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    A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril
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    A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril
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    A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: The Penultimate Peril

    By Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist and Michael Kupperman

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    About this ebook

    NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES

    Lemony Snicket returns with the last book before the last book of his bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events. Scream and run away before the secrets of the series are revealed!

    Very little is known about Lemony Snicket and A Series of Unfortunate Events. What we do know is contained in the following brief list:

    • The books have inexplicably sold millions and millions of copies worldwide
    • People in more than 40 countries are consumed by consuming Snicket
    • The movie was as sad as the books, if not more so
    • Like unrefrigerated butter and fungus, the popularity of these books keeps spreading

    Even less is known about book the twelfth in this alarming phenomenon. What we do know is contained in the following brief list:

    • In this book, things only get worse
    • Count Olaf is still evil
    • The Baudelaire orphans do not win a contest
    • The title begins with the word ‘The’

    Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061757112
    Author

    Lemony Snicket

    Lemony Snicket had an unusual education, which may or may not explain his ability to evade capture. He is the author of the 13 volumes in A Series of Unfortunate Events, several picture books including The Dark, and the books collectively titled All The Wrong Questions.

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    Reviews for A Series of Unfortunate Events #12

    4/5

    1,460 ratings47 reviews

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    • 4/5
      More mysteries are solved and the most unfortunate of all the events so far occurs. The nobility of the Beaudelaires is called into question. I know this story won’t have a happy ending…but it’s very well told.
    • 4/5
      The series of unfortunate events is nearly at its end. As the title clearly indicates, this is the penultimate book in the records covering the lives of the Baudelaire children. After narrowly surviving their underwater ordeal in the last book, they were whisked away by Kit Snicket, the mysterious person awaiting them after they decoded the message with a secret meeting spot. This book picks up right at the moment the last one left off, as Kit drives the Baudelaires to an impromptu picnic outside the fashionable Hotel Denouement, a delicious spread set out by an anonymous volunteer that appears as if by magic in front of the tired and hungry children. Kit informs the Baudelaires that they must infiltrate the hotel before them, in the disguise of concierges, to determine whether it is still a safe place. The next meeting of the VFD is scheduled to occur in just three days, in this last safe place, but they suspect it is safe no longer. The Baudelaire's mission is to spy on the volunteers and villains, determine if the hotel is still safe, and send up a signal if they deem the hotel too big a risk.Kit speaks in riddles and mysteries, as do all the adults connected with the VFD, and the children are still bewildered by the variety of strange occurrences surrounding them. One answer is always obtained at the expense of several more mysteries. However, of one thing they are certain, and that is that they must help the noble VFD to stop villainous persons like Count Olaf. They agree to their task. Their new adventure is replete with outrageous and hilarious characters, verbal sparring, ludicrous analogies and metaphors, mistaken identity and an abundance of disguises; all trademarks of the series. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are dispatched to different floors of the hotel on their first day of work, where they observe nefarious plots all underway. Violet is unfortunate enough to meet Esme Squalor and Carmelita Spats, who don't recognize her in the concierge uniform, and request a harpoon. Klaus meets Sir and Charles from the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, and Sunny overhears a conversation with criminal overtones shared by their old principal and teachers from the Prufrock Prepatory School. Much is stirring at the hotel, but the siblings can't fit all the clues together. When they meet the third Denoument, a secret triplet that knows where the real secret of Hotel Denouement is kept, they are reunited with two people from their past, Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor, and
    • 4/5
      So confusing and fun. This entire book like was like a carnival funhouse where things keep going topsy-turvy and throwing you off.
    • 3/5
      I started this book awhile ago - and then didn't get past the picnic. So I tried again, and was able to get through it pretty fast. It's definitely interesting how the author explores both sides of morality, and how someone (or some people) can dabble on both. But it does start getting a little rushed, there are some characters that just appear and then disappear without us knowing them.
    • 3/5
      The twelfth book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. Only one more to go which is good because they're not getting any better. I was pretty bored by this one, although a highlight was a quote from Richard Wright's Native Son."Who knows when some slight shock, disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?"How eerie after 9/11.
    • 5/5
      The second to last installment detailing the grim lives of the Bauldelaires. They may be getting closer to the truth.
    • 3/5
      My kids and I love this series, but this is not the best of the lot. It's much more a filler book that's trying to set up the final book of the series. Our favorites in the series are The Reptile Room, The Carnivorous Carnival, and The Grim Grotto.
    • 5/5
      Very good like most of the books in this series. It had some interesting morals and some very interesting new characters. Loved it.
    • 3/5
      My feelings about this second-to-last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events are divided. On one hand, it is an impressive tying together of the series, a wonderful penultimate journey through the previous eleven books. On the other, it is unsettling, a fatalistic blow that buries the most redeeming aspects of the series beneath a darkness with implications I shudder to think about.First, the good. The Penultimate Peril brings together many familiar characters and places them in a situation that is entertaining and appropriate. Those reading the story aloud will have to strain to remember the voices of so many characters throughout the series and keep them straight (not an easy task, but I was up for the challenge). The drama, action, and humor are all turned to full for this chapter in the Baudelaire story. It's a good mix, and certainly a wonderful addition.But the decisions made by our “heroes,” well, they seem out of character, though there was some indication of it in the previous volume. This sudden change in approach, this resignation to despair and acceptance of fate is very fatalistic. I understand—and have liked—Snicket's growing maturity throughout the series, forcing bigger words and larger questions as the book number increased, but this may be going to far. Not only does it all seem forced, but the reactions themselves are rather insipid. Perhaps this is merely an indication of what is to come in the final book—maybe this change is purely a plot device for the final chapter—but in the meantime, the only heroes a child can have in this series have been dashed against the cliffs of a pessimistic philosophy. As the Baudelaires would say in this chapter of their lives, eventually they'd only have failed you anyway.Though a series of unfortunate events, A Series of Unfortunate Events has always shown some glimmer of hope, if in no other way than in the hearts of the Baudelaires. Now, looking out at the coming horizon, it looks quite bleak. I guess Snicket said all along it wouldn't be a happy ending, but I didn't expect the darkness to infect everything. Here's to hoping Snicket left a ray of light in The End.A Series of Unfortunate Events:The Bad Beginning – 3.1The Reptile Room – 3.2The Wide Window – 3.6The Miserable Mill – 3.3 The Austere Academy – 3.4The Ersatz Elevator – 3.3The Vile Village – 3.1The Hostile Hospital – 3.4The Carnivorous Carnival – 3.9The Slippery Slope – 3.6The Grim Grotto – 3.9The Penultimate Peril – 3.4
    • 3/5
      The Baudelaire's unfortunate situation leads them out of the water and into a hotel, where their attempts at spying on the guests make them more confused, rather than shedding any light on their predicament. Not up to Lemony's usual standard, I fear.
    • 3/5
      The most boring of all of them but the other ones are good.
    • 3/5
      We've gotten to the meat of the action now! All of the good guys, bad guys, and of course, the Baudelaire orphans descend upon the Hotel Denoument. A sugar bowl (containing what?) is expected to arrive there at any moment, and everyone wants to be ready to grab it for themselves. The Baudelaires are enlisted to help VFD get the bowl, but their attempts to help are complicated by every possible conundrum and coincidence.

      The complications and puzzles are perhaps a little *too* complicated and puzzling, and Snicket's repetitive style is particularly frustrating in this book, when so much action is going on and there are so few pages left to explain all the mysteries. Nevertheless, the book is a fun, slightly tense, read.
    • 4/5
      ** There are no spoilers of Book 12, but this review assumes you’ve read the first 11 books in the series.The word Penultimate is defined as “The second to last in a series or sequence.” What a fantastic word to use in the title of this, the second to last book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. Kit Snicket (fictional author, Lemony’s sister) takes the Baudelaire orphans, Sunny, Violet and Klaus, to the Hotel Denouement, where the mysterious VFD will be meeting in a few days. The siblings must disguise themselves as concierges to find out more information about the society. Along the way they run into almost every villain or friend they have met along the way in the first 11 books, though the Quagmire triplets were no where to be seen. The hotel is cleverly organized by using the Dewey Decimal system, which I loved. The series is finally coming together and we are able to see what role the characters have played in the wider saga. Everyone has to pick their final side, good or evil, and a few decisions are surprising.I am desperately hoping that Snicket can pull off an ending that makes the whole series worth while. I’m sure my expectations are pretty high at this point, but when you leave so many questions unanswered for 12 books, your readers are going to expect you to explain everything I the final book. I know that I’ll be really disappointed if things are left open-ended. Fingers crossed.
    • 5/5
      I don't think I've properly expressed how great I think these books are. They are books meant for 9 year old and up, and they use words like penultimate! Correctly! They are interesting, exciting, deliciously dark, and so so so intelligent. I'm a bit sad that there's only one book left in the series, but I'm enjoying how everything is starting to wrap up.
    • 4/5
      This is the 11th installment in the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events. In this book, we find the orphans working at bellhops at the Hotel Denouemont. We are treated to having almost every major character reappear at this hotel. The plot of this book is slightly confusing, but it moves the tale along and will make the reader eager to read the final installment. Was this a great book? No, not really. I listened to it in audio format. And I frankly cant' decide if it was Tim Curry who made it great (he was the narrator)..but overall, it was a pleasant read (listen)
    • 4/5
      As is fitting for the wrapping up of a story, all of the still living characters from the series show up at the Hotel Denouement. Despite the best intentions of the "good" adults, the children are still unprotected and furthermore are still struggling with the question of whether they have become as wicked as Count Olaf.
    • 4/5
      The next-to-last book in the series: A Series of Unfortunate Events!! Almost there... In this book the Baudelaires are taken to the Hotel Denouement in which many characters, both good and evil, from the previous 11 books make an appearance. Something is going to happen at this hotel, which is actually a kind of library (based on the Dewey Decimal system) of everything and everyone involved with the VFD and the Baudelaires. The children ponder whether or not they have acted for good or for evil. Whether their parents have been entirely good? What makes an action good or bad? Could Count Olaf actually be related to them? What is going on?! Just one more book left. Please let it be resolved!!!
    • 4/5
      As the title suggests, this is the penultimate instalment of the series and is a very strong entry. While it perhaps does not start to wrap things up as much as you would like, it does dangle a couple of interesting carrots in front of the reader. Hints as to why Olaf hates the Baudelaires, clues as to what the sugar bowl contains and a possible first meeting between the orphans and Snicket himself make for a gripping instalment.I also like the continued blurring of lines. This book further muddies the difference between the two sides of the schism as the Baudelaires are forced to do increasingly questionable things and question if anyone is truly noble all of the time. There is also a definite shift in their relationship with Olaf in this story, as Snicket finally begins to hint at a surprising motivation for his terrible actions. I also rather like the revelation that he struggles to spell simple worlds. It made me curious about where a dyslexic person would fall in a world where readers were considered to be "good".The cliff-hanger ending of this story is tantalising, leaving the fates of many of the Baudelaire's allies and enemies up in the air. I'm really curious to see how all of this will conclude in the final instalment.
    • 4/5
      The Baudelaire orphans have made their way to the Hotel Denouement, supposedly the 'last safe place.' However, the effects of the schism in VFD are apparent, and it's impossible to tell who might be on the orphans' side - and who's a villain (especially when identical twins are involved).
      As events play out in unexpected way, the orphans may not even be sure if they themselves are villains or not...

      The book features the same witty wordplay and arch humor as the previous installments, but introduces a bit of complexity and ambiguity which really adds to the book (very welcome, since there was beginning to be a bit of repetitiveness to the formula...)
    • 5/5
      This book took me to the concierge desk in this fancy hotel where something is lurking behind every corner. Except it just didn't catch as much of my attention like other books can.
    • 4/5
      As the title says, the 2nd to last book. This book does a good job of bringing in characters and events from the past 11 books, and the poor Baudelaire orphans are forced to do some things they dislike in their attempt to foil Count Olaf and survive.
    • 4/5
      In this, the next to last book in Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are taken by Kit Snicket to the Hotel Denouement where they are to work as concierges and spy on the guests to find out who is a volunteer for the mysterious VFD and who is a villain. While there, they run into many friends and enemies they have encountered in the previous 11 books in the series. They are all there in anticipation of a meeting of all VFD volunteers which is to take place in the next few days. But, as always, things do not go smoothly for the Baudelaire orphans and they end up accidentally murdering someone, purposely setting the hotel on fire, and in the crutches of the evil Count Olaf. Lemony Snicket fills this book with his trademark sense of humor, there are always 13 chapters, plenty of alliterative names, explanations of meanings of words, warnings that the reader shouldn't finish the book, and absurd situations (the roof top tanning scene is hilarious). The young Baudelaires are still far more intelligent than the adults are who never seem to recognize the children in their various disguises. Snicket gives a sly nod to critics who hated Olaf's laugh in "The Grim Grotto". While it's inevitable that the children grow up during the course of the books, the fact that Sunny speaks coherent sentences is a bit disappointing and takes away the fun of trying to decipher what she is saying. I appreciate the humor of having 13 books in the series, but I can't help wonder if that was ultimately too ambitious for Snicket. "The Penultimate Peril" feels like filler at times, with two many questions left unanswered. Why is the sugar bowl so important? Where are the Quagmire triplets? What do the initials "VFD" stand for? Are the Baudelaire's truly orphans or is one of their parents still alive? Where the Baudelaire parents involved in wrongdoing? Can Snicket answer all these questions in the last book? Finally, parents should be aware that there is a rather violent death toward the end of the book that is accidentally caused by the Baudelaire children. While this may open up an interesting discussion of what makes a person good or evil and can a person be both, the death may frighten young children.
    • 5/5
      This book was absolutely amazing! How amazing is it? There are so many twist and turns, unexpected information, and tragedy that end up making the book simply unbelievable.
    • 4/5
      This book is probably my favourite of the series; it is dark and very eerie. It would make a fantastic Tim Burton film. The ending is a bit disappointing and the good/bad moral question is rammed home a bit too vehemently, but on the whole, it is a very good book.
    • 4/5
      I love how it revisits all the old characters (the ones who survived) and gives us some real VFD information, its finally coming together a little.
    • 4/5
      Delightfully dark. Some of the questions raised in the series are answered and new questions posed. Something terrible happens and the Baudelaires end the story in the company of Count Olaf.
    • 5/5
      Another great in the series. This is one of my favorites of the series, it is much for suspenseful and sweet, hehe
    • 4/5
      I'm going to review all four of the last books in this series in one review, since I read them all at one go due to the quick plot pacing, and now they've mushed together in my brain. These are wonderful! When I first started, this series, I was underwhelmed, but Snickett grows up his books like he grows up the Baudelaires. Unlike many coming-of-age stories, this one manages to avoid the trite and the untrue. Despite Snickett's fantastical style and plot twists, there is deep reality at the core of these books, which manage to show the world in all its nastiness and how difficult it is to be a "volunteer instead of a villain," and yet it conveys the desperate need for each of us to try. It also teaches voculary, is subtley hilarious if you already have a big one, and imparts a love of science, literature, poetry, and even good cooking. Highly recommended for all the young, and old, people in your life!
    • 3/5
      Ohh the poor Baudelaires. I'm glad it is almost the end.
    • 4/5
      Strange memories...