Review: The Reptile Room

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As with the first book, I thought I would find the writing style obnoxious after the first few pages, but surprisingly I didn't. I even found a new exclamation I'm dying to try out, because who wouldn't love to cry "Nathaniel Hawthorne!" when hysterical? Somehow he managed to chose the perfect author name for swearing.

Quite honestly I think enjoying these books has a lot to do with being an English lit nerd. Though I have to admit I found this book a little less action-packed than the previous one, even when you count in all the snakes. It's a little harder to get excited about opening a suitcase than about foiling a fraudulent wedding.

What I did enjoy very much was all the dirt he heaped on traditional fairytales like little red riding hood and the boy who cried wolf. Don't get me wrong, I love fairy tales to death, but it was very refreshing to see a children's book that acknowledges that lying about stuff is a reality of life and sometimes useful. Funny formulas aside, these books are mature about handling children.

I also quite liked that the children's new guardian was neither horrible nor a moron. It's nice to shake thinks up a bit. Though it'd be even better if the author started recognizing whenever the Baudelaire's themselves are screwing up by telling Olaf their plans! For a bunch of clever orphans they sure seem naive about confronting the villain with useful information like how Monty tore up Olaf's ticket to Peru. Thanks for getting him killed kids!

I've got hope for them though, still got quite about 11 more books to go. Maybe they'll learn.

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