The Grim Grotto

This was not my favorite in Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. It mostly boils down to the gimmick we get this time around. Every book so far has had a gimmick of some sort, and I've mostly been able to enjoy or ignore them. But here it just grated.

We meet the captain of a submarine who repeats everything he says 3 or 4 times in different words. And uses "Aye" the way you use "stop" in telegrams - between every sentence. The Count Olaf and his group show up with the most annoying new laugh ever. I skipped whole paragraphs of dialogue because I couldn't stand to read it.

Apart from that, it's a good installment. The stakes are definitely getting higher. The Baudelaires meet a new friend only to be betrayed by her. Sunny has a very close brush with death. The whole good vs evil starts to become murkier, as one of Olaf's henchmen reveals hidden depths and motivations. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but this book is hinting at more and more satisfying answers.

At the end, the Baudelaires become more proactive than they've ever been, making a deliberate choice to join the volunteers instead of going back with Mr. Poe. I'm excited to see what happens in the next-to-last (and longest) book. Hopefully the new gimmick will be more palatable.

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