The Slippery Slope

*4.5

The third Quagmire Triplet. Sunny being held hostage. Winter. This book was a high point in the series thus far, and any time spent trying to unravel the mystery behind VFD, at this point, is absolute gold.

The latest installment of The Series Of Unfortunate Events picks up right where the last one left off - with Sunny Beaudelaire in the villianous clutches of Count Olaf and Esme Squalour, and Sunny's siblings, Violet and Klaus, about to be dropped off a cliff. [return][return]In this volume, new characters are met up with, much more is learned about the mysterious VFD, and we get to see the characters of the Beaudelaires explored some more. Oddly enough, I used to enjoy this series because of how repetitive and formulaic it was - and yet, with the last few volumes, it's perfectly eschewed the conventions it set up in the first six parts, and I'm still enjoying it greatly.

I didn't like it as much, though there were some very nice bits.

4:

Annoyed beyond reason because I couldn't stop misreading ‘Mortmain Mountains' as ‘Mountain Mountains.' A thousand curses upon you, Lemony Snicket.

(Quigley Quagmire, Sunny character development, Esmé tobogganing down the side of a mountain! This book had everything!)