Reviews

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious tense medium-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

As books for children these are relatively informative.. on a .. vocabulary level, but they are samey. Props for incorporating the word Brobignagian though. In this story the children are housed with yet another distant relative, this time on the shores of Lake Lacrimose.

Again the names of the locations are witty. (Lacrimose, here, means to do with tears.) Damocles Dock is a more alliterative way of saying perilous dock.. or maybe we could have gone with perilous pier..? but I digress. Again we have fanciful creatures. Again we have a library full of books that help the children solve a puzzle, a fancy-dress nemesis, and a consumptive banker who refuses to listen to young people.

The children face their fears and flex their bravery and creativity... but I'm really getting sick of the depiction of the scary hench being a gender-indeterminate fat person. I don't know what bothers me more; the fat-phobia or the dehumanisation of a person who defies gender norms, bt referring them as "it", a monster, and all the other slurs. I find it cringey and obscene.

Story is cute, absurd, and short. The soundtrack music is excellent (thanks, The Gothic Archies). Unlike the first two instalments, Tim Curry is not the narrator of this Audiobook. The patter is distinctive and the characters are consistent. Could do without the bigotry though.

Content Warnings

luweebayy's review against another edition

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5.0

As much as I love this series I think aunt Josephine is possible one of the worst characters in the series... she just irritates me (I get that it’s intentional but still) . This is one of my least favourites from the series because the plot seems to twist in the wrong places. Like some parts seem too drawn out and some seem to quick to have any significance. However, being my least favourite doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, one of them has to be the ‘worst’.