The Reptile Room By Lemony Snicket Book Review

 The Reptile Room 

(A Series of Unfortunate Events #2)

By Lemony Snicket 

Published Year: 1999

Page Count: 190 pages 

Medium Used: Oneplus Nord Ce6

Genre: Children's Fiction, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Snakes, Adventure, Heroes and Villains, 2026-read.

Rating: 5/5 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 

These books are turning into an incorrigible addiction for me. I was on four other books when I picked the first book in the series but set them all aside to forge on with these books 1 and 2. I think I am gonna continue this ride with the next books in the series too. The author has not only written these books with his reader - a young child of above 8-9 years - in mind but also blended it with novelty, imagination and great character development. The three children along with other characters Mr.Poe, Count Olaf and the hook handed man are back in the game bearing the hallmarks of their natures but also with subtly different personas - because they are playing at impersonation. There is one scene involving a snake and the youngest Baudelaire orphan, Sunny, in chapter 2, which had me so rattled and jumping out of my skin that I couldn't believe it happened. But obviously she is a protagonist and on the good side, so nothing occured to really harm her! Phew, thankfully! 

So we have seen that book 1 ends with Count Olaf uttering his threat and vow to Violet before escaping into the dark world outside. Mr. Poe finds the children another distant relative, Mr. Monty, to be their guardian. He drives the children to this new house and leaves them under his watch. Now, uncle Monty is a distinguished member of the Herpetology society and has an obsession with collecting and conducting research on reptiles. He has a big, wide room called the Reptile Room in his house where he has a huge collection of snakes, toads, lizards and several vials of venoms, bodily fluids of these creatures. He entrusts the children to different tasks while he makes arrangements for a trip to Peru with them shortly. The purpose of the trip is to research and collect snakes in the country. His personal assistant has quit the previous day without prior notice and he has hired a new one, Stevano. Now this is where the things get more interesting insidiously. The person who comes under the guise of this Stevano is their arch nemesis, Count Olaf. He has shaved off his eye brows, grown a beard and concealed the eye mark on his ankle. The children try real hard to get this information through to their uncle but due to various obstacles they are prevented. Stevano goes on with his lying, scheming and ruffian nature but eventually gets caught. Once again he escapes, vowing to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune! 

Although these books read simple and the children are quite naive, it felt like I am also learning certain things along with them. Like the information about African Mamba snake which is one of the most poisonous. And the Incredibly Deadly Viper, discovered by uncle Monty, which is a friendly snake that looks ghastly and bites but is harmless lol. I liked how the three kids used their ingenuity to unmask the villains - each performing their role to perfection! While one is acting on a distraction, the other obtains proof for the deception and the third reads up (yes, Klaus it is!) on the methods of a Mamba snake killing. Together, they set the villains running for their safety and obscurity. Will read the next book right away! Cheers 🥂 🥂 🥂 

The children are beset with catastrophe after catastrophe, face misfortune following misfortune but overall come out unscathed and ready for next adventure!