In this book of the series, I like how Klaus and Violet find themselves in each other’s roles

when Violet ends up being the researcher and Klaus the inventor when countering Olaf’s plan

. It just veers from the plot formula that’s being used from the previous books, even just slightly, which I like because it can get predictable if the books all follow the exact same formula. Also, having watched the show first, I expected there to be more

VFD characters and illusions throughout the story, like maybe alternate POV chapters as they follow the Baudelaires, and it was a little strange that there wasn’t, so I really like the narrator’s POV chapters and the endings when there are allusions to a person/group in the present looking back and collecting information about  these events from the past concerning the Baudelaires

.

This book....was far more ridiculous than the previous three. I did like the plot discussion in this one more than the last one. But, there were several things that felt way too cartoony or silly? Which wasn't the tone set up strongly in book one. (Like, how does a piece of gum pull a tree sized log off a machine? Or having a sword slash teeth fight with an infant??? Idk.) 

Hanging on because I want to see the series through and they're at least comical and easy to read. 

Also, all the adults in this world are always so infuriatingly naive and stupid. Please just believe the kids for once.

knocked it down a bit from a 4 bc i feel as tho some parts were transphobic (?) but not against a trans person, if that makes sense :/

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.

the show is better :(