A review by morningtide
The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

I keep feeling the urge to pick "hopeful" as a mood for some of the books in this series, but that's really completely wrong. Things are always so unfortunate for the Baudelaires that when they get to actually learn some information or have a calm moment, I'm like, "Ah!!! Things will be okay then, maybe!" Whoops.

There is something I adored specifically about this book and the leadup to the moment ... the KNIFE. Violet carries this butter knife in her pocket since they leave the caravan from the carnival, and there are multiple moments when she puts her hand in her pocket, touches it, wonders if now is the time to try and use her weapon. In previous books the Baudelaires have been thinking or discussing different choices they've made, and their actions compared to Count Olaf's and his accomplice. When they are between a rock and a hard place they are trying to determine what makes them any different if they are making such similar choices. Do their motives really a difference? And the last time Violet considers the knife in her pocket she realizes - the knife is not just a weapon. The knife is a tool!! And how you use that tool determines what kind of person you are much more than whether you used it or not. This moment was just so satisfying. Thank u.

There is also the more dramatic moment of the kids setting up a trap to catch Esme and use her as a hostage, then realizing it was taking things too far, which makes it clear they know who they are and that they want to be good. Another big thing the kids have been questioning is if they really knew their parents - and how could they hide something as big as the VFD from them? Were they good or bad? But when they come together and discuss the good luck (ha! good luck!) of their combined skills being so helpful to their dilemma and they realize - their parents may not have told them everything, but they were beginning to include them in their world by nurturing the skills in their children that would help them in the future, which means they saw them as capable of knowing the whole thing someday. Yeah!!!!!!! What an awesome moment for kids to see as they grow!!

I said it in my review of the first book and I'll say it again now - while reading these books as an adult feels quite a bit more wretched with a fuller understanding of the world - seeing the way topics are discussed and that you can't shy away from every slightly scary thing in the world to try and protect kids, it's confirming to me these are actually great books for the target audience. The world is gonna be out there whether we prepare kids or not, and there is no way on knowing when the rug will be pulled out, so I think it's probably a good idea to introduce slowly than try to hide from the darkness completely.

ALSO, this passage broke my heart a little:

“Hello?” Violet called, looking around her at the rubble. “Hello?” She found that her eyes were filling with tears, as she called out for the people she knew in her heart were nowhere nearby. The eldest Baudelaire felt as if she had been calling for these people since that terrible day on the beach, and that if she called them enough they might appear before her. She thought of all the times she had called them, back when she lived with her siblings in the Baudelaire mansion. Sometimes she called them when she wanted them to see something she had invented. Sometimes she called them when she wanted them to know she had arrived home. And sometimes she called them just because she wanted to know where they were. Sometimes Violet just wanted to see them, and feel that she was safe as long as they were around. “Mother!” Violet Baudelaire called. “Father!”

There was no answer.