Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket – In which Lemony Snicket fails to make an appearance
YA novel: Spy, mystery, gothic fiction
This review contains minor spoilers.
This book could have been what it bills itself as. It could have been a series of accounts regarding the titular character’s background, none of which is necessarily confirmed, with a lot of allusion to events referenced in A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Beatrice Letters (The latter of which I have not read, it’s possible that the thing I wanted was in there instead of here).
That’s not what this book is. In fact, after starting with some backstory on Lemony Snicket’s early childhood and induction into the VFD, the book quickly descends down rabbit hole after rabbit hole into a series of obscured and never totally explained mysteries that surround people tangentially related to him and the secret organization he is involved with. And that’s fine. Daniel Handler, the man behind the pseudonym, has made a point of not answering those big, deep questions. In the final volume of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was published several years after this book, he makes the point of telling you about how the answers to questions just lead to more questions which go on and on and about how we never get closure in the real world. In the prequel series, All The Wrong Questions, he answers the mystery in detail, but he also refuses to explain what has been happening in the mysterious side plot that we’ve been seeing hints of this entire time. For him to actively write out a timeline that chronicles the life of Lemony Snicket, arguably the most important character in the franchise, even if he implied that timeline might be false, would be a mistake.
But it is a mistake I want to see. We spend a lot of the time in the ASOUE books hearing about the friends that Lemony has and the tragic events he’s witnessed (a beautiful woman being carried off by an eagle comes to mind). Seeing a more in-depth look at some of those people or events could have, if done correctly, lent a greater dimension to the snarky, gloomy author and the fascinating world he inhabits. We could have had a book analyzing his investigations into the Baudelaire case. We could have gotten some more information about his siblings, who we get a little insight into through the series, but who aren’t very well developed.
Instead of that, we are provided with a collection of documents from the world of ASOUE, most of which are focused around connecting events from earlier books to the VFD conspiracy. I must say that it’s a lot of information to swallow and deserves at least a re-read just to process everything and to better understand the world that he’s created. It’s almost too much, as the amount of absurd secrecy which the book dives headfirst into can become frustrating. I believe this is intentional, Handler seems to enjoy how maddening his own work can be. So, if you are looking for any kind of answers, this book will drive you crazy. It goes out of its way to increase the air of mystery. It explains a couple things from the ASOUE books, filling in a couple plot holes or expanding on a one-sentence concept to the point of absurdity, it doesn’t answer any big mysteries. And given that it was released four-thirds of the way through the series, it would have been weird/impossible for it to do so.
The book does a good job of showing us just how far the VFD’s reach is and introducing us to a couple elements we never get to see in ASOUE. Some of the connections feel painfully thin, but when they work they add a cool extra layer to books that you’ve come to read and re-read. Some people dislike that stuff, but I’m a sucker for it. Realizing that what you were looking at was something else is just a cool literary device for us. I think that if, like me, you find the setting of the Lemony Snicket books original and fascinating, then you’ll enjoy the world-building which Handler does. The book is funny, and it allows your imagination to really run wild with only a few neat ideas cleverly placed. I would have liked it more if we got more information about certain background characters and less about the ones we already know.
However, the book does make for a cool puzzle. All the pieces will never fit together but with another read and a little guesswork, you can see where the strings that hold everything together are hidden, even if you don’t totally understand where those strings lead. And for that reason, I would recommend the book. If you’re a big fan of the mystery element but okay with not receiving a ton of closure, then this is the book for you. It’s funny and inventive, and although I feel it could have gone even further with its concept and been just as successful in what it was trying to do, I think it’s a nice book to refer back to every now and then while reading or re-reading ASOUE or ATWQ. It adds a little dimension and has some cool in-jokes for fans of the series.
Overall, it was Good, not great.
Thanks for reading! :)
If you are interested in more Series of Unfortunate events I will be publishing a review for All the Wrong Questions in the coming month. I also do an awful podcast with my brother Jacob about the Netflix series that you can find at the link below:
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