A Series of Unfortunate Events #13: The End by Lemony Snicket

4 Mar

My Rating:

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire find themselves stranded by sea on a boat with none other than Count Olaf himself. Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) they arrive on an island and meet a young girl by the name of Friday. She doesn’t seem to like Olaf’s idea of being king of the island and her people, and suggests Olaf not go anywhere near the village.

Having temporarily gotten rid of the evil villan, the three orphans find themselves immersed in a strange culture in which everyone wears the same clothes, eats the same three meals daily, drinks a funny fermented liquid, and is governed by a man with clay feet who transports via sheep.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

23 Feb

My Rating:

The Baudelaires are dropped off at a hotel by a pregnant Kit Snicket, giving them concierge uniforms as a disguise. Unfortunately for the the three, this leads to them having to split up to serve the hotel’s guests.

Along the way they find many old enemies at the hotel, along with a handful of old friends, and each Baudelaire has the subconscious feeling of doing something that will end up being very wrong.

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Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

23 Feb

My Rating:

Jacob Jankowski is a vet student at Cornell in his last year, but his life is shattered when both of his parents die in a car accident one week before his veterinary medicine exam. The matter is made worse after Jacob is told his parents didn’t leave him a dime. Jacob’s parents had nothing to leave behind, mortgaging everything they owned to pay for their son’s tuition.

Jacob sits his exams and stares at the blank paper. He becomes too distraught by grief to think comprehensibly, stands up, walks off of campus, and runs aimlessly until he collapses onto a railroad track. When he sees a train come by, he decides to jump onto one of the open cars. As he soon discovers, the train is not an ordinary train — Jacob has jumped right onto a traveling circus.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events #11: The Grimm Grotto by Lemony Snicket

10 Feb

My rating:

We join Violet, Klaus, and Sunny on their rapid downhill struggle in the Stricken Stream when they are suddenly face to face with the eye of a submarine. The orphans meet two new quirky characters, and one we have met from a previous adventure.

Things seem to be going too well when the group finds a suspected location of the sugar bowl. As the orphans and Fiona dive into the grotto to explore, they find more trouble than they expected. Will Count Olaf show up to ruin the day? What exactly is the sugar bowl? And was their telegram to Mr. Poe those many weeks ago ever received?

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A Series of Unfortunate Events #10: The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

30 Jan

My Rating:

Klaus and Violet find themselves in a difficult situation when their youngest sister Sunny is again held captive by Count Olaf and his henchmen. Forced to do their chores, including a variety of cooking and cleaning, Sunny uses this time to plot a way out of the groups’ clutches.

Meanwhile, Klaus and Violet explore the remains of V.F.D. headquarters, leading them to quite a few shocking discoveries. Using their heads, they try to solve the mystery of V.F.D. and the Quagmires. On top of it all, how will they help Sunny escape?

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