Monday, October 5, 2015

Book Review: The Penultimate Peril (A series of Unfortunate Events #12)

The Penultimate Peril (#12)
by  Lemony Snicket
Date Read:  09/30/15
Rating: ★ ★ 
 

I enjoyed the new setting of this book. We were introduced to several new characters in this book and also got to see several old characters. I thought it was an interesting way to sort of recap a lot of the series by bringing these old characters back in.  It’s starting to get hard to keep all the characters straight though.

I appreciated that Count Olaf is no longer in disguise and not trying to hide that he’s evil. I just feel like we’re not really getting any answers to any of the questions that have been posed throughout the previous 11 books.  Nothing has been tied together.

I liked the chapters where the Baudelaires were split up and each had a chapter. I thought it was a cute idea to have each chapter end the same way, with them thinking relatively the same thing, at the same time.  I’m just starting to get tired of all of this build that got me so excited, but not getting any answers yet.

I do appreciate that Snicket has focused on the fact that sometimes the children have had to do bad things in order to get out of their predicament, but then have them questioning whether they are still good people. SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T read and plan to read the Divergent series: I hated the ending to Allegiant (the Divergent series) because the main character defeated the bad guys by doing the exact thing they were planning to do to her, to them.  How does that make her any better than them???  So I do appreciate the fact that it makes you question whether doing to the wrong thing for the right reasons still makes you a bad person or not.

There was a violent, gruesome death in this book that I wasn't expecting. We haven't had a violent death in quite some time. I found myself hoping it was Carmelita (I can't stand that girl), but of course it wasn't.  These poor kids have had a pretty rough life, and I hope they get some semblance of a happy ending.

Interested to see where this goes now that they are back with Count Olaf.  I’m hoping for a big ending and info dump to answer all our questions, but I’ve seen some reviews that makes me expect to really not having anything answered. I guess I should have read the reviews of the last book before I decided to spend my time reading/listening to 13 books…

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