The End (Series of Unfortunate Events #13)

I stupidly decided to finish this book while at work today. Multiple coworkers came up to ask if I was ok, only to laugh at me when they saw I was crying while reading. Even though I knew what was going to happen, and had read the ending before, it didn’t stop me from crying through the last 60 or so pages. 

Trapped on a small boat with Count Olaf, the Baudelaire children sat waiting for something to happen while in the middle of water with no land in sight. What was insight was a storm, and a bad one at that. The boat was torn apart, and the three Baudelaire children hardly manage to hold on to each other, but the waves do wash them on the shore of a small island. If you thought that VFD had secrets, it is nothing compared to what the island holds. As it turns out, many former members of VFD, castaways, villains, politicians, evildoers and volunteers are living on the island, all under the rule of an evil man who once knew the Baudelaire parents.

While the islanders initially welcome the three children and turn Count Olaf away, things quickly turn as secrets the islanders have been keeping from each other start to surface. To make matters worse Kit Snicket has washed upon the shore, in labour and Olaf has released the deadly fungus. 

After being poisoned, the islanders all leave on a newly constructed boat, but refuse to take Kit, Olaf and the Baudelaires. So often in this series things are not as they seem, and this ending is no different. In the last moments of life, Olaf helps Kit deliver her child and it is revealed that before the VFD schism, the two were lovers, and the baby could possibly be his. Kit dies while in labour, after making the Baudelaires promise to raise her child. 

After a year, Violet, Klaus, Sunny and the baby Beatrice (whom they named after their own mother), are able to finally leave the island wanting to rejoin the world despite the evils that it holds. 

I love this series, and am so glad that I reread it despite the sadness that certain parts brought. So much of the magic, and amazing things the novel provides I have left out of my reviews, as I do not want to give every secret away. I hope that everyone finds the time to read these books at some point in their life, it is well worth the time.