A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End
Oct. 14th, 2006 02:20 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cadenzaAfter waiting all day, I finally started on the last Series of Unfortunate Events book at about 9:30 p.m. I finished it a while ago, I've had some time to think about the book, and I'm still incredibly hyper, so... you get a 2:00 a.m. book 'review'. Apologies in advance for any incoherency!
What an insane book! So much new information, and yet, nearly all of the important questions we had before reading the book have been left unanswered.
I was a bit disappointed with the first few chapters of the book. They seemed like filler, just taking up space until Kit arrived. After that, the story started moving along more, and I enjoyed it a lot. There were some nice little sections (the bit about rootbeer floats and thumbtacks, the discussion of the phrase "in the dark") that reminded me why I love this series so much.
The bit with either Duncan or Quigley calling out Violet's name was genius. A small nod to the fandom, I think.
I also really liked the book-within-a-book thing with 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. A nice little touch.
The death scene with Kit and Olaf was some of the best writing in the whole series, imho. I don't think I've ever heard Kit/Olaf suggested as a ship before; what a complete shock! I actually kind of like it. Count Olaf's characterization in this scene - and, in fact, in the whole book - was brilliant. Just a tiny bit of a redemption for him. The snippets of poetry integrated with this scene worked extremely well. Olaf's quoting of Philip Larkin's This Be The Verse was especially great. Now, of course, the big question is who is the father of Kit's child? I think it's more likely to be Dewey (and any romance Kit had with Olaf is way in the past), but the idea of the Baudelaires raising Olaf's child is pretty interesting, too.
The end of The End was perfect. I don't know how he managed to pull it off, but he did it. There's enough sadness that it stays true to the tone of the series, but it has enough hopefulness (and ambiguousness) that I finished the book in a surprisingly good mood.
Daniel Handler said in an interview that there would be a lot of loose ends, which was to be expected. I didn't think he would take it to this extent, though! I think it was a good choice to leave things ambiguous, and there were only a few extra things that I really wanted to know. After giving hints throughout the whole series, he never really clarified what went on with the sugar bowl. (We know that there was likely an antidote of some sort inside, but why did everyone want the sugar bowl so badly?) The question mark in the sea is still a mystery, and with it, the fates of the Quagmires and Fiona are also unclear. But, of course, it was made clear enough that that's the whole point; there are still supposed to be questions. The one thing I'd really like to know is who started the fire that killed the Baudelaire parents.
Poor Lemony! His siblings both dead and Beatrice Sr., too. I really really want to know more about Lemony and the entire Snicket family. (And all the rest of VFD, really.) There is an insane amount of potential backstory in these books. Damn, I wish the ASOUE fandom was bigger! I can't think of any series that is just begging for fanfic as much as this one.
What an insane book! So much new information, and yet, nearly all of the important questions we had before reading the book have been left unanswered.
I was a bit disappointed with the first few chapters of the book. They seemed like filler, just taking up space until Kit arrived. After that, the story started moving along more, and I enjoyed it a lot. There were some nice little sections (the bit about rootbeer floats and thumbtacks, the discussion of the phrase "in the dark") that reminded me why I love this series so much.
The bit with either Duncan or Quigley calling out Violet's name was genius. A small nod to the fandom, I think.
I also really liked the book-within-a-book thing with 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. A nice little touch.
The death scene with Kit and Olaf was some of the best writing in the whole series, imho. I don't think I've ever heard Kit/Olaf suggested as a ship before; what a complete shock! I actually kind of like it. Count Olaf's characterization in this scene - and, in fact, in the whole book - was brilliant. Just a tiny bit of a redemption for him. The snippets of poetry integrated with this scene worked extremely well. Olaf's quoting of Philip Larkin's This Be The Verse was especially great. Now, of course, the big question is who is the father of Kit's child? I think it's more likely to be Dewey (and any romance Kit had with Olaf is way in the past), but the idea of the Baudelaires raising Olaf's child is pretty interesting, too.
The end of The End was perfect. I don't know how he managed to pull it off, but he did it. There's enough sadness that it stays true to the tone of the series, but it has enough hopefulness (and ambiguousness) that I finished the book in a surprisingly good mood.
Daniel Handler said in an interview that there would be a lot of loose ends, which was to be expected. I didn't think he would take it to this extent, though! I think it was a good choice to leave things ambiguous, and there were only a few extra things that I really wanted to know. After giving hints throughout the whole series, he never really clarified what went on with the sugar bowl. (We know that there was likely an antidote of some sort inside, but why did everyone want the sugar bowl so badly?) The question mark in the sea is still a mystery, and with it, the fates of the Quagmires and Fiona are also unclear. But, of course, it was made clear enough that that's the whole point; there are still supposed to be questions. The one thing I'd really like to know is who started the fire that killed the Baudelaire parents.
Poor Lemony! His siblings both dead and Beatrice Sr., too. I really really want to know more about Lemony and the entire Snicket family. (And all the rest of VFD, really.) There is an insane amount of potential backstory in these books. Damn, I wish the ASOUE fandom was bigger! I can't think of any series that is just begging for fanfic as much as this one.
