The Miserable Mill- Book the Fourth A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously, because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, The Miserable Mill might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumber mill and they find disaster and misfortune lurking behind every log. The pages of this book, I'm sorry to inform you, contain such unpleasantries as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury and coupons. I have promised to write down the entire history of these three poor children, but you haven't, so if you prefer stories that are more heartwarming, please feel free to make another selection. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket.
- Suggested age range- 9-12 years
- Format- Hardcover
- Product dimension- 5.2" W x 7.3" H x 0.8" D
- Genre- Fiction
- Publisher- HarperCollins Publishers, Publication date- 04-05-2000
- Page count- 208
- ISBN- 9780064407694
Web ID: 16397630
! An Excellent Novel !
Daniel Handler’s Series of Unfortunate Events is a thrilling trilogy engulfed in mystery. The Miserable Mill, the 4th addition to Handler’s Series of Unfortunate Events, highlights the Baudelaires trials and tribulations they face at the hands of their aloof guardian and the evil mastermind, Count Olaf. The major theme of The Miserable Mill encompasses the misfortune and continual tragedy of the Baudelaires. After having been tossed from one guardian to the next, the Baudelaire orphans find themselves at their fourth ‘family’. Now surrounded by factory workers with no intelligence of their own and higher-ups that don’t share the ideals of empathy, the children have to find it within themselves to get through this next chapter of their lives. The Miserable Mill is told from the perspective of Lemony Snicket, a pseudonym used by Daniel Handler, as he shares his findings of the Baudelaire's misfortunes at Lucky Smells Lumber Mill. The Baudelaires, Violet, Sunny, and Klaus, find themselves going up against the people set to look after them and clash with the vindictive schemes of Count Olaf. For the people who enjoy an alluring mystery and engaging action that reels their reader in, Daniel Handler’s The Mrisible Mill checks all the boxes. Throughout the novel, Count Olaf, a sinister evil and stalker in his own right, has been following the children from the start of their downfall. In a battle for the Baudelaire fortune, he pursues and lures the children into his hands by manipulating their very own actions. Overall, The Miserable Mill was a brilliant read, however, it is the series that it is part of which truly makes it spectacular. Each book, building on the previous, brings the Baudelaires further into the mystery their parents had left while building tension and curiosity within the reader. This whole series, one book after another, ties itself together in an elaborate package that is the lives of the Baudelaire children. As a final judgment on The Miserable Mill, I implore you to read the book and the books before. The terminology and style Daniel Handler writes in poetically introduces ‘new’ vocabulary while depicting an entertaining story. Daniel Handler’s writing has a unique charm to his writing that makes him the perfect author for writing mysteries. Mixed in, Handler’s characters also contain the perfect amount of perplexity and abstruseness that bring depth to the main characters while leaving other aspects up to grabs.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Good Read!
After reading this fourth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, I can testify to the fact that The Miserable Mill is a book exactly about what it sounds like. It continues the story of the Baudelaire orphans as they desperately have to escape Count Olaf’s and his malevolent plans to get the children’s inherited fortune all for himself, yet again. Overall, I enjoyed this Gothic fiction book because it kept me entertained with its humor, mystery, and suspense throughout. The theme of family needing to stick together and that they come first before anything was also a nice message to take from this story. In the previous three books of this series, the three Baudelaire kids, 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus, and their baby sister Sunny, are switched from one guardian to the next. After escaping Count Olaf for what they thought was their third and final time, the children are now living with yet another distant relative who is the owner of Lucky Smells Lumber Mill who is simply just called “Sir.” As the reader, you would hope these children have finally found their safe haven after all they have gone through, but yet again, it is not. Upon their arrival, the three of them are put to work in the mill’s harsh, abusive conditions. Workers are only fed a stick of chewing gum and a cup of cold soup and are paid in coupons they cant even use since they do not receive any money. One day while working at the mill, Flacutono the new foreman tripped Klaus on purpose for not working fast enough and broke his glasses. Klaus goes to the mysterious and creepy looking local optometrist in the shape of an eye that is very similar to the eye tattoo on Count Olaf’s ankle. He returns hypnotized hours later which he snaps out of when Flacutono says the word “inordinate.” The next day, Klaus accidentally drops a stamping machine on his glasses and breaks them again. He once again has to go to the optometrist, but this time his sisters go with him. There Violet notices that the odd looking receptionist, Shirley, is actually Count Olaf in disguise. After the appointment, Klaus is once again completely disoriented. Upon their return to the mill they also receive a letter from Sir telling them that they will be given to “the seemingly affable woman, Shirley” if they were to have another accident while working. This worries Violet as Klaus isn’t thinking straight and is prone to making mistakes. One early morning, Violet and Sunny are awakened by the noise of saws from the lumber mill. They rush over to see what is going on and are shocked to see Klaus operating an enormous circular saw machine about to put Sir’s assistant Charles through it. Violet and Sunny are desperately trying to find a way to stop Klaus’ hypnotization. Klaus paused briefly just as Dr. Orwell and Shirley (Count Olaf) show up and tell him to continue with the murder. Violet finally realized that the word “inordinate” would reverse hypnosis and screamed it out loud to him. Klaus returns to himself, and is able to save Charles from his death. Right after, Sir and Mr. Poe (the bank in charge of the well being of the kids) shows up and scares Dr. Orwell who then backs into the buzz saw and dies. Olaf, the most malevolent of the two, manages to escape them. Sir no longer wanted the children anywhere around him or his factory from all the difficulties and issues they have caused him so they are now guardian-less yet again. Overall, this is a good book and would recommend it for anyone wanting to read something other than your typical story with a happy ending. A movie and Netflix series are also based on this series, so it is a great way to experience this story in a more vivid way.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com