Penultimate Peril (Series of Unfortunate Events #12)

The driver of the taxi Violet, Klaus and Sunny stepped into was no other than Kit Snicket. While the Baudelaires do not know who she is yet, she knows them, and knew their parents well. She tells them that VFD is in need of their services as the last safe place, and they are to go under cover at the Hotel Denouncement. While working there, is seems that every person they have ever encountered since their parents death has been called to the hotel. Some are villains, some former volunteers and members of VFD. Still others have been called to testify against Count Olaf or the Baudelaires, no matter the reason the Baudelaire children realize that for everything they knew, or thought they knew, hundreds more secrets were just under the surface, and some memories of those they loved have been tarnished as secrets reveal they were not perfect. 

So much happens while at the hotel, it would take nearly a whole other novel to explain it, but it all culminates in the burning down of the hotel, and the Baudelaires getting into a boat with Count Olaf in order to stay safe and away from the flames. 

While this review is short, the only other way to have written it would have turned into a ten page report. Trust me, read this series, and this book. It makes you think about your own life and the choices you make under different circumstances, and how others might view them as evil even if you don't. 

The Carnivorous Carnival (Series of Unfortunate Events #10

I don't know why I thought it would be a good reason to reread this series, I mean the things that happen to the Baudelaire children are more than unfortunate, rather they are downright dreadful and nauseating. I had forgotten some of the horrible things that happened to the Baudelaires and it’s almost like I'm reading these books for the first time. 

If you recall, the previous novel left Violet, Klaus, and Sunny squished in the back of Count Olaf's car in an attempt to escape the fire Count Olaf has started in the hospital. The Carnivorous Carnival starts moments after the previous novel ended with the three orphans stuck under mounds of clothes for hours as Olaf drives. Finally, the car stops and Olaf and his associates get out talking about seeing Madam Lulu and her circus freaks.  Taking the opportunity, the three children get out of the trunk and follow them to Madam LuLu's tent. Eavesdropping below the window, the three children overhear count Olaf thank Madam LuLu for always helping to find the children and assisting in his dastardly deeds. Shocked, the three hurry back to the car where they disguise themselves as circus freaks in order to hide themselves and continue to learn more about how Madam LuLu always knows where to send Count Olaf. 

Disguised as a two headed person and a wolf-hybrid, Madam LuLu begins to tell the children about how once she belonged to an organization that used codes, disguises, eye tattoos, and fires. Not only were she and Olaf once members, but the Baudelaire children realist that their parents and maybe even the quagmire parents were once all apart of it. 

The bad situation only gets worse when Olaf tries to feed the Baudelaires to a pack of hungry lions only to have Madam LuLu and one of his associates die in the struggle. Count Olaf then steals Sunny and pushes Klaus and Violet down a mountain, where the 9th book ends with their screams. 

I feel like this is where my memory almost completely fails me. The books at this point are becoming so heartbreaking, and the realization that things really won't get better for the Baudelaire children sets in. I had forgotten all about the children being separated and honestly can't remember how it gets fixed, thank goodness I already own the books!!

The Hostile Hospital (Series of Unfortunate Events #8)

After running away from the Village of Fowl Devotees, the Baudelaire children find themselves in yet another unfortunate circumstance in The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket. While traveling through the desert, the Baudelaires come across a group calling themselves VFD, Volunteers Fighting Disease. Pretending to be new volunteers themselves, the three children get into one of the vans heading for the hospital. After questioning all the volunteers in the van, the orphans realize that this is not the VFD they are looking for.

While at the hospital Violet, Klaus and Sunny end up working in the records room and come across a file with their name on it. Inside there is a picture of their parents and some of their friends. Attached to the file is the last page of a report, a report that had been torn out and removed. The last page was enough to make the children look at each other with wonder; the page mentions that someone from the fire is not dead. Violet and Klaus hope beyond hope that one of their parents are still alive, but before they can do any more research Esme and Count Olaf appear in the hospital, setting it on fire.

The only way the three children can escape is to sneak into the back of Count Olaf’s trunk as he drives away, and this 8^th novel ends there, with the three Baudelaire orphans hiding in the trunk of the man who wants them dead.

I apologize for the quickness of this review, but it could not be helped. 

Ersatz Elevator (Series of Unfortunate Events #6)

This series gets more and more thrilling with each book! The action of the Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket keeps the pages turning long after I had planned to take a break for work and sleep. The story starts, as they all have, with the Baudelaire children meeting their new guardian. This time it is a rich couple names Esme and Jerome Squalor. Esme only cares about money and what is in it fashionable. Jerome is actually loving and caring, despite his faults if hating arguing and going with whatever Esme wants. The situation a actually starts out rather favorably, the Squalors happen to live near the Baudelaire's old home, so they are at least in an area with one caring guardian for the time being. 

All that changes when Esme begins working with a new auctioneer, Gunther who is really Olaf in disguise. The children try and tell Jerome but he doesn't want to listen as a using Gunther could potentially lead to an argument. While trying to find out Count Olaf's plan, the children stumble over the kidnapped quagmire triplets who have been caged in a broken elevator shaft. 

Knowing there aren't dead brings hope to the Baudelaire orphans, but they lack the ability to free them at the time of discovery. 

Hoping to save them during transport, Violet, Klaus and Sunny once again go to Esme for help, this time with proof. Unfortunately, Esme has been in league with Count Olaf the entire time. The two met years before, and Esme has been infatuated with him ever since. 

With Esme's help, Olaf is once again able to escape with the quagmires and evade police capture. Jerome, wanting to forget the whole mess tells the children that he will continue to care for them only if they give up trying to rescue the quagmires. Violet tells him no, they won't give up in their friends. So the three once again find themselves alone and without a guardian. 

The Miserable Mill (Series of Unfortunate Events #4)

While Count Olaf has many associates from his original acting troop who help him in his attempts to steal the Baudelaire fortune, The Miserable Mill is the first book where someone from outside joins the attempts. Dr. Orwell is an optometrist who lives in Paltryville, the city where our story takes place and she plays a huge role in this novel.

The Miserable Mill, by Lemony Snicket, starts off with the Baudelaire children being adopted by Sir who runs the Lucky Mills Lumber Company. Instead of providing a warm and nurturing home, he forces the three children to work the dangerous lumber machines, share a bunk in a dormitory with fellow workers, get paid in coupons, and have a lunch of a mere stick of gum. Even Sir’s partner Charles, who is treated like an assistant rather than an equal, thinks that the children shouldn’t be working. Charles tries to sneak them extra food and show them the library, but as he won’t stand up to Sir, it does little to help the situation.

While working at the Mill, one of Count Olaf’s associates trips Klaus and breaks Klaus’ glasses. To get them fixed, Klaus is sent to the only optometrist in the area, the aforementioned Dr. Orwell. After his appointment, Klaus returns confused and doesn’t seem to hear and understand what Violet and Sunny say to him. As it turns out, Dr. Orwell is a hypnotist and has hypnotized Klaus to cause accidents and hurt people around the mill. When Violet and Sunny go to confront the doctor about what is happening they discover Count Olaf in her office, and the villains laugh at the orphan’s pitiful attempts to stop them from stealing the fortune and their lives.

Luckily, and that is not a word often used to describe the Baudelaire children since that dreadful day at Briney Beach, they are able to outwit the evil adults (with no help from Charles, Sir or Mr. Poe). Violet, not usually a researcher, reads books on eyes and hypnosis to break the hold on her brother, Klaus helps to build an invention that stops the lumber machine from killing anyone, and Sunny uses her sharp teeth to protect her siblings from being stabs by Dr. Orwell.

Unfortunately, Sir blames the entire incident on the children, and sends them off to a boarding school until Mr. Poe can find another guardian to care for them. This book start to reveal that the evilness of Count Olaf and his associates is much more far-reaching than the children thought. Dr. Orwell was willing to hurt the children and listen to Count Olaf even though she wasn’t in his acting troop. The novel sets up that the children need to be wary of people they haven’t met as Count Olaf might know them from somewhere else and be working together.