Despite being initially criticized for its dark themes, the first book, released in , was instantly and wildly popular. I know my son or my daughter was given one as a birthday gift, but for no particular reason, it never made it into the pile for bedtime twisted and depressing sounds good to me.
I, the dutiful reviewer, promptly read β in chronological order β the three previous adult titles he published under his real name, and I thought, perhaps not surprisingly, this man has a way with young protagonists, students, and difficult teens. No wonder he was so successful as Lemony Snicket. The Unfortunate series has won multiple awards and spawned a movie, a video game, a card game, and a board game; a TV show for Netflix is in the works. It makes sense then that his first novel, The Basic Eight β published in before the Series of Unfortunate Events books β is likewise in the realm of nasty and demented young adult fiction.
He was finding his strengths, as first-time novelists do, and The Basic Eight is terrific teenage angst turned violent in a twisted, funny, and surprising story. Flannery Culp, protagonist, has endured the worst year in the history of high school, which included being bullied and gossiped about, suffering unrequited love, and dealing with a dangerous jealous rival.
He goes home for the summer with his girlfriend, Cyn, who may or may not be sleeping with her father and her brother. Her mother is making a golem a demon created from inanimate material in the basement ostensibly for a theater piece, but possibly for more nefarious purposes. Watch includes a lot of sex, some of it incestuous, and a series of unfortunate and grisly murders.
Adverbs , a collection of short stories, moves in another direction. A teenage boy yearns for his co-worker at the movie theater. All of the stories deal with the hopelessly, powerfully, adverb-filled minefield that is love. I am not tempted to dismiss Handler as glib, despite being sometimes wearied by his calculated ingenuity. The man is a clever, facile writer. His sentences bubble along, turning on a phrase, full of musicality and stylish repetition.
