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A review by alexampersand
The End by Lemony Snicket
5.0
I have deliberated for 9 years over how I feel about this book.
It doesn't provide answers to all of the mysteries.
It doesn't really provide an answer to the Baudelaires' story (any of the generations), not really.
It uses what is arguably a cop-out answer of 'it is impossible to tell the answers without opening up yet another question.' And maybe that is true of the real world. But this isn't the real world. A baby has a swordfight with her teeth and climbs up an 88 story wall with those same teeth. Somebody wrote this story, and they can write satisfactory answers.
Instead, this book in some ways seems unrelated to the rest of the series, plot-wise. The Penultimate Peril felt like an ending that required an epilogue, but this epilogue is incredibly long and serves almost as a commentary for the entire series, rather than a part of it. We get very few new characters, and the answers that we are given seem as if they are answers that are actually connected to something other than the main plot of the previous 12 books. And for me, that is what has stopped me instantly lauding and praising this book.
The End is a good book. It is fun. It is interesting. It has a small number of questions raised, and answers those questions. But The End has a bigger task than simply being a good book - it has to be a fitting finale to an entire series, and that is what makes me question whether it is SATISFYING.
And at the end of the day? Yes. I have to concede that it is satisfying. I have noticed - especially on re-reading - that the majority of questions have actually already been answered before this point. We know what VFD is. Or, we know as much as we need to. We know an outline of why Olaf wants the sugar bowl. We know where the sugar bowl is. The End, rather than answering mysteries of the series, provides thematic closure... Sort of. The orphans realise that their parents were not sheltering them. They come to terms with their own actions, and whether of not they are indeed villainous or noble people. And Olaf reaches his end - although even he receives a hint at redemption, solidifying the theme that... nobody is ever really either good or bad.
The entire series, by this point, reminds me of the show Lost. A Convoluted double crossing story, that everybody expected answers to. (and also a shipwrecked mysterious island with a cult of inhabitants). The Lost finale came around (also called The End - maybe that is a sign), and the audience expected answers, yet... very few came. In fact, a line recited almost word for word in both The Ends: "the answers will only lead to more questions." Initially there is disappointment from the audience, but then (for me at least) re-watching and re-reading both series have taught me two things: we are given answers earlier than we realised, if we piece together the puzzle. And also: the series are not about what I thought.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is not the story of VFD and its members and its history, much the same as Lost was never a story about a mysterious island and its history. They were simply the setting and the context of a much smaller story: in this case, the story of the Baudelaires, their struggles against Count Olaf, and their struggles in recognising good and evil, and realising and accepting how difficult it can be.
The point of A Series of Unfortunate Events?
People are a chef's salad, of noble volunteer and evil villain. All we can do is be noble enough.
It doesn't provide answers to all of the mysteries.
It doesn't really provide an answer to the Baudelaires' story (any of the generations), not really.
It uses what is arguably a cop-out answer of 'it is impossible to tell the answers without opening up yet another question.' And maybe that is true of the real world. But this isn't the real world. A baby has a swordfight with her teeth and climbs up an 88 story wall with those same teeth. Somebody wrote this story, and they can write satisfactory answers.
Instead, this book in some ways seems unrelated to the rest of the series, plot-wise. The Penultimate Peril felt like an ending that required an epilogue, but this epilogue is incredibly long and serves almost as a commentary for the entire series, rather than a part of it. We get very few new characters, and the answers that we are given seem as if they are answers that are actually connected to something other than the main plot of the previous 12 books. And for me, that is what has stopped me instantly lauding and praising this book.
The End is a good book. It is fun. It is interesting. It has a small number of questions raised, and answers those questions. But The End has a bigger task than simply being a good book - it has to be a fitting finale to an entire series, and that is what makes me question whether it is SATISFYING.
And at the end of the day? Yes. I have to concede that it is satisfying. I have noticed - especially on re-reading - that the majority of questions have actually already been answered before this point. We know what VFD is. Or, we know as much as we need to. We know an outline of why Olaf wants the sugar bowl. We know where the sugar bowl is. The End, rather than answering mysteries of the series, provides thematic closure... Sort of. The orphans realise that their parents were not sheltering them. They come to terms with their own actions, and whether of not they are indeed villainous or noble people. And Olaf reaches his end - although even he receives a hint at redemption, solidifying the theme that... nobody is ever really either good or bad.
The entire series, by this point, reminds me of the show Lost. A Convoluted double crossing story, that everybody expected answers to. (and also a shipwrecked mysterious island with a cult of inhabitants). The Lost finale came around (also called The End - maybe that is a sign), and the audience expected answers, yet... very few came. In fact, a line recited almost word for word in both The Ends: "the answers will only lead to more questions." Initially there is disappointment from the audience, but then (for me at least) re-watching and re-reading both series have taught me two things: we are given answers earlier than we realised, if we piece together the puzzle. And also: the series are not about what I thought.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is not the story of VFD and its members and its history, much the same as Lost was never a story about a mysterious island and its history. They were simply the setting and the context of a much smaller story: in this case, the story of the Baudelaires, their struggles against Count Olaf, and their struggles in recognising good and evil, and realising and accepting how difficult it can be.
The point of A Series of Unfortunate Events?
People are a chef's salad, of noble volunteer and evil villain. All we can do is be noble enough.