I like the narrator and illustrations. The tragedy in children’s fiction makes this series stand out. 

There definitely is a formula in this series with the children getting dropped off to an

incompetent

guardian,

Count Olaf (in disguise) finds them, no one believes the children, dramatic scene where children narrowly escape Count Olaf’s clutches, Count Olaf escapes.

This book does break the formula a little bit by using the lumber mill and Sir as a guardian, a workplace instead of a home. Violet and Klaus also have some character growth, which is nice.

That plot would’ve been just fine without the issues mentioned in my content warning notes.

Oof, really jarring and egregious use of the slur for little people, but I also understand this was published in 2000. Won’t affect my rating, but definitely affected the reading experience. Just something to be aware of if you’re sensitive to it like I am. 

THE MISERABLE MILL turns up the cruelty and adds a new flavor of transphobia. Like many transphobic depictions, it manages this without a single (known) queer person in sight.

In addition to briefly continuing the transphobic and fatphobic descriptions of one of Count Olaf’s henchpeople, it uses a transphobic fearmongering trope of a man dressing as a woman in order to get illicit access to children (the man, of course, is Count Olaf in yet another disguise). It also adds derogatory language for little people as a bad joke about the three children not being as tall as adults, then it doubles down by continuing to use this term throughout the book for no reason other than cruelty.

This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything left hanging from the previous book, but it does reference prior events and the ongoing threat of Count Olaf’s schemes. The storyline is new, in a new setting with new cruelties. It doesn’t specifically leave anything for later, other then that Olaf gets away again and the Baudelaires are still orphans in need of a guardian. The narrator is consistent, slowly dropping hints about his own tortured past. This would mostly make sense if someone picked this up and didn’t know about the other books, or even if they only read the first book and skipped to this one.

The characterization of the kids is slowly developing, with them having to do things that one of the others is normally the one to handle. It's nice to see them growing as characters, even if just a little in the short time the book covers. The plot is fine, it incorporates a workers’ rights narrative into the ongoing child abuse saga. Unfortunately it also features malicious crossdressing, as I mentioned earlier. I liked some bits of the sawmill storyline, but am sour on the book overall.