The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Bad Beginning

by. Lemony Snicket

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 188 pages

Genre: Children, Children's Chapter, Middle School

It has been a while since I last read this book and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed returning to its pages. The most unique, intriguing, and frustrating aspect of the book is that the main character of the story could be argued to be the narrator. Everything is told through the voice of Lemony Snicket, which is actually the narrator and not the author's actual name. The style is not a typical style for most children's books and it is pulled off with success.

The writing style is amazing. You are pulled into the story, engage with all the characters, and before you know you have finished the tale. I almost went and immediately bought the next book. The only thing that stopped me was the huge pile of books I currently have to finish. It truly is no wonder that this series has obtained such success.

There is one aspect of the writing style that I found quite annoying. The narrator continually defined the words that he and the other characters were using. As the story progressed the other characters also begin defining the words that they were using. It was annoying because I am an adult reader who was well aware of what all these words meant. Yet, while I was quite engaged by the story the book was not written for me. It was written for middle school readers who are still increasing their vocabulary. The first time I encountered Snicket's unique way of defining words in a story I knew what he was doing. While I, as an adult reader, was slightly annoyed I was also kind of awed by his genius. He has this book that he doesn't want to dumb down for his readers, yet he also doesn't want to loose their interest as they encounter words they may not be familiar with. To decrease the frustration of reading by including the definitions into the quirky flow that already existed in the novel is nothing short of genius.