The Slippery Slope

The tenth of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events is definitely my favorite so far. It slows down enough to let the story breath and to let the Baudelaires finally find some answers. All three of the orphans grow in different ways, and it's so rewarding to see how far they've come. Sunny's vocabulary in particular is getting to be a lot of fun as the nonsense words she spoke in the beginning are being traded in for words that apply to her situation, such as lox or futile. It's becoming much easier to interpret her meaning, and that plays against Snicket's interpretation in fun ways.

The mysteries are also beginning to unravel. As I expected, VFD stands for Volunteer Fire Department. But it also stands for nearly everything else, which results in some fun connections and wordplay. The third Quagmire triplet, Quigley, is revealed to be alive, and I'm looking forward to his reunion with his siblings. And we got some appearances from past characters, which was nice. Even if they weren't the characters I'd have preferred to see.

I'm getting really excited about the end of the series. I know that not everything gets wrapped up perfectly, but it'll still be nice to see what does get solved. I may even track down Snicket's other work, like The Beatrice Letters, because this world is becoming so full and fun.

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