The Miserable Mill (A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 4)

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Customer reviews

review by: Mej_da_reviewer date: 2008-01-13 rating:
Coupons, Casseroles and cloud of smoke
The pages of this book, I'm sorry to inform you, contain such nasty nonsense as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury, and coupons that it will make you have bad dreams till you are 21. The Miserable Mill might be the unhappiest place yet for Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumber mill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking behind every log.

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review by: date: 2006-02-17 rating:
Lost the Plot
While I enjoyed the first three books in this series, I did find them very monotonous.

Then I got to The Miserable Mill. It HAS to be said: how many more times can the author write exactly the same story? Book 4 is the same as the first 3: orphans have yet another home, yet again they are treated badly and yet again Count Olaf is after them in yet another disguise. And yet again no-one believes them. Yet again the orphans prove it's Olaf and yet again Olaf makes an escape to be free to come after them again in the next book. Enough already!

It's the same exact plot every time, the only difference being the location and a handful of new people. I'm wondering how long the author is going to keep this up. He's getting money for old rope in publishing these: he doesn't have to put much work into them as they're all so similar!

The only BIG difference with this one is that it is EVEN more implausible than the last 3. Instead of being sent to another relative, this time the 3 orphans (including the baby) are put to work in a lumber mill along with other adult to do back-breaking manual labour. It wasn't even that interesting, I found it hard to get through because it did little to capture the reader in any way, It was just plain dull.

I'm gonig to give it one more shot. I will read book 5 and if it's not any better than this, I'm giving up with this series.

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review by: date: 2005-07-27 rating:
brandons report
i have read all of the books, i think lemony snicket is very good book and if you have read any ather books by the arther
lemony snicket pleas contact me on my home number wich i will
give at the end. so back to the report,ihave met bret halqist
who elestrats the book,and i am going to rite abot the astir academy book five.the bodelers travel to the quagmir tripelits
will be stolen by CONT OLAF. you probely no cont olaf is, well ok hi is a man who dispretly wonts the bodelers fortune,
so the bodelers go to the head techer of a bording school
called pricket prepetory school, and it hade a nasty gerl called
carmilita sparts and she wos relly nosty.and this is wen the bodelers mete the quagmir treplets. and thay gete snacht by CONT OLAF!and in book seven the bodelers save them.
ok hers my number:012285993694.
by brandon danny

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review by: date: 2005-06-12 rating:
More miserable then the others.
Being a huge fan of the series i feel inclined to point out that this book is the only downfall. It is the one book i found i was not hooked on and was not all that interesting. It had it's good points but quie frankly the rest are better.

There is nothing more i really can say.


review by: chasingshadows date: 2005-03-29 rating:
More of the miserable, mesmerizing same!!
Although Snikett takes a different direction in book 5, this 4th book in the series of Unfortunate Events is just as inventive and surprising and probably my favourite up to this point, with the exception of book 1. To me this definitely didn't feel like a repeat of previous books, on the contrary- I found the content both refreshing and at the same time familiar enough for me as a fan to feel at home.
In some ways this is similar to previous books i.e. a clueless guardian, a disguised Count Olaf and a series of unfortunate events that the siblings must overcome using their inventiveness, knowledge and sharp tooth, respectively. So all we've come to expect, really. But there are also several new elements that keep the reader both gripped by the story and constantly guessing, as to what will happen next.
In the 'Miserable Mill' the continued story of the Baudelaire's that was waning in book 3 feels renewed and invigorated by new characters and unusual events. Count Olaf, although still present in all his horrid glory, takes a back seat to some very despicable new characters who attempt to thwart Violet, Klaus and Sunny in their perfectly reasonable pursuit of a calm and contented childhood. The Boss character for example is captivating- he may only have one facial expression, but he just makes a fantastically menacing character for the reader to love to hate.
With this book I felt more than ever before that the author was gradually upping the anti, putting the siblings in greater and greater danger and so providing the reader with greater thrills. Also with this book, you'll be screaming at the pages more than ever before for the Baudelaire orphans to resort to more extreme measures to battle the fiends they face, even though you know if they did they would very probably find themselves in an even more unfortunate position. So all that we can really do is wait and continue to hope that very soon they may be a little bit better off. Unlikely I know, but we can still hope.

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