The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket

The Wide Window
By: Lemony Snicket
Published: 2000
Audiobook Read by: Lemony Snicket
My rating: Good







Continuing on with the saga of the Baudelaire Orphans, we listened to this next book in the series. So far this has been my least favorite but it is still a fun book to listen to and we are definitely not deterred in our determination to listen to the whole series!

I would love to let Aunt Josephine tell you about her adventures with the children but she is afraid of computer keyboards since the keys might shatter thus embedding shards of plastic in her fingertips and exposing her to severe electrocution from the exposed contacts beneath. Since Josephine can't tell you herself, I shall do my best to share with you the gist of their experiences.

I wish I could say that Aunt Josephine was the guardian the children had been hoping for. I wish I could say they finally found a home they could be happy living in. I really wish I could say they were finally free of Count Olaf's scheming and conniving. I wish I could say all of those things but I promised my mother that I wouldn't tell lies so I better not. It makes me very sad to relate to you the terrible disaster that befalls Violet, Klaus, and Sunny in this book.

As you probably guessed, the children do not find an end to their misfortunes. Quite the contrary, they very nearly fall into such misfortune that could turn your heart into jello and cause you to have non-stop nightmares for at least 2 3/4 years! If you are of weak constitution I highly recommend you not read this book. Josephine turns out to be another short lived guardian and of course, Count Olaf seems to know exactly where to find them and hatches yet another dastardly plot to get his hands on their fortune. Sadness reigns supreme in the orphans lives as they survive more hardship than any child should ever endure!

This is a good book but was not quite as good as the last two. Aunt Josephine was really kind of a boring character and we found it hard to hope the children would continue to stay with her while at the same time having no reason to really dislike her. There was the same kind of dark humor that we have come to love about these books and the randomness of some of the story was great for some laughs.

We listened to the audiobook read by Lemony Snicket. In my experience, few authors make good readers and this is one of those situations. He really does a bad job of giving the story life, having a slightly flat expressionless voice and hardly distinguishing between characters at all. It didn't help that we were so spoiled by the wonderful talents of Tim Curry on the first two books. I think this would be a better book to read, rather than listen to if at all possible. Unfortunately, since we are listening to them while we wait for the bus we will be stuck with the audiobooks, but I'm sure we'll survive.

Overall, this book carries the plot of the series along quite well and should not be passed over. It is still a lot of fun and I think you'll very much enjoy this miserable tale! :)