Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket – In which Lemony Snicket fails to make an appearance
YA novel: Spy, m ystery, 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 ans...