Setting

Where and when the story takes place

      The story took place in a town. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny were the three Baudelaire children who lived in a large house where each child got their own bedroom and they also had a large library filled with books to read. There were two chairs with a lamp over each chair for reading.

      One gray day on Briny Beach, when the three children were playing skipping rocks, Mr. Poe came to tell them that a fire perished their house along with their loving parents. Now they had to temporarily live with Mr. Poe, the executor of the Baudelaire’s estate, also the keeper of the family fortune. While staying at Mr. Poe’s house, the children had to share a room with Mr. Poe’s sons. The room had an awful smell.

      After a few days, Mr. Poe arranged the orphans to live with a guardian, a creepy distant relative, named Count Olaf. His house was a pigsty. The curtains were dusty and the window glass was cracked. The walls were peeling off too. Pictures of eyes were everywhere. The bedrooms were very filthy with only one very small bed to sleep in for all three of the orphans. So the three Bauldelaires had to take turns sleeping in it. The house also had an upper secret room where Count Olaf warned the children to never go there.

Characters

Violet - The oldest Bauldelaire orphan. She is fourteen years old. Violet is smart, brave, and takes care of her younger siblings. She is good at making all sorts of different inventions. When she thinks, she starts to tie her hair into a ribbon.

Klaus - The second oldest Bauldelaire orphan. He is the only boy in the family. Klaus is fascinated in reading and researching, so he is knowledgeable. He can figure out things quickly if he concentrates.

Count Olaf – The guardian of the three orphans. Thin, unshaven, and shiny-eyed makes him look scary and monstrous. He even has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle and all around his house, just like he is watching the orphans wherever they go. He is a greedy and evil person who attempts to steal the Bauldelaire fortune. He also lies to people a lot.

Synopsis

        The Bad Beginning is a story about the misadventures of 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus, and infant Sunny Baudelaire. It narrates how the three wonderful orphans help each other during difficult times and how they use their intelligence to overcome their fears and troubles. They struggle to survive in a troublesome world.

      The three Bauldelaires' misfortune began with an enormous fire that destroyed their homes. They lost both of their loving parents, which is enough sadness to last anyone's lifetimes. Now their lives have gone from great to terrible. But in the case of the three Bauldelaires, it was only the bad beginning. It gets even worse.

       After the fire, a distant relative, Count Olaf, adopted the children, but he mistreated them. He was out of the house most of the days and left the children with many difficult chores. He only fed them oatmeal with raspberries on top everyday. He even made the children cook for him.

      The Bauldelaire parents had left behind an enormous fortune, which could go to the children when Violet came of age. Count Olaf was so obsessed with getting his filthy hands on the money that he cooked up an evil plan. He started to setup a big performance called The Marvelous Marriage. The performance was about a man who was very brave and intelligent, played by Count Olaf. In the finale, he married the young, beautiful woman he loved, played by Violet. Klaus and Sunny were some of the cheering people in the crowd. Justice Strauss, a lawyer, played the judge who was going to read directly from a legal book. Violet and Klaus knew something was going wrong, but they couldn't figure it out. 

      The two intelligent children went to Justice Strauss' library and found a book called Nuptial Laws. They finally unscrambled what Count Olaf was up to. If Justice Strauss was going to read from a legal book, then the marriage would become legal and that meant he would have access to their fortune. They were pondering about how to defeat Count Olaf all through the night. They had to stop him.

      By the start of the performance, Violet already had a wonderful plan. When it was her turn to sign, she signed by her left hand and the play was over. Justice Strauss announced them as a couple. At this moment, Violet spoke up and said that she had signed the document with her left hand, but she was actually right handed. So the document was invalid and everybody realized Count Olaf's ugly intention and how he attempted to marry Violet for real. They wanted to send him to jail. Unfortunately, the theater lights suddenly went out and Count Olaf escaped.

Opinions

      The front cover illustration caught my eyes when I saw The Bad Beginning in the book store. The book has two little circle pictures on top of the title: one of the three children and the other of a house on fire. It showed me a scene from the story. Although I could sort of guess from the title “Unfortunate Events”, it still had me wondering what the tale was about.

      The story delivers the greatest level of excitement and mystery to readers among all the other good books that I had tried, like Island of the Blue Dolphins, Charlottes Web, Holes, etc. I couldn’t put it down because I was very eager to know what would happen next. For sure I will continue to read the rest of the series.

      Another good thing about the book is that it is language wise. It is perfect for my grade level. It explains words as it goes.

      Above all, I would like to give the book four and a half stars just because I don’t like its depressing parts. However, the book doesn’t have the children suffering without end.

      I would highly recommend this book to kids ages 11 to13. It’s a book having some good relations to the Harry Potter series. I think it is very well written and worth to try reading. I believe you will enjoy it as much as I did. If you are interested in stories with happy endings or if you are very sensitive, it would not be the book for you. Also it would be too depressing and scary for kids younger than 10.

      I also found one thing that was very appealing about the Unfortunate Events series. The titles for all the twelve books all start with the word "The" and end with two words that have the same initial letters. For instance, The Bad Beginning.

      If you want to see what I mean, then you have to read for yourself.

Miscellaneous

The other books written by Lemony Snicket:

1.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (Book 2)

2.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window (Book 3)

3.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill (Book 4)

4.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy (Book 5)

5.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6)

6.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vile Village (Book 7)

7.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital (Book 8)

8.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Carnivorous Carnival (Book 9)

9.       A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Slippery Slope (Book 10)

10.   A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Grim Grotto (Book 11)

11.   A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril (Book 12)

The titles of other books similar to The Bad Beginning:

1.     A Terrifying Taste of Short & Shivery - by Robert D. San Souci

2.      The Boxcar Children - by Gertrude Chandler Warner

3.      Harry Potter series - by J.K.Rowling

Illustration of scenes from the book: