Imagine waking up one morning to find your home destroyed in a fire. Imagine losing your parents and going to live with some terrible distant relative in the middle of nowhere. Klaus, Sunny and Violet Baudelaire were very intelligent children. They had been happy all their lives, loved books and stories, and had pleasant facial features – but the worst of luck. The Baudelaire orphans were cursed with dead parents, a destroyed home, and an ignorant banker with a cough to manage their lives. After being subject to these terrible events, the Baudelaire orphans were immediately shunted off to a distant relative – and this is where everything goes wrong.
The ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Collection is a thrilling series filled with mystery, adventure and an intriguing plotline that follows the lives of the Baudelaire children. After staying with an evil relative, Count Olaf, who gets the orphans tangled up in a dastardly scheme, each book is a different chapter of their lives, with new relatives, friends and foes – but will the children ever escape from Olaf or feel safe again? This series keeps you guessing the whole way through, as every book unravels part of a much broader mystery. I feel that this book series would be aimed at 10-14-year-olds, as some of the dark humour used would be too intense for some children.
Overall, I would rate this book series a 4.5/5, and it is definitely worthwhile to read.
Review by Genazzano FCJ College student
