Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

48 reviews

alyvia_jeane's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Grief, and Bullying

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Pedophilia

murmurations_x's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

"To Beatrice - darling, dearest, dead."

Growing up you where either a Percy Jackson kid, a Harry Potter kid or a Lemony Snicket kid and I was most certainly was a Lemony Snicket kid. Oh boy, did I eat this stuff up as a kid and re-reading them as an adult is really quite enjoyable too, I am excited to make my way through the series again and where better to start than the bad beginning....

The Bad Beginning is a excellent start to these series, we get the know the Baudelaire children and their talents and intelligence (man I wanted to be Violet Baudelaire so bad) I love our villain Count Olaf, he is far more menacing than I remember. He is so creepy to Violet in this book in ways at time that went over my head as a kid but give me the creeps now as an adult.

The writing of our fourth wall breaking story teller Lemony Snicket is some of my favourite of all time, I still love the fact that Daniel Handler wrote these as pseudonym, Snicket is more a character himself than a writer and you can only imagine how my mind was blown and confused finding this out as a youngster. One of my favourite elements of these stories is the dedications to Beatrice, they are short, funny, beautiful and some times moving. The dark humor in this book .... *chefs kiss* 

This story was dark, funny, adventurous and I cannot wait to head straight on to the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Body shaming

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This series had been on my radar for well over a decade, but I didn't have the motivation to start until I was in a book club that has it on the reading list. The vibe of the whole thing is a bit Dickens meets Roald Dahl with less of the child slavery and fart jokes. I can't stand Roald Dahl, so it you're a fan at least you are aware of my bias.

The tone of the story is charming and peppered with conversational notes for children on vocabulary and grammar ("vocabulary and grammar", in this sense means, the words that are used, and in which order, so that they make good sense.) I laughed at parts of the story such as when a child is reading late at night and is so tired that he repeats the same part over and repeats the same part over and repeats the same part over.

I find it a little irksome that to have scary adult characters they lean into the body horror, caricaturing an amputee with two hooks for hands and a fat, gender indeterminate person with white eyes. It's a bit circus freakshow, and challenges my desire for positive representation of Disability. Call me a snowflake, I dare you.

For a book that ostensibly has nothing but unfortunate happenings, sad beginnings, and sad endings, I was still not surprised that the children use their extensive resourcefulness to solve problems. It would be utterly unengaging if there was no hope, but the whole point is that these children are relatively irrepressible (which means that compared to most people, they don't let unfortunate or difficult things stop them). Yes the ending faces them with a new valamity, but such is the way with serial stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Grief, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Bullying

dreamerfreak's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

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.

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

micaelacccc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

Why is this marketed to children? So so so creepy and gave me the ick at Count Olaf and the men who thought Violet was a "pretty thing"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Grief

sadiaa's review against another edition

5.0

Definitely started reading for the nostalgic element, can't wait to get through the whole series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Death of parent

daniellesharp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, and Physical abuse

lilshelly's review against another edition

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

5.0

The nostalgia at visiting one of my favorite childhood series again. I remember all the plot beats so well but am still so excited to experience them again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Fire/Fire injury