# Does "A Series of Unfortunate Events" get better? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 3, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420 "2011-10-03T08:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/21 "2011-10-03T17:23:28Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > …a word which here means…? So in terms of words you could say…they chose…poorly? ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/22 "2011-10-03T17:23:47Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I didn’t like them and only felt they got worse and worse. IMO, the first book was the best, and if you didn’t like it, you may as well forget it. > > Without any spoilers, I shall also add that I was enormously disappointed with the ending of all of the books. It felt like a huge copout. I’ll spoiler it here if you’re interested: > > They never find out 99% of the questions that plaque them throughout the series and the author ends with an Aesop about how “you never really get to know everything”. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > **Anaamika** , I was bummed about that too. The kids and I had spent a lot of time speculating about how things would work out. _shrug_ But we enjoyed the ride. We still have some in-jokes between us related to the books. Personally, I loved the ending. For books that are full of ennui and vagueness, it seemed to me a perfect ending. It’s also, I think, a valuable lesson–one people stalking their ex-girlfriends on Facebook or people going to high school reunions to try to lord over former bullies ought to learn. [spoiler]No-one knows–or can know–everything, not even if you want to, not even if it’s related to you. There’s value in letting go of the past, of putting those memories behind, of not being caught up in them and endlessly poring over them and recreating them. There’s a stark contrast between the narrator and the Baudilares (or however you spell it)–he is caught up in this chain of memories, constantly on the run, in pain, unfinished. They have escaped that, at least, and if they die at least they die striking it out on their own, unburdened by the terrible weight of the conspiracy the adults attempted to thrust upon them. And it’s not an Aesop thrust into the last book. The last bit of the 11th, where the kids ignore Poe and go with Kit instead, represents their first attempt to break the cycle. And the end of the 12th, with the fire, where all these other characters are given cursory exits, is another embodiment of the same moral–don’t obsess over whether you’ve finally “got even” with your grandmother or step-father or ex-wife or whatever. Live your own life. It’s a moral, I think, well worth learning, and I never understood why so many people thought the author was “copping out”. I think any actual resolution of all the plot threads would have been a disappointment compared to their elegant destruction. [/spoiler] I was a huge fan of the books (if you couldn’t tell). ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/23 "2011-10-03T17:34:13Z")
Well, I was kind of amused that they now have another kid to look after. Is that a happy ending, or an unfortunate event? Open to interpretation, I’d say. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/24 "2011-10-03T17:58:11Z")
I thought the second book was the best, but no, they don’t get much better than the first. By the 10th, I think they had jumped the shark. But at least by then they had broken out of the formula “kids placed somewhere, some newcomer shows up, it turns out to be Count Olaf, they narrowly escape.”) I really liked the voice, and a lot of the jokes, but it does get thin spread over 13 books. Well, in all honesty, I’m missing about 4 books in the middle - I skipped from about book 5 or 6 to book 10. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/25 "2011-10-03T18:04:11Z")
I thought they got better, until about 6 or so (I’m not going to check which one), then got worse. I don’t think he sustained the momentum and the books started to feel like filler until he got to the 13th and could finally end them. There just wasn’t enough plot for that many books. That said, if you didn’t like the tone and style of the first, you’re not going to like any of the rest any better. ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/26 "2011-10-03T18:48:20Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I paid a buck for the book, and I feel rather cheated. I just have to say I laughed so hard at that. That is a great line 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/27 "2011-10-03T19:21:25Z")
I managed to get through all of the books, and I don’t think much of the series. I don’t think that I would have liked them much as a child either. I think of them as one more entry in the “I’m going to make this series so long that it will pay for my retirement” contest that so many authors seem to be engaging in these days. I would complain that it appears that many authors don’t seem to know how to tell a story concisely anymore, but I suspect that they do know how to do so. They just don’t want to. They want to make lots of money from writing a lot of books without having to come up with new premises for each book. One thing that might momentarily distract an adult are the offhand references that only an adult who does considerable research might eventually understand. There are all the comments made by Sunny that are supposed to be baby talk but which Klaus and Violet can understand. Sometimes these are just nonsense words, but sometimes they are excruciatingly obscure references. At one point, for instance, Sunny says “Sandover.” This, as I discovered after some research, is a reference to the book-length poem _The Changing Light at Sandover_ by James Merrill. No child is ever going to recognize that reference. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/28 "2011-10-03T21:10:47Z")
Hmmmm, definitely mixed reviews. Quite possibly I’d like the audio since Tim Curry narrates, but I’d listen to him recite a grocery list. I’ll see if Half Price Books still has 2 and 3 next time I’m there, and if they’re on the clearance rack. Because I’m not gonna pay more than a buck each for them. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/29 "2011-10-03T22:55:34Z")
I loved these books, but if you didn’t like the first one you probably won’t like the rest of the series. I have encountered people (including here on the SDMB) who didn’t “get it” with the first few books but later did, but if this style of writing and humor simply isn’t to your taste then you’ll never like the others. For anyone who feels that the first few books are too formulaic (#2 and #3 have essentially the same plot) then I can say that the later books mix it up a bit as things go from bad to worse for the orphans. A lot of mysteries are left unexplained at the end, but the answer to one of the biggest mysteries is revealed to the reader at the end of the last book. By that point I think a lot of readers must have guessed correctly, but it is at least confirmed and not left shrouded in mystery. _Lemony Snicket: An Unauthorized Autobiography_ is not part of the series but I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys the series and wants to get a bit more backstory on the narrator and the VFD. It does leave a lot unexplained, but that should be expected. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > The book was quite short, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I got tired of Snicket telling me that this was an unhappy book. I also got tired of him telling me just what various words meant in the context. > [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > The motifs of Snicket telling you that the books are unhappy and defining words for the reader continues, so in that aspect it doesn’t get better. He plays with it later on (circular definitions, the orphans getting annoyed when characters define words for their benefit), but if the style grates on you then it might be worth giving it a miss. IIRC, he was playing with it from the very beginning. I thought this was very funny, and I think I would have found it funny if I’d been a child (I was in college when the series began). > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Sometimes these are just nonsense words, but sometimes they are excruciatingly obscure references. At one point, for instance, Sunny says “Sandover.” This, as I discovered after some research, is a reference to the book-length poem _The Changing Light at Sandover_ by James Merrill. No child is ever going to recognize that reference. I’ve heard this criticism of the books before, but I don’t see why this is a problem. So what if every reader doesn’t get every reference? I know I don’t get all the jokes/references in Terry Pratchett’s novels, and I didn’t get all the jokes/references on _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, and it never bothered me. If one cares enough it’s usually pretty easy to find these things out on the Internet, and if one doesn’t care then it doesn’t really matter as far as understanding the story whether one gets all of Sunny’s references or not. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/30 "2011-10-03T23:00:33Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I didn’t like them and only felt they got worse and worse. IMO, the first book was the best, and if you didn’t like it, you may as well forget it. > > Without any spoilers, I shall also add that I was enormously disappointed with the ending of all of the books. It felt like a huge copout. I’ll spoiler it here if you’re interested: > > They never find out 99% of the questions that plaque them throughout the series and the author ends with an Aesop about how “you never really get to know everything”. I agree with every word of this, and most especially what’s in the spoiler. I had been reading the books to my son and looking forward to each of the last ones as they came out. I was quite disappointed when I looked over the entire story arc. Pffft. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420/31 "2011-10-04T00:39:57Z")
Lamia writes: \> I’ve heard this criticism of the books before, but I don’t see why this is a \> problem. I didn’t say that it was a problem. On the contrary, the obscure references were a momentary distraction from the otherwise mediocre nature of the series. Every once in a while, I found myself for a short period not bothered by the rather boring plots by trying to figure out these references. My point is that this doesn’t make up for the other problems with the books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-get-better/598420.md?page=1)