Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨⬜
Title: Poison for Breakfast
Author: Lemony Snicket
Genre: Fiction / YA
Setting: England?
Month Read: May
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2021
Publisher: Liveright
Pages: 158
TRIGGER WARNING-
Imminent Death?
"Remember what you learned, years ago: You’re never sorry you brought a book."
No Spoiler Summary (Goodreads):
For more than twenty years, Lemony Snicket has led millions of young readers through a mysterious world of bewildering questions and unfortunate events. With this latest book—a love letter to readers young and old about the vagaries of real life—longtime fans and new readers alike will experience Snicket’s distinctive voice in a new way.
This true story—as true as Lemony Snicket himself—begins with a puzzling note under his door: You had poison for breakfast. Following a winding trail of clues to solve the mystery of his own demise, Snicket takes us on a thought-provoking tour of his predilections: the proper way to prepare an egg, a perplexing idea called “tzimtzum,” the sublime pleasure of swimming in open water, and much else.
Review:
I'm So glad I got this book last year and decided to pick it up off a shelf yesterday on a whim because I have not laughed this hard at a book in a long time. It's written similarly to the Unfortunate Events books, a lot of wit, a lot of snark, some sarcasm, and a lot of breaking the third wall to talk to the audience. I imagine this book is what my ADHD brain feels like. Constantly flowing from thought to thought to thought, with little to no time to even figure out how you got to each subject from the last.
I love that this book is a love letter to books, and libraries. I think it's really special, and in his acknowledgements knowing he wrote most of this IN a library was pretty cool, too. Imagine THE Lemony Snicket just hanging out in your library writing his next perfect novel?
This book isn't necessarily just for kids- I think it's a really smart book, and you could enjoy this at just about any age or time. It is really special and I liked it a lot. A perfect sit down and read it cover to cover kind of book.
Recommendation:
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
"Telling yourself that something does not matter is one of the loneliest things you can do, because you only say it, of course, about things that matter very much. But often, and this is the lonely part, they only matter to you."