Letter Essay #6 Kayleigh Riccio

The Bad Beginning

Dear peers,

3-2-17

I have recently finished re-reading, “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”, a series written by Lemony Snicket. I read the first book in the series, The Bad Beginning. This book is a 162 page book full of disappointment and sadness. This book is more than realistic fiction. This book contains gothic fiction, absurdist fiction, and mystery. The authors  real is Daniel Handler. His pen name is Lemony Snicket. He wrote his stories just like his personality and wrote based on true events in his life and sad times in his life. Lemony Snicket is a very sneaky person and full of surprises. He best expresses how he feels through his writing, that’s what makes him the great writer he is. I chose this book because I wanted to re-read it and get a better understanding of the story and the words in between the lines. I wanted to re-read to better understand his thinking and to relate with the characters on a deeper, more mature level. This story is about a three beautiful children whose parents mysteriously die in a fire in their huge beloved home. With nowhere to turn, the three children are forced to live with a “distant relative” who turns out to be more of dictator than a guardian. They are forced to do things that are not what children should be doing, I wouldn’t call it chores, its slave work. Three orphans must live with what that is called their “relative”, and figure out a way to make it without being killed… Literality. I was moved when the author put in his own perspective of how he feels about the story and the orphans situation. Lemony Snicket never sugar coated anything he said which made it much more real. The genre of this book is one of my favorites which makes it that much more enjoyable to read. I love to read deep/scary genres. I feel as if I can connect with the author and can be put in the orphans shoes and even slightly understand how they feel. I noticed how the author would stop the dialogue, the story in the middle of the chapter to reflect upon what is happening and make a prediction of what is going to happen. It made me think about what is going to happen and make predictions of my own. Lemony Snicket had said many quotes in this story that are all worth elaborating on but one that stuck out to me while I was reading was when the orphans found out they were moving with a “distant relative”, on page 34, he said “Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.” -Lemony Snicket. He also stated “Oftentimes. when people are miserable, they will want to make other people miserable, too. But it never helps.” pg 63. It took me 30 minutes to understand these quotes with a full understanding of what they meant. I really like his phrasing and how he related what he said to the story and to real world problems going on besides in the story. I give this book a 9 out of 10. One of the best series I have ever read!

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2 thoughts on “Letter Essay #6 Kayleigh Riccio

  1. Dear KK,

    Good job with writing your letter essay! It seems like you knew what you were doing and what the book was about. I like how you told us a little about the author and you really described the book well. Great job with your letter essay!

    Lucy

  2. Dear KK,
    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay! Reading this brought back memories because I watched this movie at my first sleepover ever. I liked the way you explained the book, it made it sound very interesting. There isn’t anything that you could improve on, I thought it was great! I think you would like the movie, apparently there’s a show, too, I didn’t know until Trevor told me about it.

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