Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

27 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

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

kensingtonska's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.0

Fuck Klaus.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Child abuse and Alcohol

anonymousbiblioholic39's review against another edition

dark funny sad fast-paced

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

3.25

** SPOILERS AHEAD **
Enjoyment: 5/5
       * The Bad Beginning was a very fast-paced and enjoyable read. I finished it in less than a day, and I think it would be perfect for anyone who wants a quick read to fly through. 
Writing: 3/5
       * I really enjoyed all of the creative interjections to the story that the author added in where he addressed the reader. Idk, I just thought that was a cool way of narrating a story. Outside of that, the writing wasn't anything remarkable or lousy, just what you'd expect for the genre.
Characters: 1/5
       * There wasn't much character development. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny did have their own separate interests and personalities, but they didn't feel all that real. We never got to see why Count Olaf wanted the Baudelaire estate outside of just simple greed, either. Pretty much all of the side characters were shallow and some even useless, should I say so myself. Justice Strauss was flat as a character, and the descriptions of Count Olaf's theatre troupe were unnecessary filler.
 Plot: 4/5
       * The book was well plotted, but the marriage shenanigans were creepy, so  minus 1 star for that

Overall rating: 13/20, 65%

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

Minor: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

ophycore's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Fatphobia, Violence, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Transphobia and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

Spoiler

Neglect, Abduction

annoyedhumanoid'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

i feel weird critiquing when i know i'm no longer the target audience (🥲) but there are literally five plot points it’s so short. i don't think i fully realized, as a fourth grader, the gravity and emotional trauma of the Baudelaire's situation… like

Spoiler

the slap to the face and all the other adults laugh

?!? pit in my stomach. also, this is not an attempt to "cancel" the book, but what must it be like to read this as a child going through abuse only to have Mr. Snicket tell you twenty times "it doesn't get better for these kids". i guess that’s its form of a trigger warning?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Grief, and Death

Minor: Incest, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Pedophilia

amarok2023's review against another edition

The subject matter got a little too heavy for a 3 year old (the child abuse mostly).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Grief