Reviews

The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket

avatarslayoshi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 As this series continues, I'm impressed by how well Snicket builds on things that were established previously, and how he makes these (pretty horrible) characters that are born out of places of being hurt/humans being nasty to one another. What I mean by those things are specifically mob mentality being brought back as a larger/important scene, and how the carnies go from beaten down and used/made fun of to being pretty horrible themselves, all for the chance at being accepted/in power.

Those are two very big ideas for a children's story, but I love them being used in ways that show just how childish they are at the core. And the same kind of goes for Madame Lulu and her facade - it's really applicable to present day social media (I hate saying that) and people doing things just for show. It always makes me sad that she doesn't make it out of this - another great character to join Aunt Josephine and Uncle Monty :(

Upon my rereads, I'd rank each novel as follows:

1. The Austere Academy
2. The Carnivorous Carnival
3. The Hostile Hospital
4. The Wide Window
5. The Vile Village
6. The Miserable Mill
7. The Ersatz Elevator
8. The Reptile Room
9. The Bad Beginning 

swaye's review against another edition

4.0

😱😱😱 Oh no! A literal cliffhanger! Don't worry, Sunny! I'll rescue you!

Onward Swifty, to Book the Tenth!

polarbearlvr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

they are really on their own now. Hopefully andwers will slowly start to trickle in.

kriavidar's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

guillevaldata's review against another edition

3.0

Si bien la historia siempre cae en lo mismo y es todo repetitivo, en esta ocasión los niños Baudelaire se enfrentan al Conde Olaf de una manera ingeniosa e inesperada. Además los libros se van volviendo más morbosos y, me encanta 😂
El final fue sin duda lo mejor, porque yo estaba dudando pero hubo un plot twist y me quede súper sorprendida! Me dio mucha intriga de ver cómo se las arreglan con este final, espero leer The Slipery Slope pronto! 3.5 para mí 😄

lucymereading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

eesh25's review against another edition

4.0

It's getting harder to rate these books because at this point, I'm only reading them because they're short and I wanna finish this series. But this was a good installment. We've finally moved past the more episodic part of the series (that can work but I didn't always enjoy it in this series). Things are happening to move the story forward. This book especially had a lot of development and information. It's also the second consecutive book with a cliffhanger.

I'm getting close to the end and very happy about it.

faeriesparks's review against another edition

2.0

2.5 stars
I don't have much to say about this, I just didn't like it as much as the others so far. The ending was intense though and I liked that.

aomidori's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious fast-paced

5.0

connorg1216's review

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25