All the Wrong Questions, Book 1
It was hard for me to recall when the kids and I finished the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, but then I remembered, “Oh wait! I run a book review blog and I can just look it up.” We finished The End nearly two years ago, and yet it doesn’t seem so long.
In the meantime, of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix miniseries starring Neal Patrick Harris, a series which perfectly delivers the same darkly unrealistic feel of the books yet in cinematic form. We loved the books (and the series) for their danger, humor, and mystery that kept us coming back for more, so when I saw that Snicket had another series out there (which I’d never heard of), I was sure to jump at the chance to reintroduce him to my kids.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, whether this would be a book set in the same crazy world as the one the Baudelaire children endured, or if it might be something completely different. Because Lemony Snicket is a pseudonym (the real author being Daniel Handler) and a character himself in his own unfortunate series, I figured they’d be tied together somehow.
What we get in this first book is an introduction to Lemony Snicket as a child, a boy in training for some secret organization that’s not yet described (but I assume will end up being V.F.D.). He’s under the tutelage of a woman named Theodora who’s taken him to a small, nearly abandoned town called Stain’d-by-the-Sea to investigate the robbery of a statue. Along the way, Snicket meets a series of odd characters who either help or hamper his investigation, some of whom he even befriends. The statue is that of the Bombinating Beast, a mythical creature, and we soon discover that the mysteries surrounding it go much deeper than any old robbery. There’s kidnappings and disappearances and lies and all sorts of shenanigans.
Snicket’s familiar style returns with a vengeance in this book, which made us super glad. I’ve heard his style referenced as “the intrusive narrator,” a literary term which here means something that was probably made up only to capture the style that’s so uniquely Snicket. It’s funny and dark and innocent, yet Snicket’s narration also carries with it a sophistication way beyond books about any other almost-13-year-old protagonist. Still, my own kids (10, 12) understood the book quite well, and we’re now looking forward to Book 2 of 4: When Did You Last See Her?
©2023 E.T.