March 17, 2015
Book the Ninth of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It took me longer than usual to read this one due to weird scheduling at work lately. But I enjoyed it just as much as the previous one. As Sherlock Holmes would say, the plot thickens. Indeed indeed.
For one thing, the characters are becoming more complex. Madame Lulu, aka Olivia, is one of the more three-dimensional adult characters that we've seen in this series. She has someone who has been spying on the Baudelaires...it's from her that Olaf has been learning of their whereabouts. She's also learned some about them from newspapers. Why, oh why, would a newspaper publish the location of three kids who are being stalked by maniacs? And this was before they were framed as murderers!
Olivia is a fake fortune teller, though she was once a member of V.F.D. and an associate of Lemony Snicket. She's torn between helping Olaf (whom she seems to be infatuated with...gross), and aiding the Baudelaires after they learn each others' identities. Unfortunately, before Olivia's death she had betrayed the kids, revealing that they'd been hiding in her carnival as "freaks."
The actual "freaks" in question are absurd, but also facing morality issues. Now, Hugo has a hunched back, which might qualify him as a "freak" in the old-fashioned sense. But Colette is a contortionist, and Kevin is ambidextrous. Kevin constantly laments about what a huge freak he is, which is silly, of course. Besides lacking in self-awareness, these are perfectly decent people. But desperation leads them to be easily manipulated by Esmé, and in the end, they join Olaf's shrinking troupe. In the last book, the obese, androgynous person died in the fire at Heimlich Hospital. In this book, the nameless bald man, along with Olivia, is eaten by starving lions.
I'm starting to feel a little bad for Olaf's nameless associates. They're mistaken for "freaks," which leads me to think that these people are quite vulnerable. Wicked Olaf was the only one who took a chance on them, though he only uses them for his own devices and doesn't care a thing about them. I wonder if, one by one, they'll all meet a grisley end by the close of the series...including Esmé.
Even the Baudelaires are beginning to wonder if they're becoming a bit evil. They disguised themselves, lied to everyone they encountered, and indirectly caused the deaths of Olivia and the bald guy (he's got a name, now that I think of it, but I can't remember now what it was). But really, would it all have been necessary if Olaf weren't so evil and relentless? No way. They're losing their innocence, but not their inherent goodness.
The ending of the book was a bit intense. Because...Olaf and his gang have Sunny! I can't even. Having left the carnival in flames and the two older Baudelaires behind, the gang is on their way to the Mortmain Mountains in search of the one Baudelaire parent who may still be alive. I still don't think that it is so, but at least Violet and Klaus know where they're going. Shit's getting more intense than ever.
Based on what I know about V.F.D. so far (even if I don't know what it stands for), I have to wonder: did the Baudelaire parents know that their lives were in danger? After all, Lemony Snicket tried to warn them of this. If they did, why did they not make better arrangements for the kids. They've got an uncle who raises pigs, so why not make him their guardian? I'm a bit upset with the parents about this, how it seems like they've left their children to deal with an enormous mess.
Okay, I'm getting all worked up over this. I may just have to give my students some extra reading time so I can really get into the tenth book before Spring Break!
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