Book Review: The End by Lemony Snicket
Jul. 9th, 2016 01:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 13)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 2009 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 195,715
Text Number: 578
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Olaf and the Baudelaires are stranded on an eerie island as this story comes to a close. The island is one of my favorite settings in the series; its social elements are predictable, but as a setting it's unique and evocative. The End is approximately the end I expected from this series. In keeping with tradition, it doesn't provide many solid answers. That's a cop-out (and imagine what the series could have been, if the overarching plot were as complex as allusions make it out to be!) but it works; the revelations which do occur are large enough, and, as always, the real payoff is catharsis. The last two chapters, refusing to make a tidy end but lingering on the siblings's dynamic, make for a satisfying, necessarily bittersweet conclusion.
My opinion of this series is unchanged: its aesthetic and gimmicks are engaging, but overstretched by the series's length. It could have been better if it were shorter or if the overarching plot were complex enough to sustain that length. What it is instead is mildly successful, fun but never great.
And I could really do without the tired, vaguely gross, friendzone/unrequited love/fridging Lemony/Beatrice dynamic that motivated the metaplot.
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Published: New York: HarperCollins, 2009 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 195,715
Text Number: 578
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Olaf and the Baudelaires are stranded on an eerie island as this story comes to a close. The island is one of my favorite settings in the series; its social elements are predictable, but as a setting it's unique and evocative. The End is approximately the end I expected from this series. In keeping with tradition, it doesn't provide many solid answers. That's a cop-out (and imagine what the series could have been, if the overarching plot were as complex as allusions make it out to be!) but it works; the revelations which do occur are large enough, and, as always, the real payoff is catharsis. The last two chapters, refusing to make a tidy end but lingering on the siblings's dynamic, make for a satisfying, necessarily bittersweet conclusion.
My opinion of this series is unchanged: its aesthetic and gimmicks are engaging, but overstretched by the series's length. It could have been better if it were shorter or if the overarching plot were complex enough to sustain that length. What it is instead is mildly successful, fun but never great.
And I could really do without the tired, vaguely gross, friendzone/unrequited love/fridging Lemony/Beatrice dynamic that motivated the metaplot.
