The Bad Beginning

The Bad Beginning, the first book in the "A Series of Unfortunate Events," can be classified as clever, dark, and funny. At the beginning of the book, when the author says don't keep reading if you hate bad endings, he is quite right. First the Baudelaire children get the most horrifying news from Mr. Poe, a guy who can't seem to stop coughing, that their parents died in a horrible fire. They have a fortune, but they learn the unfortunate news that they can't have it until the oldest, Violet, who is 14 becomes an adult So their lawyer, Mr. Poe, takes the three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, to the horrible guardian Count Olaf who will stop at nothing to get their fortune. The three orphans seem defenseless against Count Olaf's evil plans as he traps Baby Sunny in the forbidden tower until Violet agrees to marry him. However Count Olaf seems to have underestimated these smart children.