March 4, 2015
Book the Eighth of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and undoubtedly the best in the series at this point. I don't think I'll be able to express how much I enjoyed this one, but I'll try. First off, the cover itself is totally badass. Klaus is disguised as a doctor, surgical mask and all, holding a huge Bowie knife and looming over the reader, along with two of Olaf's creepy associates in similar disguises. Intrigue!
Secondly, this book has the Baudelaire children at their most desperate. They're on the run from everyone, as in the previous book they were falsely accused of being murderers. Almost caught, they join up with a group of moronic hippie singers called V.F.D...Volunteers Fighting Disease, who go to Heimlich Hospital to sing to patients and give them heart-shaped balloons. Now, obviously there is something to be said about the power of positive thinking (Patch Adams, anyone?), but the folks of V.F.D. sincerely believe that their methods are superior to modern medicine. The kids figure out pretty quickly that this is not the V.F.D. that they are looking for.
The kids, desperate to hide, volunteer to help out in the records department. The records at Heimlich Hospital, for some reason, are a kind of catch-all for all kinds of files. There's even a file on the Baudelaires...unfortunately, it was confiscated so that it could be used to investigate the Baudelaire fire, or maybe other acts of arson committed by Olaf and his crew. There is a page that leads the kids to believe that one of their parents is still alive, but I'm pretty sure the survivor referred to is Lemony Snicket himself.
As the kids find the cleaned out file, they are accosted by Esmé, who is in extra psycho mode in this book as she tries to murder them. Klaus and Sunny get away, but Violet falls into her clutches. The two younger Baudelaires must use Olaf's own methods against him and his associates, as they save Violet from having her fucking head cut off. In the end, they're still fugitives on the run, and they, like Olaf, want the missing file...and so they sneak into the truck of his car to follow his crew to their next destination. Oh, shit!
But besides the excitement and the clear break from the old pattern, the best thing about this book were the delightful literary references, which were obviously included for adult readers. Mrs. Dalloway is cited, as moody Clarissa is a patient at the hospital. And guess which author is name checked? Haruki Murakami! Say what??? These references blew my mindhole, and I'm sure that there were others that I missed. That's what really made this book for me.
I'm pretty enthused as I begin the ninth book. My teaching schedule will change a bit next term, so my reading time at work will get cut down a bit. But my goal is still to finish the series by the end of the school year.
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