Title: Who Could That Be At This Hour? (All the Wrong Questions #1)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery, Humour.
Publication Date: October 2012
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Format: Hardback
Pages: 258
Rating: 4/5
Before you consider reading "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are you curious about what is happening in a seaside town that is no longer by the sea?
2. Do you want to know more about a stolen item that wasn't stolen at all?
3. Do you really think that's any of your business? Why? What kind of person are you? Really?
4. Who is standing behind you?
Lemony Snicket is kind of my life. I’m sure you’re pretty
much all aware of the love I have for A Series of Unfortunate Events and the
Baudelaire children, so this probably doesn’t surprise you. It’s so hard not to
break into a rant about how much I love Snicket and those books, but let’s just
focus on this one. (Would anyone be interested in a post in which I actually try and explain why I love this series so much?)
Firstly, this is a kind of prequel to the original series. I
didn’t know that going into it, which is kind of sad because I would have read
this a long time ago if I’d known that. It could be read as a standalone series
too, I think, if you don’t want to go through 13 books of pain and distrust of
everything and everyone. (But you totally should.)
Anyway, this was sort of a strange book for me. I loved it
because it’s Lemony Snicket and it’s a prequel to my absolute favourite book
series ever (sorry HP!), but at the same time, I didn’t care about the story as
much. The characters weren’t as interesting as the
Baudelaires (Violet beats everyone), and the plot was even more confusing than
the original, which is seriously saying something. I know quite a few people
who were disappointed in this so I didn’t really go in with high hopes, but I
don’t think that I was disappointed but I expected more. I’m really interested to see where this is going
to go and I’m hoping to re-read the original series again once I’ve finished
this to see how it all clicks together.
If I wasn’t so in love with ASoUE, I don’t know that I’d
continue this series. That being said, I do adore Snicket’s writing because its
sort of ridiculous, and serious and witty, and dark, and intelligent all in
one. I’m so excited to be back in his world, though I'm not entirely sure that I ever really left.
