Austere Academy (Series of Unfortunate Evens #5)

I think that the Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket might be one of my favorite in the series. This is the first book where the Bauldelaires meet the Quagmire triplets, and their story arch is one of the best in the series. 

The book begins with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny beginning boarding school at Prufrock Preparatory School where the motto is "Memento Mori," latin for "Remember You Will Die." Not a pleasant motto for a school. The children meet their new Vice Principal Nero, a ghastly man who insists on playing the violin for hours despite having no talent for it. He forces the orphans to sleep in a shack with crabs that pinch their feet, fungus that drips from the ceiling, and ugly pink and green wallpaper. Classes involve listening to stories about milk and measuring frying pans and pencils, plus there is no weekend. School goes for all seven days, and concludes with a violin concert that every student is forced to sit through. 

Carmelita Spats is also introduced for the first time in this novel (her role becomes much greater in future books). She is mean, rude, and insists on making fun of the orphans for losing their parents and constantly calls them cakesniffers. Despite Carmelita, the horrid housing, and the violin concerts the Baudelaire children have one silver lining, they meet and befriend the Quagmire triplets.

As it turns out, the Quagmire's have inherited a large fortune when they  lost their parents in a horrible fire, just as the Baudelaires did. Only the Quagmires also lost their brother, leaving only Duncan and Isadora. 

The Baudelaire children should know better to be hopeful in any situation. Within days, Count Olaf was at Prufrock Preparatory School disguised as the new gym teacher, forcing the orphans to participate in his S.O.R.E. program in the hopes that Vice Principal Nero would let him home school the children and become their guardian. 

With the help of the Quagmire triplets, the Baudelaires are able to defeat Count Olaf... But at a price. Two if Count Olaf's associates, the white faced women, kidnap the Quagmires. While speeding away, Duncan yells out, "The V. F. D.  You need to know about VFD!" 

This concluded the book, leaving the Baudelaires again with no home, but now with a purpose. To not only find out what VFD means, but more importantly to save their friends. This novel starts the connection between books. Before, they were all individual novels, tied together by Olaf chasing the children, but now things start to get more in depth. Characters reappear, and ideas and the VFD become important in the children's lives.