The Only Series that Matters

Between the ages of six and ten I read a lot of YA and middle grade books, and a lot of book series-but as far as I was concerned, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter were the only series that mattered. A decade later, A Series of Unfortunate Events was the series I most cared about rereading, for all its depth, complexity, and creativity. In this series of essays, I examine each book of the series upon rereading them, highlighting literary techniques, thematic explorations, and the ideas communicated in these books that have resonated with me from when I first read the series to today.
The collection also contains The Appalling Appendix, an index of selected notes from my ASOUE notes file.