The three Baudelaire children are the same as ever: Violet longing to invent things (and inventing some when need calls), Klaus longing to read as much as possible (uncovering some info at just the right moment) and Sunny longing to bite hard stuff (her teeth being the children’s most important asset in one particular situation). As always they have to manage to escape Olaf’s clutches without the smallest help from anyone else’s part, relying only on their innate qualities. With each passing book they prove to be more courageous, and I cannot help hoping that they’ll get their happy ending in the final book (together with the Quagmire triplets, of course). Another (sort of) nice character in the book was Jerome (an old friend of the Baudelaire’s mother), who seems to have a good heart and actually care about the children. He has only one fault (with dire consequences for the orphans): he cannot stand to argue (a bit curious how he ended up marrying Esme of all people).

A small quote that amused me:

It was darker than a pitch-black panther, covered in tar, eating black licorice at the very bottom of the deepest part of the Black Sea.

And, of course, the usual warning from the author:

In short, reading a dictionary might make you feel nervous, because you would worry about finding it very boring, but reading this book will make you feel anxious, because you will be troubled by the disturbing suspense in which the Baudelaire orphans find themselves, and if I were you I would drop this book right out of your two or more hands and curl up with a dictionary instead, because all the miserable words I must use to describe these unfortunate events are about to reach your eyes.

What I liked most: The scale of the whole “in”/”out” obsession of the people on that street never failed to put a smile on my face when mentioned. Just think of a street with huge trees with luxuriant foliage that doesn’t let the sunlight pass, so the entire street was dark because, well, dark was “in” (the whole building interior was lit by candles too for the very same reason). Next thing we know, light is declared “in” and all the trees are chopped down. Later in the book, the ocean decorations were in, so the lobby of the building was painted blue and sand was spread on the floor. And so on and so forth :)

What I liked least: The scene between the Quagmires and the Baudelaires, going something like this:
Quagmires: “We know all about Olaf’s evil plans, let us tell you about them!”
Baudelaires: “Not now, there is no time, we have to go but we’ll come back and rescue you as soon as possible”
Needless to say, the two groups of children never set eyes on each other for the rest of the book. Leaving unsaid both the answer to the question the reader had at the end of the last book AND the tiny bit of info that would have enabled the Baudelaires to save the Quagmires the very next day. Gaaah! I hate it when that happens. :)

Recommend it? I’m so in love with this series, definitely yes :)

This book is a sequel to:
The Bad Beginning
The Reptile Room
The Wide Window
The Miserable Mill
The Austere Academy

This book is followed by:
The Vile Village
The Hostile Hospital
The Carnivorous Carnival
The Slippery Slope
The Grim Grotto
The Penultimate Peril
The End

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