A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill

Children’s book series about three hapless orphans

I was getting towards the end of 2020 and my reading goals, I thought I might tackle some of the books on my to-read pile. I have been reading this series for some time, and have been very much enjoying reading the book and then immediately watching the corresponding episode in the TV adaptation. If you haven’t read this series before, you should probably start with the first book.

“The Miserable Mill” by Lemony Snicket is the fourth book of 13 in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” collection. After the events of the previous book, the three Baudelaire children Violet, Klaus and Sunny appear to have run out of distant relatives and are this time sent to live at a place called Lucky Smells Lumbermill and, it soon turns out, to work there as well. The work and living conditions are enough to contend with by themselves, however when Klaus’ glasses are broken and he has to go to the sinister optometrist nearby, Violet and Sunny must work together to help their brother back to his usual self.

I do think that this series is improving with time, and I enjoyed seeing the children break out of their usual roles of inventor, reader and chewer to solve the problems they are faced with. Unlike the previous books, this book tackles some broader social issues like workplace conditions, minimum wage and exploitation.

However, the TV series continues to draw out much more sophisticated themes without fundamentally changing the story and the episodes that adapt this particular book was excellent. The TV series has introduced significantly more overarching elements to the plot and in these episodes lead the viewer to draw a particular conclusion that was shattered in a spectacular and heart-wrenching way . Without significantly changing the plot, the TV adaptation also reframed business partners Charles and Sir as a couple and explored an unequal distribution of labour in their relationship.