Downside? You get another Series of Unfortunate Events review, which I am tired of writing because my complaints never change (the reviews are pretty much as repetitive as the books) and I struggle to find new ways of saying “condescending, but pretentiously so” without sounding like I just read a thesaurus (but am pretending is my normal speech pattern) like Handler.
Upside? I bough all these books together, and I’m not gonna read any more, so this is the last of my SoUE reviews I’ll inflict on you wonderful people.
The one part I really enjoyed because it wasn’t completely laid on thick? The charity auction McGuffin was an actual red herring, so of course it wasn’t the REAL McGuffin. Cute!
Everything else was more of the same. Baudelaires in trouble. Thankfully this time no Olaf or cronies in disguise for the Big Bad, just an acolyte. The two triplets in peril. An elevator that shouldn’t be there just so Handler could use the word “ersatz” and keep up the alliteration.
I might check out the Netflix series (I haven’t heard good things about the film) because there are some really interesting ideas here, and I do enjoy dark things for children (Hi there Tim Burton, Gashlycrumb tinies, Addams Family…) but this whole series felt like a wasted opportunity. Good ideas here and there, and some really amazing visuals (the boss from the mill being enshrouded in smoke is creepy as hell) but they just don’t add up to much.
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