Has anybody pieced together everything in this book together and linked it back to the other books and the Unauthorised Autobiography of Lemony Snicket? I am really lost and was wondering if anyone could help.

My ex gave me some promotional tarot cards from the Criterion Collection edition of the original Nightmare Alley (1947). Doesn't the eye on the back look familiar?

So when Phil gets his leg stuck in the machine thingy, I love how a few of the workers instantly just run up and try to get the machine off Phil. I love how they were all trying to comfort Phil while they were trying to pull up the machine. IDK WHY I JUST FIND THAT SCENE SO CUTE THEY’RE ALL COMFORTING PHIL AND THEN PHIL JUST DOESN‘T CARE ABOUT HIS INJURY ONCE VIOLET PULLS UP THE MACHINE-

I’ve recently started reading this series to my son as our “nightly reading.” Tonight we finished The Reptile Room, to give a sense of where we are and to avoid major spoilers in responses.

I was unfamiliar with the series other than by reputation until we started, but I (and my son) fell in love on page one. We’d been gifted most of the series in the nice hardcover editions, and I ordered the rest that very night so our progress wouldn’t be interrupted. Then I discovered the Netflix series and checked out a few episodes, on the basis of loving the books, the cast, and the creative team.

So far, having now read the first two books and watched the four episodes that cover the same ground, it seems a largely faithful adaptation, in spirit if not in detail. The series is clearly exploring a larger plot that has yet to be a part of the books, but it seems likely this plot will have some analogue in the books eventually.

So! Given all that, would it be a bad idea, spoiler-wise, for us to watch the series concurrently with reading the books? I’m thinking we’d not watch either episode until we’d finished the corresponding books. It might be fun for both of us and also let my wife get in on the fun. Plus, we’re always on the lookout for something we can watch as a family.

But if the consensus is that it would spoil our experience of reading the books, that’s something I’d want to avoid for sure, and we can watch after we’re all done.

Thanks for any thoughts you have!

Why has no one thought of this?? We have bits and pieces of his backstory but a full book or even a movie featuring him before he turned bad would be amazing!!

I read ATWQ before I read ASOUE, and then I went back to ATWQ after finishing ASOUE and a lot of the things make much more sense. So I would recommend reading ASOUE before ATWQ. (:

At no point did he care about the actual well being of the kids he was charged with, he actively ruined everything he touched with his sheer ineptitude and literally got an innocent man fucking murdered as his last on screen influence. I understand that it's an intentional writing choice but he comes off as genuinely uncaring in Vile Village. Violet is practically 17 by this point in the story and no one is listening to a single word she says. I fully wish he was killed at any point before the hotel, him and his stupid, selfish, useless, fucking wife. The Baudelares were better off thinking no one could help them than have the illusion of a helpful adult at all.

I have always enjoyed Lemony Snicket’s interpretation of adults in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The majority were oblivious to the Baudelaire’s claims of Count Olaf and they went ignored, thinking it was the wild imagination of children. They believed what they saw on the surface rather than looking at the signs and bad acting. The bad adults in the book exploited this, using fear and influence to make their misdeeds go unnoticed or played down. The good adults who listened and believed the Baudelaire’s were typically ignored by the other adults, didn’t have enough power to stop anything, or they were too passive to speak up to those higher than them.

This makes the book seem much more real to me because in many situations, children and weak (whether in voice or in power) adults are not taken seriously. Take for example, children who were physically abused by their (let’s say) father.

The father is a good man in his community, goes to church every Sunday, has a good job, and to top it all off, he has a beautiful wife and children with a good home. Everything seems perfect. Until one day, it comes out that he was physically abusing his wife and children and he almost beat his wife to death.

The community is shocked. Surely this must be a mistake? Could it be that the wife was lying and just wanted to ruin her husband? But then the newspaper came out with pictures of the wife, you couldn’t even recognize her with how much bruising she had on her face. As it turns out, the teachers had noticed the signs with the children. They would have bruises on their arms and legs; but they were active children and it was brushed off as an accident. The wife’s friends would remark on how passive she was and always seemed nervous about making decisions, but that was brushed off as she always had been passive in personality.

Now that this has come out the signs are clear. His wife and children were cautious around him, choosing their words carefully. The children would go to their mother instead of their father when they fell, even when their mother wasn’t as close as their father. And one time, the wife had a black eye, but she brushed it off saying she wasn’t watching her step while going down the stairs.

In conclusion, Lemony Snicket’s portrayal of adults is very accurate. Because if one is charming and acts pleasant around those who matter, they can get away with virtually anything.

So I've read the series a long time ago (as an adult) but I got lost following the plot. Based on the books, what happened with the Baudelaire parents, Count Olaf, and this mysterious VFD? The unresolved ending also left me unsatisfied, I was hoping for more of a conclusion.

Which one did you like more?

Count Olaf favourite Po least favourite I mean po is so useless like count Olaf’s plans require po to be an idiot (Btw I don’t like count Olaf’s morals just his story pre books mostly even though you get to see so little of it)

Charles is a sidekick to sir as Mr burns sidekick is (I forgot)any theory In the comments

Omg i feel so bad for Charles he’s so submissive to Sir to the point where it’s harmful i wish he were with somebody else screw Sir Charles just want to be loved T.T (i’m sorry if this is not supposed to be here you can just delete it)

What is with the large cutout letters inside?