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past Hazy Harbor and into the town of Tedia, is perhaps the most unpleasant in the world. It is called Lousy Lane.
again this naming reminds me of the phantom tollbooth. hazy harbor would make it useless since you can't sail if you can't see. town of tedia = tedium?
scraggly trees produce apples so sour that one only has to look at them to feel ill.
foreshadowing! the runoff from the factory leaking into the water making the apples "sour". the answer being right under their noses the whole time? they look at them and feel ill but would have been cured if they actually ate them. something about judging a book by its cover?
It seemed like that eye was watching the Baudelaire orphans wherever they went.
The driver of the car was Mr. Poe, a family friend who worked at a bank and always had a cough.
BOOOO
“His name is Montgomery Montgomery?”
meaning: mountain belonging to the ruler; man power. i would have thought that the etymology would be more relevant given that handler brought extra attention to it by using it twice but i guess maybe it was just meant as a gag.
Occasionally, people thought that because the orphans were unfortunate, they were also dim-witted.
the Baudelaires could see that the shrubs had been trimmed so as to look like snakes. Each hedge was a different kind of serpent,
The word Serpent is Latin, the word Snake from Germanic.
Serpent is more of a literary term: used in poetry and literature, more evocative and pejorative and dramatic.
Snake is a more clinical term, used more in casual conversation and precise scientific terminology
“I always meant to find a wife and start a family, but it just kept slipping my mind.
“Count Olaf sounds like an awful person. I hope he is torn apart by wild animals someday. Wouldn’t that be satisfying?
acting as if he doesn't know him. wishing for him to die a gruesome death. so much for the rightous side of the schism...
standing in the Reptile Room was like being inside and outside at the same time.
just like how the kids at the center of the story but also being constantly kept on the outside of it.
since the terrible fire, the children were always delighted to meet someone who loved books as much as they did.
It is Uncle Monty, unfortunately, who will be dead, but not yet.
this might have been the first time i had come across this as a child. being told a character was going to die by the end and having to wait to see why and how. it does a wondeful job at building the tension and increases the feeling of gloom throughout the story.
I promise that if you take time to learn the facts, no harm will come to you here in the Reptile Room.”
“I think we’ll always miss our parents. But I think we can miss them without being miserable all the time. After all, they wouldn’t want us to be miserable.”
One of the most difficult things to think about in life is one’s regrets. Something will happen to you, and you will do the wrong thing, and for years afterward you will wish you had done something different.
Count Olaf looked at each of the Baudelaire orphans, his eyes shining brightly as if he were telling a joke. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, “but if I did, and I were this Count Olaf you speak of, I would think that you were being very rude. And if I thought you were rude, I might get angry. And if I got angry, who knows what I would do?”
snicket does a wonderful job of portraying abusive adults in the way that children see them. most abuse comes in the form of threats, looming violence and reprecussions.
as adults we want to scream to the children to speak up and tell the truth regardless of the threats but as children we understood just how terrifying threats from adults could be. most children woud do the same thing the baudelaries did, keep quiet out of fear and then wind up in an even worse situation.
“He wouldn’t believe us,” Klaus said. “Remember when we tried to tell him about Count Olaf when we lived there? He took such a long time to realize the truth, it was almost too late.
poe continuing to be the real villain
“For all we know, Uncle Monty and Stephano have planned something together.”
love my paranoid boy, i'd be the same say. trust no one.
“I’m all ears,” Uncle Monty said, “but first let me show you the wasp repellent I picked up.
SIGH... these adults are the worst.
We have lots to do today, and I’d like to catch the six o’clock showing of Zombies in the Snow tonight,
“I don’t mean to be vainglorious,” Uncle Monty began, using a word which here means “braggy,” “but I really am one of the most widely respected herpetologists in the world.”
adults in this world always seem to make everything about themselves and end up putting the children second. especially VFD, they are so concerned with their own persuits and so blinded by their own "brilliance" they fail to see the most obvious.
“I think so,” Violet began, but Uncle Monty interrupted her. “It is because this man who is calling himself Stephano,” he said, “is really a member of the Herpetological Society,
HARD eye roll... and to think monty is one of the better guardians
“But Uncle Monty—” Klaus said. “How many times must I remind you it’s not polite to interrupt?” Uncle Monty interrupted, shaking his head.
god these books really take me back to being a kid in the most awful ways... adults always preaching but not practicing
It was Stephano, or, if you prefer, it was Count Olaf. It was the bad guy.
i love this line and idk why... it sound so final even though as an older reader i know that the truth is not quite so simple.
“Even the best plans can change if there’s an accident.” He pointed one spiky finger at the brass reading lamp. “And accidents happen all the time.”
olaf is just such a stellar villain, every little kid's nightmare
Bad circumstances have a way of ruining things that would otherwise be pleasant.
aint that just the way...
Stephano sat in the middle and hogged the popcorn.
one of my favorite things about olaf is how unserious he is, even for the "big bad" of the series. of course he would hog the popcorn.
“Could we all spend the night in the same room?” Klaus asked Violet timidly. “Last night I felt as if I were in a jail cell, worrying all by myself.” “Me too,” Violet admitted. “Since we’re not going to sleep, we might as well not sleep in the same place.”
my heart breaks for them. i love how klaus is the one to show vulnerability and ask for comfort.
Somebody knocked on the door, four loud knocks as if something were being nailed shut.
nails on monty's proverbial coffin
a look of brummagem surprise on his face. “Brummagem” is such a rare word for “fake” that even Klaus didn’t know what it meant,
love that he clearly just puts these in these for funsies. like hey, maybe this will help you on jeopardy one day! lol
Violet tried to remember if they had even thanked him for taking them to the movies, but the night was all a blur.
it's little moments like this that make me love these books so much. amidst all the grief, fear and shock, violet trying to remember if they thanked him... it's so real and heartbreaking
It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.
no words... god, mr. handler... this was supposed to be kids book :(
It was Mr. Poe, coughing away as usual, and the children were so delighted to see him that they found themselves smiling despite their horrible circumstances.
the only good thing poe ever did, almost dying.
It is very unnerving to be proven wrong, particularly when you are really right and the person who is really wrong is the one who is proving you wrong and proving himself, wrongly, right. Right?
beautifully put lol
“All I can see,” Mr. Poe said, “is what’s in front of me.
HA!
I cannot say that Violet, years later, slept easily when she looked back on her life—there were too many miserable times for any of the Baudelaires to be peaceful sleepers—but
ouch...
What happens in a certain place can stain your feelings for that location, just as ink can stain a white sheet. You can wash it, and wash it, and still never forget what has transpired, a word which here means “happened and made everybody sad.”
It is now necessary for me to use the rather hackneyed phrase “meanwhile, back at the ranch.” The word “hackneyed” here means “used by so, so many writers that by the time Lemony Snicket uses it, it is a tiresome cliché.”
the self-deprecation never gets old lol
whoever read you the story probably told you that the moral was not to lie. This is an absurd moral, for you and I both know that sometimes not only is it good to lie, it is necessary to lie.
I think this might have been the first book i ever read that helped me to justify lying lol
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Stephano said.
I wonder if this implies olaf doesn't care or that he knows the kids well enough to also know that scream is fake...
but Violet’s misfortune was constantly surprising to her
“Nice girls shouldn’t know how to do such things.” “My sister is a nice girl,” Klaus said, “and she knows how to do all sorts of things.”
It was a full moon, and the moonlight reflected off the glass walls of the Reptile Room as though it were a large jewel with a bright, bright shine—brilliant, one might say.
Reading this during a full moon! What a coincidence 7-21-24
