The Reptile Room (Series of Unfortunate Events, #2)

by Lemony Snicket

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I love that despite the fact [a:Lemony Snicket|36746|Lemony Snicket|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199734355p2/36746.jpg] writes for children, he's morose quite and sarcastic sadnesses are still totally digestible for adults. For me, A Series of Unfortunate Events is an hour-read book, a quick and easy weekend read, and lots of fun. I've always liked his writing style and when he began publishing his new series, starting with: [b:Who Could That Be at This Hour?|13477819|Who Could That Be at This Hour? (All The Wrong Questions, #1)|Lemony Snicket|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333060600s/13477819.jpg|19008874], I happily began reading them. However, I had started A Series of Unfortunate Events in middle school and lost interest in high school and never finished the series. More than ten years later, I'm remedying that.

[b:The Reptile Room|78418|The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2)|Lemony Snicket|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352146294s/78418.jpg|888312] is particularly fun in this series because we've already been introduced to the Baudelaire children and the nefarious Count Olaf, but we aren't so far in the series that we already know the pattern that the next twelve books will entail. Certainly for an adult, it's a predictable, but it's still fun at this point. The childrens' latest guardian - an estranged uncle with an impressive snake collection - is charming and eccentric, and just as frustratingly naive as all the adults in the series, another running trope of amusement and frustration as the children can see the world clearly in the ways that imaginative adults cannot.

The only reason it loses a star, for me, is that it is beginning a repetitive cycle with repeated cliches, but it retains all the rest based upon the fantastic writing and delightful characters. It's a series I would happily recommend to anyone, despite their age.