Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Books 10 - 13

The Slippery Slope, By Lemony Snicket (2003)

The series reaches new heights (hehe) as we journey up Mount Fraught. Meanwhile, however, the cliffhanger ending of the previous book is speedily and intelligently resolved, and the two older orphans are forced to trek up the mountain following Olaf's car.

They come across an organisation known as the Snow Scouts, in which they meet the bully from Book Five. Taking up disguises, the two also meet another, unsuspected child - the seemingly long-lost brother of the Quagmires (again from Book Five), who instantaniously falls in love with Violet.

Quigley Quagmire's main use is as exposition, taking the two into the second-to-last V.F.D. (revealed mainly to be Volunteer Fire Department) base in Mount Fraught. There, they find an entire base, burnt to the ground. And a very slippery slope.

The youngest orphan gets rescued after some treachery and children speaking for the first time, as well as some sleds. The cliffhanger puts the three on a sled, speeding down a river, Quigley disappeared...

The Grim Grotto, By Lemony Snicket (2004)

Somewhat of a downer book; the beginning is promising enough, with the three being rescued by a V.F.D. submarine run by Phil (from Book Four), a deep sea captain and his daughter, Fiona (Klaus's love interest.) There, they help in running the submarine and aim to find a plot point known as the Sugar Bowl, something important to the V.F.D.

Violet suspects that it is in something known as the Georgian Grotto, a small area of undersea cave that is famous for being the only known habitat of a deadly fungus (or as I call it, Plot Point). The description of the fungus itself is a little dark; it grows in your lungs and suffocates you within an hour of entering your throat. This is especially frightening after we find that during the excursion, Sunny has contracted the fungus.

Meanwhile, Olaf has his own submarine, and has just "swallowed" the Queepeg into its dock. They are all taken prisoner, when it is realised that a long-standing henchman of Olaf's, "The Hook-Handed Man" is Fiona's brother. She ultimately betrays Klaus and the three for Olaf and her brother; something quite potent for the reader to deal with as well as the fungus.

They escape anyway back to their ship, and Sunny is able to shout, "wasabi," whichas it happens, is close enough to the antidote to work. The submarine's telegraph machine works again, and Quigley Quagmire is sending one. It is a series of clues, which is decoded to mean that they will meet him at Briny Beach (where they learnt the news of their parents' deaths all the way back in Book One). Both sides know they need to get to the last V.F.D safehouse, the Hotel Denouement, and Klaus manages to power up the Queepeg and leave.

What follows is a touching scene back on Briny Beach, with their old Social worker Mr. Poe turning up to ask them to come with him to the authorities (They committed some crimes in Books 7,8 and 9, remember?)  and they refuse, piling into the back of a waiting cab where the author's sister is sitting.

The Penultimate Peril, By Lemony Snicket (2005)

These books are getting awfully long by this point.


I'll summarise as follow: they are forced to disguise themselves as hotel porters and work in the hotel, where many people from both sides of the V.F.D. have gathered. Nearly all of the past books gets a nod and there's a lot of catching up, as well as some interesting literary experimentation going on.

Suffice to say that the book ends with the hotel burning and the three (Olaf as their capturerer) escaping on a boat.

The End, By Daniel Handlier under the pseudeonym of Lemony Snicket (2006)

We went through twelve books. One hundred and fifty six chapters. And there are fourteen left.

The menagerie of literary references never stops, but the literary style changes. The characters and their deeply entrenched senses of morality (or immortality) are shattered. And the ending is a downer.

But the ending works. It fits that even after The End, life for the Baudelaires is a series of unfortunate events. And them being swallowed up into The Great Unknown is perhaps the greatest literary triumph of all, reflecting that once one hits adulthood, all bets are off. Who knows where you'll end up.

Thanks.