Not only are the three Baudelaire orphans incredibly clever and resourceful, one of them happens to have very sharp teeth, an attribute usually reserved for describing lions or vampires instead of sweet little babies.Characters' names come from different regions of the world, technology simultaneously appears from different eras-this setting is a hot mess. Instead of setting this story in a specific place and time, it's set in a hodgepodge of lots of places and times.Seriously-here's a sampling of Handler's (we mean Snicket's) imagination in action: Say what you want about The Bad Beginning (and the rest of A Series of Unfortunate Events), but one thing is absolutely certain: It's intensely creative. What is The Bad Beginning About and Why Should I Care? And if not? Well, you can't say we didn't warn you.

So if you have the stomach for a book filled with sorrowful orphans, terrible villains, and unreasonable demands for roast beef, then you've come to the right place. Lemony Snicket would certainly find that possible. That, or there are millions of idiots with terrible taste in literature in the world. So while they're filled with people and things that are no good, the books themselves are very good indeed.

And despite brimming with terribleness-we're talking evil-villains-turned-father-figures, babies dangling in bird cages from the tops of towers, and even a run-in with a child bride-these books have sold over sixty million copies. Written way back in 1999, this is the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket). See? We told you we're in unpleasant territory.

With that out of the way, since you've stuck around instead of running for the hills, we'd like to officially welcome you to The Bad Beginning, the story of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and the seemingly endless series of unfortunate events they encounter after their parents perish tragically in a fire one day. It just wouldn't be right to let you keep going without offering some sort of heads-up, right? Hey, we had to give you fair warning-after all, there's one scrawled on the back of the freaking book. We're sorry to say that the learning guide you're about to read is extremely unpleasant.

The bad beginning by lemony snicket