Originally published in 1999, the 13 books that made up A Series of Unfortunate Events comprised a sizeable and very prominent part of my own childhood.
About as dark as kids books come with a solid dose of humour and heavy gothic and steampunk influences, I spent many a night wrapped up in the Unfortunate series. Following the lives of the three Baudelaire children after their parents die in a mysterious fire, the novels are filled with crooked and sinister characters, each one more inventively evil than the last.
The series will be sure to suck readers right in, and the timeless nature of the books will see many kids to come poring over the adventures of Violet, Klaus and Sunny. What’s more, these novels are an education. Snicket introduces readers to an abundance of literary references and advanced words before explaining them in context with his unmistakable wit. With the popular film adaptation and now a Netflix series in the works, writing about these books have me thinking that they may even warrant a later-life reread.
Reviewed by Lauren
