Alex Dombrowski

Alex Dombrowski

Series of Unfortunate Events #2: The Reptile Room

Lemony Snicket

Fantasy

Holiday

Just Finished: 151

 

 

1.      I have recently finished Series of Unfortunate Events #2: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket. Montgomery is planning to take the children and Olaf to Peru with him. Then the children tell Uncle Monty they think his new assistant is actually the evil Count Olaf, but Monty actually think he is trying to steal his new discovery, the incredible deadly viper. Just before the Baudelaire’s are leaving for Peru with Uncle Monty, he is found dead in the reptile room with what appears to be a snakebite right below his eye. The children think Count Olaf is the one who actually killed him, but Olaf says that a snake bit him. Count Olaf is planning to take Violet, Klaus and Sunny to Peru when he crashes into Mr. Poe, who is Baudelaire’s accountant car. Olaf and Mr. Poe discuss what they are going to do with the children, while the three children look for evidence to prove that Olaf is guilty. What the three decide to do is cause a diversion, by pretending to have the incredibly deadly viper attack Sunny. This gives them enough time to look in Count Olaf suitcase. In it they find the syringe used to inject snake venom into Uncle Monty and powder. They show this evidence to Mr. Poe, he believes them and also begins to suspect this man is Count Olaf. Mr. Poe asks him to show his ankle, where is he is Olaf should have a tattoo of an eye, but the tattoo is not there. The Baudelaires insist he wipe his ankle. When he does, the tattoo is revealed. Mr. Poe calls the police, but before they can arrive Olaf escapes.

2.      I really liked the whole book. It isn’t difficult to read an very entertaining. Also it isn’t confusing at all. It is a fun easy read, which made it a enjoyable book for me. The characters make the book interesting. All of the children have very different personalities. Violet likes inventing things. Therefore she can come up with good solutions to problems. Her brother Klaus likes reading. Thus he is extremely smart. He also can fix problems with his knowledge because he usually has an answer for a question or problem. Sunny the youngest of the three is too young to do anything. In my opinion she is the only boring character in the book. Snicket does something interesting with her though. Whenever she makes a baby sound he translates it to what she is probably trying to say. This is a very good book and I would recommend it.

3.      I think the theme is good versus evil. After Uncle Monty died it was just the kids and Olaf. Even though they never actually had a great battle like in both books with this theme, they are always against each other.  The children who are innocent, good mannered and trying to live somewhere nice versus Olaf, who only wants to try to steal their great fortune. Eventually they do confront each other. When they suspect it’s he who killed Uncle Monty, they accuse him of it. Olaf is constantly scheming to steal their money and the children have to stop him. This time when they do prove him guilty, he escapes. Good versus evil is a very obvious theme in this book.

4.      My favorite character is Mr. Poe. He is always very nice to the kids. He never threatens them and is supportive of them. I think it is because he has kids of his own and understands them well. Also, he sides with the children when they accused Olaf of killing Uncle Monty. He knows how smart they are and therefore never doubts them. Mr. Poe also watches over the kids and makes sure they don’t have any major issues with their guardians. Mr. Poe’s kindness towards the Baudelaires makes him my favorite character in the book.

5.      My least favorite character is still Count Olaf. He is a mean man; all he cares about is stealing the Baudelaire’s money. He murdered someone in a failed attempt to steal their money. This makes him even more undesirable because it shows he will do anything for money. Olaf also is making three orphans very miserable because he always ends up in their lives. He does not have any nice personality traits. He is greedy and doesn’t care about other people. He is very persistent about trying to steal the children’s money. I except him to show up in the next book as well. Count Olaf evil schemes make him my least favorite character.

6.      I did not expect this ending in the book. I never thought Mr. Poe would show up in the book again because he all he did is bring the children to their new homes. Nothing foreshadowed him returning, it was a total surprise. I knew that Uncle Monty was going to be killed because Snicket said Olaf was Going to kill him, but I expected the murder to happen in Peru. I didn’t notice much foreshadowing from Snicket, he liked to surprise the reader.