Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Daniel Handler

6 Stars

"Lemony Snicket here becomes the subject of a fictional autobiography, with an introduction from a fictionalized version of Daniel Handler. Snicket is a harried, troubled writer and researcher falsely accused of felonies and continuously hunted by the police and his enemies. As a child, he was kidnapped and inducted as a "neophyte" into V.F.D. where he was trained in rhetoric and sent on seemingly pointless missions while all connections to his former life were severed." This autobiography gives the reader insight into all of Snicket's notes on the Baudelaire orphans, as well as collections of photographs, and resources concerning the ever-elusive V.F.D. (Taken partially from Wikipedia.)

This book is ridiculously amusing (a phrase which here means both humorous and very silly). If you haven't read any of The Series of Unfortunate Events, you may have to prepare yourself before reading this. But, it won't make any more sense if you do. This biography does give one opportunity to wonder if maybe the whole series wasn't thought up along the ride, after all, though...frightening and perplexing thought. I could readily recommend this to anyone who enjoys Snicket's bizarre humor.

Scarlet Moon by Debbie Viguié

5 Stars

Ruth is attacked by a wolf as a child, and ever after has a fear of entering the woods near her home. When her brother leaves to join the Holy Wars, her father is left without help in the blacksmith shop and so Ruth takes over her brothers duties. She is comfortable in her role as blacksmith, and continues to brave her fear in order to visit her grandmother in the woods, who's been cast out of the village for accusations of witchcraft. "Amidst these dark days, a new man enters Ruth's life. William is a noble with a hot temper and a bad name, and he makes her shiver. But the young man is prey to his heritage, a curse placed on his family ages ago, and each male of the family has strange blood running in his veins. Now Ruth must come face-to-face with his destiny at Grandma's house..." (Taken partially from the back cover.)

Okay. Yes, this really is a rewrite of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. And, yes, if I had bothered to really read the back cover first, I might not have read it, either. Another in the "Once Upon a Time..." series, I hoped that this book would live up to the potential it had. Because, truthfully, "Little Red Riding Hood" has always been a pretty creepy tale. So adding werewolves (sorry for the spoiler as I'm sure you were all going to rush out and read this...) to the mix is actually not a large stretch for me. The concept could have been kind of cool. Unfortunately, the writing is as cheesy as the back cover makes it sound, coming across as trite and contrived. The moral of this review? Read every single one of Cameron Dokey's books in this series--but maybe don't bother with any of the other authors.