Rating: 4/5
When I first saw that Lemony Snicket had an autobiography, I was intrigued. In fact, I was more than intrigued. His writing style is unique and gripping, and being a devoted fanatic of his previous books—including “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “All The Wrong Questions” and “Read Something Else”—I was immediately engrossed in this novel. It is very different, though, to what I expected: every chapter title asking interesting questions that fans tend to want to know about Snicket and his books (such as “Who is Beatrice?” and “What happened to the Baudelaires?”) had been crossed out, and in Snicket’s handwriting had been replaced with seemingly pointless questions including “Why are all these children staring glumly at a camera?” and “Why do so many things end in fire?”. Each chapter would then be filled with letters and photographs, so that by the end of the book you should have pieced together all the original questions by reading Snicket’s replacements.
I really enjoyed this book. Snicket has talked about himself for 250 pages and has still managed to remain one of the most mysterious and peculiar characters I’ve ever had the fortune to know about. To conclude with the words of the VFD volunteer:
I didn’t realise this was a sad occasion.
The world is quiet here.