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Post by Grace on Feb 23, 2017 7:15:49 GMT -5
Which is your least favorite book and why? Make a case, the more vitriolic the better.
For me, THH is by far the worst. Olaf doesn't even appear in the flesh (making his "image" in the ex libris even more embarrassing). The amount of surgical masks inherent to hospitals makes the disguise aspect feel gimmicky. Hospitals are unfortunate enough already without unconscious teenage girls getting cranioectomies (why does that word even exist). Even Hal and the volunteers fell flat. I get that this is kind of a transitional book between the early books with guardians and the later, more mature books where they're running around in the world, but this one did not do it for me.
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Post by A comet crashing into Earth on Feb 23, 2017 11:16:31 GMT -5
TMM is pretty short, making it contain much fewer word written by Lemony Snicket than I generally prefer in a book.
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Post by gliquey on Feb 24, 2017 15:20:07 GMT -5
THH and TGG are actually my two least favourite books in the series but I just can't bring myself to slander either one of them; I love every book in the series, so I'm going to play devil's advocate: For me, THH is by far the worst. Olaf doesn't even appear in the flesh (making his "image" in the ex libris even more embarrassing). The amount of surgical masks inherent to hospitals makes the disguise aspect feel gimmicky. Hospitals are unfortunate enough already without unconscious teenage girls getting cranioectomies (why does that word even exist). Even Hal and the volunteers fell flat. I get that this is kind of a transitional book between the early books with guardians and the later, more mature books where they're running around in the world, but this one did not do it for me. Admittedly, Olaf doesn't appear in the book until the very end (we see him getting in the car with his troupe and leaving), and his lack of interaction with the Baudelaires is suboptimal, but I found his "disguise" to be a refreshing change from the standard [item that hides his eyebrows] [item that hides his tattoo] format. I think it's actually quite clever because before this book, Olaf is the one in disguise and after it, the Baudelaires are the ones in disguise, but in THH, both the Baudelaires and Olaf take on disguises (other than Violet). I didn't love the setting but I did enjoy Klaus thinking on the spot and trying to delay the cranioectomy. Hal might be the least memorable 'guardian' but I enjoyed the Volunteers Fighting Disease and their songs. And two other things I have to mention: anagrams, from "Al Funcoot" being explained to the very clever anagrams of names like Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown in the list of patients in the Surgical Ward, and the cliffhanger was the first one in the series where I remember feeling an urgent need to get the next book immediately (TVV just didn't do it for me - here the Baudelaires are at Olaf's mercy, walking into his clutches because they have nowhere else to go). This post will be very much in the spirit of the thread - I'm going to be mean to this poor book  The Grim Grotto is far, far and away my least favorite. Every setting, from the grotto itself to the submarines, is just so dark, dank, dripping, gloomy and just plain uninteresting to me. Captain Widdershins's "Aye!" gets on my nerves in a way that not even Mr. Poe's cough does. The silly laugh Olaf does seems a bit out of character for him, honestly, and only really works on the written page, not as actual dialogue. I was never sure how the current was strong enough to carry the Baudelaires down the grotto, but not so strong that they couldn't swim back. Most of all, the plot is completely unfocused. I'm ok with a nonsensical plot, but this book doesn't have a nonsensical plot. It just has a nonsensical. The Baudelaires just let things happen to them. They are trying to find the sugar bowl, but never do - the Baudelaires just give up on finding it for the moment. Of course, it is still ASOUE, so Lemony Snicket's narration and particularly the water cycle nonsense saves this book from being complete tripe. The development of Sunny's cooking is good. The last few moments, with Poe and Kit and the children finally making an actual decision, are good. Well, that was fun. I haven't vented about that book in much detail before. It has always struck me as funny that my least favorite, TGG, and my favorite book, TPP, are right next to each other. I've always found Widdershins' dialogue hilarious - not the "Aye!"s in particular but especially his conflicting instructions: "Don’t make noise! Don’t scare me! Don’t look down! No—look where you’re going! Don’t bring any flammable liquids with you!" etc. The setting in the grotto is quite gloomy but I think that it's a fitting location for the Baudelaires' depressing conversation with Fiona about their parents' imperfections and of her childhood, a scene I really love. The plot might be unfocused but this is a compromise as we get a lot of character development, such as for Fernald. Ironically, though, one of the few positive things you mentioned - Snicket's water cycle narration - was one of the things I quite disliked. |
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Post by Grace on Feb 27, 2017 23:50:44 GMT -5
THH and TGG are actually my two least favourite books in the series but I just can't bring myself to slander either one of them; I love every book in the series, so I'm going to play devil's advocate LOL OK just not the point of the thread But yeah, upon rereading, the end was pretty great (particularly for me because I started reading before TCC came out so it was a real cliffhanger like it was meant to be). And I appreciate the satire of the Volunteers Fighting Disease more now that I'm older, but it still isn't relevant enough for me. Like yeah, people who think a good attitude alone will cure illness are very annoying, but IRL people will always get medicine if they have the option. Not exactly the scathing critique of the healthcare system one might hope for. And I readily admit that my squeamishness with hospitals might be a big part of why this book was the worst one for me. Though I will argue that even TGG gives you expansion/addition of characters like Fernald and Fiona (not to mention Sunny's wetsuit debacle and the mycelium!!! but I'm getting overexcited now). |
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Post by Teleram on Mar 13, 2017 18:32:59 GMT -5
Every setting is just so dark, dank, dripping, gloomy and just plain uninteresting to me. Sounds like just another day on 667 Dark Avenue! yuk yuk yuk |
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Post by Glittery666 on Jul 6, 2023 22:51:16 GMT -5
TSS introduces Quigley, which is the only thing that it does worth remembering.
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Post by the panopticountolaf on Jul 11, 2023 14:21:58 GMT -5
i came in here forgetting this was a board for ASOUE and was ready to pop off about "midnight in the garden of good and evil" ;-;
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Post by bear on Jul 11, 2023 15:24:23 GMT -5
it's probably TGG. gross how he invented a love interest for Klaus. and Olaf is at his most silly, Widdershins is annoying, and the nautical theme is generally a bit of a rehash of TWW. the reinvention of the hook-handed man as "Fernald" is stoopid, like the kind of desperate "revelations" they put into hoary movie franchises to keep people's interest. also Klaus pooh-poohs Lewis Carroll.
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Post by MisterM on Jul 12, 2023 0:55:41 GMT -5
In my bleary-eyed early-morningness I read that as 'Klaus pooh-poohs Lewis Capaldi', which would have been an interesting move for the books to take.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2023 15:16:44 GMT -5
I only read the first three chapters and bits and pieces of The Vile Village and just read the rest of the plot and what happens on Wikipedia and skipped to the 8th book on my rereading of the series.
But of the books I reread all the through, I guess I’d say The Wide Window was my least favorite. I just couldn’t stand Aunt Josephine and her obsession with grammar got really old after reading about it over and over again and I found her to be a huge coward.
But I love the Hostile Hospital (just reread it and finished it last night and it’s even more amazing than I remember it being even though my favorite character almost got her head decapitated!). I remember really liking it as a kid and I love it even more now.
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