And for Count Olaf’s fourth trick, hypnosis!

Klaus, the 12 year old, is almost forced (through brainwashing) to murder a man. There’s also a lot of child labor, but that’s not even Olaf’s fault. Oh, and a guy is almost sliced through with a saw. And a woman IS sliced through with a saw. And the children witness it. Such fun times.

(Also Every time Sunny CHEWED ON WOOD I died a little inside. Just imagine the splinters o.O)

My Recommendation: Read them back-to-back. They’re short enough that you can get through the first three or four pretty quickly. It feels like the story is coming together and going to actually start making sense and will engage me more now.

My Response: I'm starting to appreciate these more. Maybe I'm in a better place mentally, but this batch (The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator) weren't quite as draining as the first three (The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window).

We once again join the Baudelaire orphans as they are about to meet their new guardian and of course it's going to be horrible, that's a given. But what I wasn't expecting was how much this book would sort of set me off. I mean I knew it would because of the other books in the series. Snicket is using these books to talk about things we don't talk about anymore: child marriage, child labor, abandonment and neglect. It's still a lot to take in but looking at it through this lens has really helped me appreciate the books a lot more than I originally did.

Click here to continue reading on my blog The Oddness of Moving Things.

i know the whole series is unfortunate for these kids but gosh this one really was miserable for them

Grade: B+

More like a 2.5, but I feel bad giving it a 2 stars so I'm rounding it up to 3. I know these books are kind of ridiculous, and that's mainly the point of children's books, but this is really ridiculous. I was enjoying this just fine and a couple of things happened that I just couldn't go with.

Spoiler

Like, Klaus being hypnotised was alright, not my favourite but whatever. But the swordfight I just can't with. Just no.

It was at this point that ten-year-old me said nope and stopped reading the series, which is a massive shame, because the next nine books are probably much better than this, but I'm finally going to continue on with them!

This is perhaps the most anxiety-inducing book in the most anxiety-inducing series of all time.

There is something about the particular Count Olaf evil plan hijinks in this book that is SO MUCH WORSE to me than all the others?? It’s not so much “fun villainy” to me as it is “extremely stressful stuff of nightmares.”

So not necessarily the most consistently pleasant reading experience.

HOWEVER there is a really cool part of this book! The Baudelaire orphans, up to this point, have very narrow and consistent, like, specializations? What do you call the constant semi-adult-ish habits and passions of a child I do not know. Anyway: Violet invents, Klaus reads, Sunny bites.

In this book, Violet reads! And Klaus invents! It’s kind of a fun thing of, like, hey children of the world, you do not need to limit yourself. You can be good at a lot of things, even if someone is better at them than you. Woohoo!

Count Olaf’s role in this book is very limited, and therefore not as AMAZING as he normally is in the other books (villain-wise). But there are some great characters in this one! I love Phil. Also there is a gay partnership in this book and no one can tell me otherwise and so there.

Bottom line: Not the best book in this series. Maybe the worst? But still fabulouswonderfulamazingIlovethisworldsomuchohmygod.

Okay, really? Who in their right mind would send orphans with a significant trust fund to work in a lumber mill? Why isn't Child Protective Services involved? Didn't these parents have a will and appointed guardians? Wouldn't the person in charge of their trust be more invested in their well-being? Living in the world of Series of Unfortunate Events scares me slightly more than living in the Hunger Games universe.

I like how this book break out of the structure the last three had. Though I enjoyed the last three books and the plot I don't think I could keep reading this series if it continued to use that same recipe for every book. By that I mean the children finding a new relative to live with, Count Olaf showing up and things going disastrously wrong, the children then having to escape Count Olaf's clutches and find a new place to call home.
This book breaks out of that in a way that I found interesting and enjoyable. I again loved the writing style, the way the story was portrayed, the plot and the characters. I'm not sure if these books were made with just children in mind due to some of the things we have read, it seems there are elements made for us older readers also.

A mill is certainly no place for children, even highly intelligent children.

Stale se rikam, jestli to uz nebude nuda, kdyz jsou vsechny pribehy z teto serie stejne stavene a vicemene konci stejne, ale i pres to me to vzdy bavi znovu a znovu. Jen mam depresi z toho, ze ty deti nemuzou mit aspon jednou v zivote poradne stesti... :(