The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A children's book without the frou-frou. Saw the film first (a mish-mash of the first three books) and I enjoyed it thoroughly. While Jim Carrey as Count Olaf (and his alters) was criticized for his very comic turn in the film (vs. the serious and "scary" Count Olaf in the L. Snicket series), I enjoyed it nevertheless. And I'm happy to say that I was very entertained by The Bad Beginning as well.
Snicket's (yes we know it's Daniel Handler) grim narration of the Baudelaire children's travails, his long and darkly lyrical sentences, and his on-the-spot definition of mouthful-ly words are, ironically, a joy to read. Despite the book's sinister way of telling the Baudelaire story, I still find myself more scared of the Grimm Brothers' "fairy tales." Somehow, regardless of Snicket's repeated warnings that there will be no happy ending for the Baudelaires, you still see a ray of light every once in a page (and you feel in your gut that there will be something nice for them eventually).
L. Snicket says this is The Bad Beginning of the Unfortunate Events series. I think it's The Formidable First. Bring on the second one.
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