Thank god that
Violet is an inventor, or she and her brother and sister would have been in
Count Olaf's clutches or dead long ago. Violet's quick thinking and inventive
prowess saved herself multiple times over the series, and chapter one of The
Sleepy Slope was no different. Violet and Klaus had been pushed down the side
of a mountain by Count Olaf, and the trailer they were trapped in was going
faster and faster, closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Violet was
able to slow the speeding cart just enough for her and her brother to jump out,
now all they have to do is climb all the way up the mountain and find their
sister.
This is the first
time in the series that the children are truly separated. Before the longest
they were apart was when Sunny was trapped in a cage overnight, but even then
her siblings were able to see her. This created two parallel stories in this
novel, one that followed what happened to Sunny, and the other that followed
Violet and Klaus,
We will start
with Sunny. Trapped in a car with Count Olaf, Esme, and the rest of the evil
associates, Sunny was only being kept alive so that the Baudelaire fortune
could be stolen, and so that she could do the chores and cooking for the villains.
Sunny herself even said she was being treated like Cinderella. What makes this
storyline so amazing, is this is the first time we see how grown up Sunny has
become. Looking back, one can see signs of her no longer being a baby, but this
makes it very evident. Not only is she walking and cooking, even her “babytalk”
doesn’t always need a translation. Her one and two word sentences actually make
relevant sense to the storyline. Sunny spends most of this novel spying on
Count Olaf and making mental notes of all the things she over hears since
everyone thinks that she is just a baby who doesn’t understand.Klaus and
Violet’s story is the one that brought tears of happiness to my eyes though.
After narrowly escaping death, the two start up the freezing mountain. While
traveling upwards they meet the Snow Scouts, a group of young adults similar to
American Scout troops, lead by Carmelita Spats from boarding school. Disguised
under their layers of clothing, Carmelita doesn’t recognize the Baudelaires,
but someone does. A boy, not dressed in the scout uniform begins talking in
phrases that all have the initials VFD. When he leads Violet and Klaus away
after the others are asleep he reveals himself to be the thought to be dead
triplet, Quigley Quagmire.
I think it might
be worse that the Baudelaire children have these moments of happiness and hope,
it makes the end result so much sadder. For a few days, it seems that maybe
things are looking up. Quigley helps them scale the mountain and rescue Sunny
and they talk about their families and hope for the future. Of Course it
doesn’t pan out though. Once at the top of the summit, the three children
rescue Sunny, only to have Quigley be separated from them when the waterfall/river
unfreezes and sends them in opposite directions.
Every book gets
more heartbreaking, but this book gives the reader and the Baudelaires
themselves some insight into why all this happens. This novel speaks more of
the secret organization that, as it turns out, all of the parents and guardians
were a part of at some point in their lives. It also becomes somewhat apparent
that both the Baudelaire children and the Quagmire triplets were being groomed
to join the organization (the good side of it of course).
I would just like
to apologize for the delay in this review. Life kind of got in the way of my
finishing this series in two weeks,
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