What’s it all about?:
Dear Reader,
If you have picked up this book with the hope of finding a simple and cheery tale, I’m afraid you have picked up the wrong book altogether. The story may seem cheery at first, when the Baudelaire children spend time in the company of some interesting reptiles and a giddy uncle, but don’t be fooled. If you know anything at all about the unlucky Baudelaire children, you already know that even pleasant events lead down the same road to misery.
In fact, within the pages you now hold in your hands, the three siblings endure a car accident, a terrible odor, a deadly serpent, a long knife, a large brass reading lamp, and the appearance of a person they’d hoped never to see again.
I am bound to record these tragic events, but you are free to put this book back on the shelf and seek something lighter.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
What did I think?:
Chrissi and I read the first book in the Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Bad Beginning in our Kid Lit challenge last year and with the television series being announced on Netflix that I really fancy watching, we decided to include the second book in the series, The Reptile Room this year. This book has been a really interesting turnaround for me. I enjoyed The Bad Beginning when we read it but sadly not as much as I was hoping to and some things about it irked me slightly, like the continuous explanation of certain words that the author used which I thought got a bit unnecessary at times (although I’m quite aware I’m not the intended audience for this book at all!). However, I was really surprised to find that I actually enjoyed The Reptile Room much more. Surprising, as quite a few people on GoodReads don’t agree with me and think the first book in the series was a lot better but personally, everything that annoyed me in the first book I just found charming in this second outing and I’m definitely more excited to carry on with the series than I was after The Bad Beginning.
Of course, we are back with the poor Baudelaire orphans – Violet, Klaus and Sunny who have been placed with a new guardian after their terrifying experience with Count Olaf in the previous novel. Their new distant relative, Montgomery Montgomery (hilarious!) who insists the children call him Uncle Monty is a respected herpetologist, i.e. someone who is involved in the study of amphibians and reptiles and an all round good egg. He even has a Reptile Room in his house where he looks after his creatures and carries out research. Uncle Monty is preparing for a big research trip to Peru and the children are delighted when they are invited to help him prepare and then told that they will accompany him and his research assistant on the trip. However, when the mysterious research assistant arrives, he has a different, much more wicked agenda in mind and the orphans are placed in a horrific and dangerous situation once more, just when they thought they were going to get their happy ending.
I don’t want to say too much more about the plot for anyone who hasn’t read it but let me assure you, it’s wonderful. I haven’t read a children’s villain for a little while now that is quite so evil and nasty but at the same time, almost a caricature of himself and I think adults will find him hugely entertaining. I felt like I connected a lot more with the children’s characters in this novel as well, much more so than the first novel in the series. I love clever Violet’s inventions that she always manages to come up with in the nick of time, the invaluable information that Klaus provides from his reading and even baby Sunny who really comes into her own in this story and saves the day. There’s one particular incident with one of Uncle Monty’s snakes, The Incredibly Deadly Viper (or is it?!) and Sunny that really made me smile and it was definitely one of the many highlights of the book for me. But when Lemony Snicket, just when are you going to give these poor children a bit of good luck in their lives? I don’t mind really, the stories are just too good! Now I just need to try and persuade my sister that we should put the third book in the series on our Kid Lit list for 2018.
For Chrissi’s fab review, please check out her post HERE.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
NEXT TIME ON BETH AND CHRISSI DO KID LIT: Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman.
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