Lost in a Good Book

Published: September 21st 2004
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 323
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Warning: Your day will become very dark – and possibly damp – if you read this book. Plan to spend this spring in hiding. Lemony Snicket is back with the eleventh book in his New York Times bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Lemony Snicket’s saga about the charming, intelligent and grossly unlucky Baudelaire orphans continues to provoke suspicion and despair in readers the world over. In the eleventh and most alarming volume yet in the bestselling phenomenon A Series of Unfortunate Events, the intrepid siblings delve further into the dark mystery surrounding the death of their parents and the baffling VFD organisation.

Violet is now almost fifteen, Klaus has had his thirteenth birthday and Sunny is no longer a baby apparently so this story has been going awhile. School has been ignored and forgotten, most adults are useless and there have been more deaths and murders than you could count. But it is all very interesting, mysterious and unfortunate as the end draws near.
We are introduced to a couple new characters, a Captain and his step daughter. The Captain is a pretty annoying character. His constant aye’s and his ability to blabber does get tiresome. It distracts from Snicket’s explanations about words and phrases a bit though, I can’t tell if these are better written in or I’m tolerating them more. Either way. There are also a great deal of twists and surprises in this book which adds to the drama and takes the focus as well.

There is something I do always forget to mention about these books. It is not all long winded paragraphs and explaining things, Snicket actually makes it clever if you know what to look for. There are references in here that, certainly if you know the references make you smile. Most of these come out of Sunny’s mouth, disguised as gibberish but are real words or references with meaning behind them. The adult jokes within this story are good because it does validate that you can be over 12 and read them. These books are easily read by adults, but the fact they can also be read by 12 year olds is why there are slightly more aspects aimed in their direction.

The structure from the earlier books has long been abandoned and now it’s all action and adventure. This certainly makes the books more enjoyable, we see different sides of characters, they do exciting things, and for the siblings especially, they aren’t having to tolerate being ignored as much, they are more independent and have finally realised that the adults can rarely help them. The adults that do appear try their best, and of course Snicket hasn’t abandoned his narrative and writing  style altogether, but a few good non-guardian adults are seeping through the mix. This only adds to the confusion of the overall mystery because they all have their reasons for everything they do, but it is a refreshing change. The ending is certainly being set up to be very exciting and after the hints, clues, and build up Snicket has done, then it should not be a let down.

Published: October 1st 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 337
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Like bad smells, uninvited weekend guests or very old eggs, there are some things that ought to be avoided.

Snicket’s saga about the charming, intelligent, and grossly unlucky Baudelaire orphans continues to alarm its distressed and suspicious fans the world over. The 10th book in this outrageous publishing effort features more than the usual dose of distressing details, such as snow gnats, an organised troupe of youngsters, an evil villain with a dastardly plan, a secret headquarters and some dangerous antics you should not try at home. With the weather turning colder, this is one chilling book you would be better off without.

Book ten brings us very close to the end of the series and you certainly can tell. There is a lot more information being revealed, more time researching and figuring out and a lot less time watching poor guardians being killed and incompetent adults getting in the way. From the beginning of this book things are not going well for Violet and Klaus, being separated from their sister is bad enough but it only gets worse. If I recall correctly I think this is the first book where the siblings have been properly separated for a long period of time, not just the usual kidnappings and almost surgeries.

There is a lot of information provided through this book, secrets are slowly revealed and with the help of a new friend, Violet and Klaus get closer to solving the VFD mystery and hopefully rescuing their sister from Olaf’s clutches. Sunny has been growing up a lot in these books, I assume months have passed by now at the very least so she is walking, talking a bit better and making hot chocolate it seems. We only see her get better here, there is less unrealistic biting and she uses the skills of her absent brother and sister to help herself as she is trapped with these villains.

There is not a lot of action, but there is the greater attraction of piecing together the mysteries. There are more moral dilemmas faced by Violet and Klaus and it is good to see them find alternate ways to get the results they want than resorting to the villainous ways. Use your brains kiddies, not violence screams Snicket through this book.

As I say we find out a great deal by the end of the book, not as much as the siblings had hoped, but certainly enough to get them starting their own proper investigation and not just hoping an off chance mention will bring results.

The siblings do manage to get one over Olaf in a very daring way, which is a lot better than some crummy adult half chasing them or eventually revealing the fake disguise. We do see some interesting things happen in Olaf’s camp which are not fully revealed and naturally by the end we are circling back to a bit of unfortunateness for the Baudelaire’s, but that is to be expected by now.

Published: October 29th 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 286
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Dear Reader,
The word “carnivorous” which appears in the title of this book, means “meat-eating,” and once you have read such a bloodthirsty word, there is no reason to read any further. This carnivorous volume contains such a distressing story that consuming any of its contents would be far more stomach-turning than ever the most imbalanced meal.
To avoid causing discomfort, it would be best if I didn’t mention any of the unnerving ingredients of this story, particularly a confusing map, an ambidextrous person, an unruly map, a wooden plank, and Chabo the Wolf Baby.
Sadly for me, my time is filled with researching and recording the displeasing and disenchanting lives of the Baudelaire orphans. But your time might be better filled with something more palatable, such as eating your vegetables, or feeding them to someone else.

We join the dear children where we left them at the end of book eight. There is a large amount of practicality and actual intrigue in this stage of the series. Snicket gets us so close to possibly figuring it all out and there looks like there will be hope for Violet, Klaus and Sunny but then naturally it crumbles. Snicket has gotten better about not totally ruining the entire book plot within the early stages, but also by now you know, being only book nine, nothing good is going to
happen until book 13, maybe not even then.

After escaping their hiding place the children find themselves at a carnival run by fortune teller Madame Lulu who is great friends with Count Olaf. With nowhere to go and the chance of finding out more about their parents and Olaf’s plan they get hired to work at the carnival as freaks as a chance to spy. They manage to blend in with slightly more believability than before with actual props at their disposal. Once again there are no guardians and the children must fend for themselves and Mr Poe hasn’t been seen for awhile which has been good. It is also where we see Olaf as himself for a change, sort of a behind the scenes of his grand schemes.

Whilst at the carnival the children have to perform in the freak show, which itself is filled with absurdness and great hypocrisies. It’s all as degrading as a freak show would be. We see the children grow up a little more through these books too, Klaus was thirteen in Book 7 and now we see Sunny is growing up a bit too.

There were some depressing moments in this book but it is balanced out by the suspense of what the children uncover. Everything has changed so much from the start and the siblings often now find themselves trying very hard not to act like the villains around them. It is interesting that this moral side is thrown in, Snicket casually brushes over serious murder and horror but he does make it clear that if you start doing it you are no better than the people you are running from, even if it is for good reason. That was rather nice.

I’m afraid the end once again does not look good for the Baudelaire children but the cliffhangers and the increase of adventure makes up for it. These final books connect much better than the earlier ones, they connect together like they are like are different parts of one episode, as opposed to separate episodes of a series. On to book ten!

Published: May 1st 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 258
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Dear Reader,

Before you throw this awful book to the ground and run as far away from it as possible, you should probably know why. This book is the only one which describes every last detail of the Baudelaire children’s miserable stay at Heimlich Hospital, which makes it one of the most dreadful books in the world.
There are man pleasant things to read about, but this book contains none of them. Within its pages are such burdensome details as a suspicious shopkeeper, unnecessary surgery, an intercom system, anesthesia, heart-shaped balloons, and some very startling news about a fire. Clearly you do not want to read about such things.
I have sworn to research this story, and to write it down as best I can, so I should know that this book is best left on the ground, where you undoubtedly found it.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

And the exciting times continue for those Baudelaire children (after all these reviews I still can’t spell their name without checking). So book number eight is a bit milder than the others in terms of action, this focus more on the suspense side of discovering about VFD and what these mysteries and connections mean.

In The Hostile Hospital the children pick up from their last journey as they left the Vile Village. They hitch a ride with a group of highly cheerful, singing troupe that goes around cheering up sick patients in hospitals. It is all very sweet in theory but Snicket’s take on this is that they ignore what actually needs to be done and just hands over the cheery balloon. Of course the doctors should be doing that anyway so we don’t dislike these singers for abandoning the patients, it isn’t technically their job.

The children do not have a guardian in this book, they fend for themselves and try to hideout away from the ever searching police force, still convinced of their criminal nature. When left to their own devices Violet, Klaus and Sunny are very clever and they are logical and reasoned people, somehow the adults are the oblivious and daft bunch. Olaf makes his usual appearance and there is actually a bit of suspense created in this hospital. There is even a great cliffhanger that essentially insists you dive into the next book.

The final star is withheld for the (granted lessening) explanations of words. I only remember a dozen or so and they did not stick out nearly as much. Also your level of acceptance needs to be terribly high in this series to believe the things that happen, there are understandable things but occasionally, in this book especially, it is just ludicrous, but the characters actually make comment on this this time round, they themselves cannot believe some of the things. I think that helps you accept, if the characters are stunned by what happens then you can accept it better than if no one notices the unrealistic things.

After a slow first few books Snicket is definitely getting the ball rolling towards the final conclusion. By starting the suspense as early as he did (well, by early I mean book five) he ensures that the hints and clues can build over time rather than be rushed through. It is a wise tactic, and compensation I think for the tedious tendency of the beginning books.

Published: April 24th 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 259
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Dear Reader,
You have undoubtedly picked up this book by mistake, so please put it down. Nobody in their right mind would read this particular book about the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire on purpose, because each dismal moment of their stay in the village of V.F.D. has been faithfully and dreadfully recorded in these pages. I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats. It is my solemn and sacred occupation to research each detail of the Baudelaire children’s lives and write them all down, but you may prefer to do some other solemn and sacred thing, such as reading another book instead.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

Well now we seem to have gotten into a proper swing of things. Yes Snicket keeps up the same narration and writing style in some aspects, but the story gets a lot better. It has widened to focus beyond the Baudelaire’s personally and more characters and environments are introduced are part of the wider mystery. After being moved on from the previous guardians, and under the illusion it takes a village to raise a child, the three siblings are being looked after by a strange village with bizarre characters and a very strange list of laws. Snicket warns us that this books contains many unpleasant matters such as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats. This is pretty much the case. Absurdities follow these children and the village is no exception. The difference here it the fact there are rescue missions and escape plots, hints and clues, as well as more details about the circumstances and life of the man whose job it was to record this unfortunate tale.

The Vile Village is the seventh book in the series and while very odd it wasn’t bad. The villagers are idiotic but in a good way. They are humourously daft and so intent of obeying the rules they end up worse for it. Their ignorance and neglect of the children this time isn’t just for plot. Previously the adults seems annoyingly vague and oblivious to the kids to the point it was a little unbelievable in the scheme of things, however this time you actually believe these adults are so wrapped up in their village that they don’t care for the kids.

Now that Snicket has introduced the intruge factor and the mysterious ‘VFD’, the story turns to focus on discovering this. Through the narrative we follow the siblings as they try and discover more about what ‘VFD’ means, as well the reappearance of the orphan triplets Duncan and Isadora (who where introduced in The Austere Academy). With more inventing and thinking and biting things are somewhat concluded, if not exposed at best. The slight issue with these books (among the other issues) is that it is very hard to discuss the next book without ruining the story of the previous one. Certainly Snicket likes to do that himself, but now that there are actual clues and suspicious circumstances occurring we are finally given much desired structure and cliffhangers that carry on to the next in the series.

What has become really enjoyable is the fact that the story has become more traditional in the sense of structure, and like mystery stories we are able to read along looking for our own clues and trying to decipher meaning alongside the Baudelaire siblings. Snicket seems to have moved on from defining every word and phrase when he write, and he certainly isn’t giving away as much of the oncoming plot as he did in the earlier books which is a real joy. Now that there seems to be a nice continual flow and constructive narrative, the remaining books are looking to be shaping up nicely.