Title: The Miserable Mill [A Series of Unfortunate Events 4]
Author: Lemony Snicket
]Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Length: 169
Rating: 3 Star
Series Review: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Description/Synopsis:
Dear Reader,
hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously, because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, THE MISERABLE MILL might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumbermill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking behind every log.
The pages of this book, I’m sorry to inform you, contain such unpleasantries as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury, and coupons.
I have promised to write down the entire story of these three poor children, but you haven’t, so if you prefer stories that are more heartwarming, please feel free to make another selection.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I think this was the scariest of the books thus far.
The children head on to a lumbermill where they are forced to work in exchange for their new guardian keeping Count Olaf away from the children. Of course this doesn’t happen and the children fall into more troubling events. Klaus gets hypnotised and is forced to commit horrible actions. I was freaking out when Klaus got hypnotised. It is bad enough that bad events keep happening to them and all around them but it is another to force them to join in the bad activity.
Entertainment wise though I think this is probably the one I have had the most issue with thus far.
One of the first things I had issues with, though not really that big a deal, is the fact that the place was obsessed with gum, that the children had to eat it, and it was stuck basically everywhere. You can’t eat gum. It doesn’t digest properly. And ew. I think the only reason why it was such a big deal in this book is because Klaus required gum to do something at the end of the book.
Also, I know the whole point to these stories is that they are supposed to be sad, but there was never any happy moment in the book. There wasn’t really any contrast so it was all the same and kind of dull. Even the part where someone I liked was being threatened by an electric saw, the event seemed to last an exceptionally long time so I no longer really gave a damn if they got chopped up or not because I was tired of hearing about it.
I think the thing I found most ridiculous however was at the end where Sunny, a baby who cannot even walk, had a sword fight with a fully grown woman. Oh, and Sunny didn’t even had a sword, she used her teeth instead. And apparently not being able to move or be as tall and only using the 4 teeth in her mouth she was able to be evenly matched for the woman. She didn’t even get a scratch on her face. I had to picture Sunny as baby vampire pretty much the entire time, being able to float and move quickly, and have super strength and healing otherwise it didn’t work. I know its middle grade but you don’t have to be stupid about these things!
I will say that the book had some good lines though:
Raisins are healthy, and they are inexpensive, and some people may even find them delicious. But they are rarely considered helpful.
So yes, if you are reading this series I hope you find more enjoyment from this book than I did. The more I read the more I seem not to like it. I don’t think these books are a good thing for me to marathon.
Till Next Time…