The Bad Beginning

I honestly don't get the love for this series. It's super repetitive and the only character with any actual personality is the narrator. The Baudelaire children's dialogue is exclusively exposition. We're told everything about them. It's just boring. And the vocabulary lessons! The constant inclusion of definitions is grating. Given the mature themes of the story, this is a serious disconnect. The author seems to both think that children don't know much and need to be spoon fed and that they can handle death, abuse, and neglect. Maybe I give kids more credit than most adults, but I believe most kids don't need the definitions. I understand it's kind of a joke, but if that's the main purpose of the definitions then it's far too repetitive. However, definitions done like the one on page 74 are great. And finally, the poor communication trope is frustrating. I understand the charm in this series, and I plan to finish it out, but it really does it's best to irritate me.