Not sure if anyone else thought this...

[Edward]

(If someone already made this topic, please forgive me, I'm new) To me, The Miserable Mill was the most boring book in the series. Anyone else think so? I mean, it was okay, but I think, comparing it to the rest of the books, that it is my least favorite.

[Dante]

Most people seem to find TMM the most boring; I've also seen it pointed out that it's also brimming with fantasy and wackiness. Perhaps it's the parts in-between that are a little dreary; I'd happily reread pretty much any scene that involves Sir, but otherwise, the Baudelaires' toil maybe gets a little tiresome.

[jemima]

The Grim Grotto was worse than TMM.

[Edward]

jemima said:

The Grim Grotto was worse than TMM.

Really? I thought that one was pretty good!

[Spymaster E]

TGG was a great book. Widdershins made me laugh constantly. ANd it introduced the idea of "people are neither good nor evil, but somewhere in the wide open range in between" by, who'd have guessed it, the hook-handed man! I was not expecting Fiona to be related to Fernald, and that was a surprise. The only part I didn't like about the book was Olaf's laugh thing, but it was fantasic otherwise.

However, TPP and TE were letdowns for me. TPP was fine, I just got tired of the Baudelaires blaming themselves for EVERYTHING (even the whole accidents in the lumbermill when thye were HYPNOTISED, good god), and TE didn't answer many questions and the Quagmires didn't appear! Boo!

TMM was a little dry. It took forever for Olaf to come in and Klaus was a little annoying, especially when he was rattling away those hypnotism cases he's read. I was about to say, "Shut the **** up, Klaus! Just tell them how to undo hypnotism!" So, yeah, that was annoying. But TMM wasn't bad.

It was TBB that I found to be the most boring book in the series. I thought it was quite suspenseful and mysterious when I first read it but it is really quite insignificant compared to the later books.

[Edward]

jamesquagmire said:

The only part I didn't like about the book was Olaf's laugh thing, but it was fantasic otherwise.

That gave me few giggles as in: "Ho hee hee ha ho ha ha hee hee...ect (or is it etc?)"

[Sixteen]

It's "etc".

I think the reason most people found TMM boring was that this was the fourth time we'd heard the same basic plot : Orphans find a new guardian. Guardian proves to be somehow inept. Olaf disguises himself and fools guardian. Olaf tries to snatch fortune.

This is why VFD was introduced; to add new layers to an otherwise flatlining plot.

[thistledown]

I actually like TMM...TCC was the worst book for me.

But first TMM: I loved the darkness of the book, I guess. Yeah, it was another Olaf wants the fortune book, and the plot wasn't very good, but I don't know...I liked the evilness I think.

TCC was just annoying to me. The Baudelaires bugged me, the freaks bugged me, and the ending was just stupid. The Baudelaires actually went with him--! *pulls hair out in distress* I mean--who does that?!

Arrgh...I didn't like the whole 'sunny cooks even though she's a toddler!' thing. I think he should have just left her alone. The biting part was fine, but the master chef thing was overdone. It's not like she's had training to hone her skills, and I highly doubt she has inborne cooking knowledge, unless she's like the God of Food TV or something...

EDIT: And I didn't like how Olaf gets steadily cheesier...I mean, the first few books he was EVIL! And that was amazing...but then he just got kinda dumb, and wasn't even a good adversary. I guess it was because of the whole children's book thing, but I still think Olaf could have been more deadly.

[Edward]

thistledown said:

Arrgh...I didn't like the whole 'sunny cooks even though she's a toddler!' thing. I think he should have just left her alone.

I know, that was annoying. Maybe Handler just wanted to make the characters seem more interesting.

[Daveaite]

I thought it was a little boring. TMM did not contain as much action as the other books do.

[mothling]

I actually quite enjoyed TMM. I enjoyed the setting, I have a fond memory of the mental pictures I created for that one.

[Friday]

TCC is more boring than TMM. I didn't like The Carnivorous Carnival, but I liked The Miserable Mill.

[The Man With Hair But No Beard]

I wouldn't really have thought it was SO boring (not compared to a lot of TAA, anyway), but to me it was the most poorly written book in the series. The story itself was rather interesting, but the narration was unusually passive, and missing most of Lemony's usual fun asides.

[Jenny]

The most boring book in the series for me was TAA (but only because I hated the Quagmires from the moment they appeared), closely followed by TGG, which didn't entertain me at all, and which I also found the absolute least amusing. I used to find TMM boring-- I read it first when I was eight, when I first read the series, and didn't like it at all. I re-read it a couple of years later when I was ten and kinda liked it. A few years later it's actually become one of my favourite books in the series, after TSS, TCC and TEE.

[thistledown]

The Quagmires are kind of odd, aren't they. I wouldn't say I don't like them...but they're just...queer (meaning odd...not the other thing ) Like you don't know whole lot about them, and they never come back after TVV...so I lost interest in them.

In fact, in TAA, I was almost happy when they got captured. They were surprisingly optimistic...which annoyed me a little...