Book #5 of 2018: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), 2018 book: Bewere the Night

[thistlechaser]

The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans! (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1) by Lemony Snicket
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



If you're not familiar with this series, the story follows the happenings of a trio of orphans in a not quite realistic version of our world. On one hand it's dark (bad things happen to the children), but on the other it never really seemed like realistic danger.

If I hadn't watched the Netflix series based on this book, I probably would have rated it as Loved. Unfortunately the show followed the book event for event, and often word for word, so I was bored with the story. The next book was also covered in the series, so I probably should skip it, but they're pretty fast reads, so we'll see.

Bewere the Night by (multiple)
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



A series of short stories about were-animals. The first story was outstanding. Set in a future, destroyed version of our world, there were Crow Lords (men who could turn into a dozen crows), Fox Girls (werefoxes, always female), and a small handful of humans. The Fox Girls apparently lived forever(? or a seriously long time), and the three groups were at war. The story followed one Fox Girl as the Crow Lords tried to use her against the humans. I would have happily read a whole book based on that world, the characters, and the magic system.

Unfortunately the next three stories were a miss for me. Since I'm no longer permitting myself to fall for anthologies' traps (put the best story first so people keep reading hoping for another one that good, and put the second best one last so the reader is left with a good impression of the book), I stopped reading after those few duds (13%).

Partial book credits:
Point reached in this book: 13%
Previous abandoned book total: 104%
New total: 117%

Currently reading: Drift, about a world where all the people live on islands on giant turtles' backs.

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I say this every time, but if you can find the audio for the first three Snicket books, Tim Curry reads them and it elevates them to a whole different level. But, at their core, they are definitely elementary grade books so not a lot of meat to them. I guess it gets more complex later on but I gave up after the first three I think. I barely made it through the show too. :\

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the show a lot, but I can definitely tell these are books for younger readers. Like you said, they're kind of lacking in meat...

I'll see if I can find the audio version, thanks!