Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

15 reviews

thechocolatefinger's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Alcohol, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcoholism

The adult/minor relationship (villain adult man with 14-year-old girl) isn’t real, it’s a

Spoiler

fake marriage

but they do discuss it quite in depth (nothing sexual/romantic, but she imagines having to sleep in the same bed). Many evil adults are creepy towards the children calling them “pretty” and “beautiful” but it’s not supposed to be genuinely paedophilic. Alcoholism is that they call Count Olaf “a drunk” and say he drinks too much wine.

bookaholic_in_wonderland's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship

mckiheather's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Having seen the Netflix show a couple times and finally getting to read it, it’s such a good story because I don’t think there’s really any other story like it and it’s told in such an interesting way. I think the audiobook format also adds to that story telling in a really interesting way.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Grief, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

johannarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Violence, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

prufrockpreptooth's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Une petite relecture de la série de mon enfance. Y'a pas à dire, j'adore absolument beaucoup trop le style de Lemony Snicket et c'est toujours un triste plaisir de revenir (contre tout bon sens) suivre les aventures des Baudelaire 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Grief

directorpurry's review against another edition

funny mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent

scruffie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I read this one in one go but I'm not sure how I feel about it now that I have. Curiosity certainly kept me going, but I found the story and the characters in it disturbing. Also it relies heavily on the trope of physical traits reflecting people's inner worth and qualities, which I don't like and find dangerous, in general. The explanations "—the word X here means Y—", though somewhat funny at first, were overused in my opinion, and lost their charm after the first few uses.

I'm curious enough to check out the next books, but I'm not as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

_kael_'s review against another edition

My first original review wasn't saved for some reason. This newer version sounds more neutral though lol. Read books 1-7 (I don't remember if I DNF'ed any of the later books I had) and DNF'ed 9 as a kid. From what I remember, I liked the writing style. It made me continue reading. However, the book felt very repetitive. It is a good read if you read one book and stopped there. As you continue, every single book felt the same.

Spoiler

Villain is the same just in disguise, the children protagonists tell someone yet they all don't believe them every, single, time. It's like they don't know disguises existed, and these are adults. Their reactions were so unrealistic I found it stupid. They meet a new character/s and something bad happens to them, the protagonists escape to a new place, then repeat.

It became depressing to read as I continued because of that consistency that I actually stopped reading the series. I felt like the author was depressed or something. I got curious years after as to what happens in the series, if it already ended and what the ending was.

Spoiler

I think I read from Wikipedia that Count Olaf suddenly disappeared, while the protagonists escaped into the sea? And that no one knows what happened to the protagonists. It felt like I read the books for nothing, since it was gonna end that way anyway. It seemed like they wanted to unnecessarily prolong the series.

I suggest watching the 2004 movie instead, also watched it as a kid. It's good if not better than the books, and it covers the first three books in the series. Seeing Jim Carrey makes things less depressing. I haven't watched the 2017 series though, just saw some parts of it. Iirc, they changed some details in certain events from the book I think. 

Conclusions: As I look back, I genuinely don't understand how this is a novel series for kids. I don't think I'll even enjoy this at any age lol. I highly do not recommend this to anyone, unless you're an emo. Or if you like dark stories. It's similar to the movie "The Willoughbys" though I found it more depressing. I'm going to rate this entire series that I did not finish with a 1.5 stars, dark, sad, tense and fast-paced. Just not my cup of tea. I read to escape and feel joy, not to feel sad/even more sad. I only put this as "DNF" because I don't wanna see it in my "Read" list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent

Just a lot of bad stuff happening to the children protagonists and their confidantes/friends.

shrutislibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The child marriage plot threw me up a bit. Also, Count Olaf was basically a pedophile? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

moonbin's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, and Incest

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent