ Flamecaster really spoils for that series, though I’ve only read the first two chapters. I’ve been slumping on reading it because of the feels, you know. 😦
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Yes the feels…..I know that feeling. Part of the reason I have a stack of books that I know I will love waiting for me to read them. They’ve been there for months…
I figured Flamecaster would spoil the ending of Seven Realms so I have yet to go out and find myself a copy.
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I stopped giving number ratings and started just saying if I liked a book, and how much, because I find putting a number on a lot of what I read. I would imagine young adult or children books are even harder to rate.
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I will admit I bought all the books, because they are just so cute! But I agree that after book 5 or 6 it gets repetitive. Which is what a lot of kids actually like! It’s still a very well written book, with lots of nice wordplay. It can instil a love for words and teach a few new ones. Obviously this is not a book series aimed at adults. It’s still a lot of fun to read.
I never rate books. First of all, I have a very different view on books and writing. And all books have a different audience in mind. I could say that I love reading Harry Potter, but am not impressed with JK Rowlings writing, which is not fair, because I have a love for pretty well written literature, and HP is not pretending or aiming to be that. It’s a sturdy story, with lots of adventure and action and comedy. How would you rate that? Give it different stars for different audiences? 5 stars for bookwormy kids aged 11-17, 2 and a half for adults that like to read John Updike, and 4 if you like Stephen King. It’s not easy.
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I have read a couple of Middle Grade books that were fabulous, but way too violent or gorey for that reading age classification. I loved them as an adult and they would have been fine as YA (which always makes me mad because both/of them would have actually made more sense as YA), so I didn’t rate them.
I bought the first Series Of Unfortunate Events book as a 99 cent paperback special for my son when he was in elementary school He brought home the Scholastic book fair order form. He started to read it and he hated it! This was strange because before he went to high school he would read most anything you put in his hands. I started reading it one day trying to figure out why he never finished it, and I couldn’t finish it myself. I think it takes too long for things to happen. I loved the movie though. Ha ha!
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