Before reading this book, I looked at some of the reviews on Goodreads and it seems like a lot of people complaining that this book (and the series) are quite similar to the first book. Well, its a children’s book and the whole series is devoted to Count Olaf trying to get his hands on the Baudelaire children, so obviously they’re going to be slightly similar.

But I have no problem with that. You know kind-of what the plot is going to be but it’s completely different in execution to the others. I actually love how the author can dream up such wild plots for his books, he must have an incredible mind.

In this book, the Baudelaire children have been shipped off to their Uncle Montgomery’s house. He is a herpetologist (which means he studies reptiles), and he seems to be the perfect guardian for the children. But when his new assistant Stephano arrives, Violet, Klaus and Sunny immediately know that this isn’t Stephano, it’s Count Olaf.

But of course, they’re only children and they are very distressed by the death of their parents, so no-one will listen to them. And this obviously doesn’t go very well, in fact some may say that it was disastrous for Uncle Monty.

Another great read, I love reading about how the children can get themselves out of each situation with their inventive genius, their bookish knowledge and their very strong teeth!