The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

Genre: Children's Literature

Setting: In a fictional city

First Sentence:  If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.

This novel is the first in the author's A Series of Unfortunate Events series.  This series has thirteen books.

I believe this book has one of the greatest opening sentences.  The author announces that there will be no happy ending.  And he delivers.  There is no happy ending.

In this novel, the author does a good job of introducing the protagonists:  the Baudelaire orphans.

Violet is the eldest.  She is an inventor.
Klaus is the only boy.  He is a reader.
Sunny is a baby.  She likes to bite things, and people.

The antagonist is the evil Count Olaf.  He is an actor.  And he wants to gain control of the Baudelaire fortune.

The story tells of the Orphans' terrible bad luck.  Their parents have perished, their how has been destroyed by fire, the orphan's have been placed in Count Olaf's care by the incredibly stupid Mr. Poe.

The Baudelaire orphans are the heirs of a fortune.  They cannot access the fortune until Violet comes of age.  This fortune is why Count Olaf is so interested in the children.

There is no happy ending.  However, the orphan's do know how to use their intelligence to evade the Count's evil plot.

For me, the best part of reading this book is the fantastic voice the author uses in the form of the fictional narrator Lemony Snicket.

I plan to read the series in order.