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A review by the_gandy_man
The End by Lemony Snicket
4.0
Great end to the series. It drives home the themes of the series pretty well, and there are some really emotional moments. I really like the ending. I think, given everything that came before, this book feels like it lacks some revelation. Some question that is finally and definitively answered in a satisfying and impactful way. It leaves a LOT open-ended, and that works with the book's theme of not being able to solve all the mysteries. I'm fine not knowing what's up with the sugar bowl, or what exactly Olaf and the Baudelaire parents' entailed, or any of the other countless little things. But I found myself wanting something, like at least one of those. We learn a lot about the parents in this book, but not much that actually answers established questions.
The series as a whole is fantastic. I've rated the series 79/100 while the individual books averaged 73/100. This final book is the only one I've given a higher rating than the series as a whole. It's just a fantastic story. It's so interesting. Snicket's voice is incredible. These books read like no other. They are hilarious all the time in an extremely subtle and clever way, and Snicket is incredibly creative, pushing the medium to its limits with things like text that is backwards to be read in a mirror, having two identical pages back to back explaining what deja vu is, when referring to reading while sleepy repeating the sentence "He found himself reading the same sentence over and over." three times in a row, a full page repeating "ever, ever, ever, ...", to name a few.
The slow discovery of all the mysteries at play is fantastic. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are great characters that really fuckin go through it over the course of the series. Sunny is a stand out character. Her journey is fantastic. You'd think the baby would be the least interesting of the three, but the opposite is true. I especially like how her speech gets less baby-like throughout the series in a way that feels natural and aligns with her forced maturing. For children, I can't imagine a better series. My biggest problems with it were how much time was devoted to reminding me of stuff from previous books, and defining words. The whole defining words bit (which I talked about in one of my previous reviews) got old, but I think for a child it's a great way to expand vocabulary without feeling like bits of the dictionary have been pasted throughout the book.
The series as a whole is fantastic. I've rated the series 79/100 while the individual books averaged 73/100. This final book is the only one I've given a higher rating than the series as a whole. It's just a fantastic story. It's so interesting. Snicket's voice is incredible. These books read like no other. They are hilarious all the time in an extremely subtle and clever way, and Snicket is incredibly creative, pushing the medium to its limits with things like text that is backwards to be read in a mirror, having two identical pages back to back explaining what deja vu is, when referring to reading while sleepy repeating the sentence "He found himself reading the same sentence over and over." three times in a row, a full page repeating "ever, ever, ever, ...", to name a few.
The slow discovery of all the mysteries at play is fantastic. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are great characters that really fuckin go through it over the course of the series. Sunny is a stand out character. Her journey is fantastic. You'd think the baby would be the least interesting of the three, but the opposite is true. I especially like how her speech gets less baby-like throughout the series in a way that feels natural and aligns with her forced maturing. For children, I can't imagine a better series. My biggest problems with it were how much time was devoted to reminding me of stuff from previous books, and defining words. The whole defining words bit (which I talked about in one of my previous reviews) got old, but I think for a child it's a great way to expand vocabulary without feeling like bits of the dictionary have been pasted throughout the book.