Lemony Snicket is hiding in true Baudelaire style

One of the reasons “A Series of Unfortunate Events” was so compelling to me was the authors name: Lemony Snicket. Instantly, you imagine a slightly nerdy boy wearing broken glasses which were crushed by a Carmelita Spats sort of girl squealing “Another addition to the cakesniffers!”. Suddenly you feel you must be a Quagmire, perhaps you feel indebted to take on the role of Quigley; brave and foolishly loyal to the boy with the unfortunate name just like his siblings were to the Baudelaire’s in the Austere Academy.

Lemony tried to trick us into abandoning his books at every new release but nobody was fooled. The description of the “misery, despair and discomfort” these books would cause us was promptly ignored. “He needs to stop doubting himself” we thought miserably “Or get himself a better publicist. And a better name!”

It seems Lemony Snicket has manned up and started calling himself Daniel Handler these days. However, the blurb of his new book “Why We Broke Up” is still bursting with clues about why they broke up. 

We know its you, Lemony!

THERE IS NO DOG – Meg Rosoff

Keep calm – dogs are still around. Sniffing, sleeping and chewing are still their primary hobbies. Meg Rosoff was talking about a teenage boy when she wrote that title.. lazy Bob, who is more commonly referred to as God. Now you can start to scream.

Yes – Bob is everything God should not be, sex-ravenous, self centered, unreliable and downright slovenly. Earth was coming along swimmingly at first but boredom and teenage angst meant the project ended in six short days. He probably skived off work early, too. Luckily for Bob, he is in coalition with Mr. B, who deals with the administrative side of running earth while Bob sleeps and muses over his romantic encounters with mortals. Poor Mr. B is feverishly answering prayers while Bob just makes more work for him to do (and complaining about life simultaneously. Who said boys don’t multitask?). The only reason Bob’s not crying for his mummy is because Mona, the aforesaid ‘mother’, is even more of a nightmare. Recently, she has gambled off Bob’s pet Eck in another reckless game of cards with fellow Gods. I say another, because that’s how Bob got the job of God in the first place. Worst of all, Bob is in love with a zoo keeper called Lucy. He has enough trouble controlling his emotions lying in bed without doing anything in there too.

Oh God..

This book is 100% hilarious and imaginative, which is why Meg Rosoff deserves an Inksetters review. Her other titles include ‘How I live now’, ‘What I Was’, ‘The Bride’s Farewell’ and ‘Just in Case’.