A review by laurenleigh
The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Sometimes you just need to pick back up your middle grade favorites! I am truly obsessed with how Snicket breaks the fourth wall and adds this whole extra fictional self-referential element. It’s like when Nabokov starts Lolita with the narrative framing that this is a “found text.” That doubling creates a fictional world that contains this fictional text, but it also makes the text seem that much more real! And yet Snicket is doing all that in a kid’s book! It’s hard to succinctly talk about, but it makes my heart sing. I want to take a college course on this series.