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Summary
Summary
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
Like an off-key violin concert, the Roman Empire, or food poisoning, all things must come to an end. Thankfully, this includes A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The thirteenth and final installment in the groundbreaking series will answer readers' most burning questions: Will Count Olaf prevail Will the Baudelaires survive Will the series end happily If there's nothing out there, what was that noise
Then again, why trouble yourself with unfortunate resolutions Avoid the thirteenth and final book of Lemony Snicket's international bestselling series and you'll never have to know what happens.
Author Notes
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of Daniel Handler, who was born on February 28, 1970. As Lemony Snicket, he is the author of and appears as a character in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has also written or contributed to other works using this pen name including Baby in the Manger, The Lump of Coal, The Composer Is Dead, and Where Did You See Her Last?.
Under his real name, Handler is the author of several books for adults including The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, and Adverbs.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Those who can't wait for The End to Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events (book 13) due out on October 13 (that's Friday the 13th, naturally) with a 2.5 million-copy first printing can bide their time with The Beatrice Letters, which uncovers, in part, the mystery behind the lady to whom Lemony Snicket dedicates every book. A beautifully designed paper-over-board package contains the correspondence between the title mystery lady and the author, punchout letters that add to the intrigue, a full-color poster by series artist Brett Helquist all safely stowed in a handy accordion file. Miss it if you dare, as Snicket might say. And to be sure Unfortunate fans truly have everything. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) In the thirteenth and final volume of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaire orphans find themselves shipwrecked on an island with both their tormentor, the cartoonish Count Olaf, and their ally, an injured and very pregnant Kit Snicket, sister to the omnipresent narrator. Readers will be intrigued to discover a bit more of the Baudelaire parents' past, though little else of their secret society is revealed. Instead, the conflict focuses on the dangers of willful ignorance as a means of safety and is, of course, couched in a series of zanily over-the-top predicaments that make enterprising use of the children's talents. Trademark authorial ticks are in full evidence, and include a three-page riff on the dual meanings of the phrase in the dark along with the forcedly whimsical definitions of terms. As well, the moral equivalency drawn between the Baudelaires (who commit treachery to survive) and their foes (who, apparently, survive solely to commit treachery) will chafe at readers who recognize the importance of mitigating circumstances. Where Snicket excels here is in balancing the expectation of happy ending against his own repeated declarations that none exists. Only a few loose threads resolve, and treachery still abounds, but Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are finally given the opportunity to make their own choices. No longer victims of the inevitable battles between noble ""volunteers"" and villains, they are now willing conscripts in the fight -- and that may be enough to appease their many devoted fans. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
After a singularly bad beginning, the Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, have finally reached the end. The question is, will Book the Thirteenth in A Series of Unfortunate Events meet the expectations of the series' myriad fans? Snicket might put it a somewhat different way: if end simply means to cease, the answer is yes. If, however, end means to complete, the answer is most assuredly no--because though Snicket neatly clips numerous threads in the tragic saga, he leaves others literally fluttering in the breeze. As with the previous books, this one begins where its predecessor left off, with the orphans and the villainous Count Olaf afloat on dangerous open seas. When a storm blows their craft ashore, kindly islanders welcome the orphans, but Olaf is an outcast. Have the children finally found the longed-for last safe place on earth? Not so fast . . . before long, they are once again scrambling to avert disaster and death (Kikbucit, as Sunny puts it when a couple of characters are terminated). If possible, this title is even more preposterous than others in the series (the children help an old friend give birth), as well as considerably longer than some. But frequent references to the other adventures will send Snicket fans back to previous books to delight once again in the idiosyncratic characters, the wry humor, and the wordplay, which has surely increased their vocabulary tenfold. --Stephanie Zvirin Copyright 2006 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End Chapter One If you have ever peeled an onion, then you know that the first thin, papery layer reveals another thin, papery layer, and that layer reveals another, and another, and before you know it you have hundreds of layers all over the kitchen table and thousands of tears in your eyes, sorry that you ever started peeling in the first place and wishing that you had left the onion alone to wither away on the shelf of the pantry while you went on with your life, even if that meant never again enjoying the complicated and overwhelming taste of this strange and bitter vegetable. In this way, the story of the Baudelaire orphans is like an onion, and if you insist on reading each and every thin, papery layer in A Series of Unfortunate Events, your only reward will be 170 chapters of misery in your library and countless tears in your eyes. Even if you have read the first twelve volumes of the Baudelaires' story, it is not too late to stop peeling away the layers, and to put this book back on the shelf to wither away while you read something less complicated and overwhelming. The end of this unhappy chronicle is like its bad beginning, as each misfortune only reveals another, and another, and another, and only those with the stomach for this strange and bitter tale should venture any farther into the Baudelaire onion. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes. The Baudelaire orphans would have been happy to see an onion, had one come bobbing along as they traveled across the vast and empty sea in a boat the size of a large bed but not nearly as comfortable. Had such a vegetable appeared, Violet, the eldest Baudelaire, would have tied up her hair in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes, and in moments would have invented a device to retrieve the onion from the water. Klaus, the middle sibling and the only boy, would have remembered useful facts from one of the thousands of books he had read, and been able to identify which type of onion it was, and whether or not it was edible. And Sunny, who was just scarcely out of babyhood, would have sliced the onion into bite-sized pieces with her unusually sharp teeth, and put her newly developed cooking skills to good use in order to turn a simple onion into something quite tasty indeed. The elder Baudelaires could imagine their sister announcing "Soubise!" which was her way of saying "Dinner is served." But the three children had not seen an onion. Indeed, they had not seen much of anything during their ocean voyage, which had begun when the Baudelaires had pushed the large, wooden boat off the roof of the Hotel Denouement in order to escape from the fire engulfing the hotel, as well as the authorities who wanted to arrest the children for arson and murder. The wind and tides had quickly pushed the boat away from the burning hotel, and by sunset the hotel and all the other buildings in the city were a distant, faraway blur. Now, the following morning, the only things the Baudelaires had seen were the quiet, still surface of the sea and the gray gloom of the sky. The weather reminded them of the day at Briny Beach when the Baudelaires had learned of the loss of their parents and their home in a terrible fire, and the children spent much of their time in silence, thinking about that dreadful day and all of the dreadful days that had followed. It almost would have been peaceful to sit in a drifting boat and think about their lives, had it not been for the Baudelaires' unpleasant companion. Their companion's name was Count Olaf, and it had been the Baudelaire orphans' misfortune to be in this dreadful man's company since they had become orphans and he had become their guardian. Olaf had hatched scheme after scheme in an attempt to get his filthy hands on the enormous fortune the Baudelaire parents had left behind, and although each scheme had failed, it appeared as if some of the villain's wickedness had rubbed off on the children, and now Olaf and the Baudelaires were all in the same boat. Both the children and the count were responsible for a number of treacherous crimes, although at least the Baudelaire orphans had the decency to feel terrible about this, whereas all Count Olaf had been doing for the past few days was bragging about it. "I've triumphed!" Count Olaf reiterated, a word which here means "announced for the umpteenth time." He stood proudly at the front of the boat, leaning against a carving of an octopus attacking a man in a diving suit that served as the boat's figurehead. "You orphans thought you could escape me, but at last you're in my clutches!" "Yes, Olaf," Violet agreed wearily. The eldest Baudelaire did not bother to point out that as they were all alone in the middle of the ocean, it was just as accurate to say that Olaf was in the Baudelaires' clutches as it was to say they were in his. Sighing, she gazed up at the tall mast of the boat, where a tattered sail drooped limply in the still air. For some time, Violet had been trying to invent a way for the boat to move even when there wasn't any wind, but the only mechanical materials on board were a pair of enormous spatulas from the Hotel Denouement's rooftop sunbathing salon. The children had been using these spatulas as oars, but rowing a boat is very hard work, particularly if one's traveling companions are too busy bragging to help out, and Violet was trying to think of a way they might move the boat faster. "I've burned down the Hotel Denouement," Olaf cried, gesturing dramatically, "and destroyed V.F.D. once and for all!" A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End . Copyright © by Lemony Snicket. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from The End by Lemony Snicket All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
