Sunday, October 08, 2006

Book 86: The Penultimate Peril

Here we go, the next to last entry in the long running A Series of Unfortunate Events. Once again Lemony Snicket has written a fast paced, though longer, novel dealing with the unfortunate lives of the Baudelaire orphans and their attempts to evade Count Olaf and find out the mysteries of VFD and claim their lives as their own.

By this twelfth novel there is little to say that hasn't been said and there is a strong similarity between each novel. In The Penultimate Peril the Baudelaires are at the Hotel Denouement and begin to see some of the characters and villains from previous novels all gathered together. Truly, Snicket is setting us up for the big ending.

What is truly interesting about this novel is the examination of Right and Wrong and how when the series started everything seemed so clear cut, but now the Baudelaires are questioning whether doing a wicked act for a good reason is Right or Wrong and question if it is possible they are becoming Wrong like the villains who have persued them for so long.

Still, thirteen volumes is an awful lot of time spent in one series and I only hope that Snicket can end on a strong note. I feel that he can, but we'll see.

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