Rating: 3.5 stars
“Dear Reader, If you have just picked up this book, then it is not too late to put it back down. Like the previous books in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, there is nothing to be found in these pages but misery, despair, and discomfort, and you still have time to choose something else to read. Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda. I have sworn to write down these tales of the Baudelaire orphans so the general public will know each terrible thing that has happened to them, but if you decide to read something else instead, you will save yourself from a heapful of horror and woe. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket.”
Dear Reader,
During this unfortunate tale, we follow the three Baudelaire siblings as they are plaved under the care of the lavish Esme and Jerome Squalor, husband and wife who live in the penthouse of 667 Dark Avenue. With what the doorman thinks could be either 48 or 84 floors, you’d think they’d be able to use the elevator, but at the time that they arrive, it is ‘out’. Not out of order as in it’s broken, but it is fashionably out, decided by the neighbourhood, along with an assortment of other things.
In this unfortunate event, Count Olaf is once again disgused, this time as Gunther, a pin stipe wearing auctioneer from another county, to help with his disguse even more. He wears horse riding boots to cover his infamous eye tattoo on his ankle and a monocle to hide his singular eyebrow when he scrunches his face to hold the monocle. He is in town to host an ‘In Auction’ where he sells off ‘in’ items at the time. The Baudelaire siblings figure out that he is hiding the Quagmire triplets in one of the lot’s he is selling, but a red herring, literally, directs them away from which lot he is hiding them in.
For the first time since The Reptile Room, I actually thought that the children had been placed with a reasonable guardian, and I was weary of Esme as the book went on, only for my suspicion to be confirmed at the end of the book, she knew that Gunther was Count Olaf all along since she was trained in acting by him in the past. I thought that Jerome was actually a decent guardian until he let the Baudelaire’s go at the end becuase he agreed to look after them if they were to leave with him and forget about Olaf and the Quagmire triplets. Of course, the siblings won’t forget about the Quagmire’s and they seem to want to do anything to rescue them, even if it means being taken away from one of the best guardians they’ve had in a while.
I look forward to reading the next book, The Vile Village sometime soon.
With all due respect,
Jade Evans
Tea Stains and Book Spines 