The Ersatz Elevator (2001)

The audiobook is fantastic! Fun and quirky, as always, with music and read by Tim Curry! ( )

Okay, these books are supposed to be absurd. I get it. But I was somehow able to not let my obsessive sensibilities get in the way through the first five books in this series. It didn't matter than a baby was dangled in a cage, that an old curmudgeon almost tricked a judge into marrying a minor, that children worked in a lumber mill, that these children could stay awake for twenty-four hours day after day, that there are banana eating leeches that can capsize a boat, and that anyone would hire Sunny as a receptionist (adorable!!! but not believable.)

This one grated on my patience though. Now what follows is a wee bit spoilerific, but you won't care. Three children climb down sixty-six floors of an elevator shaft using electrical cords, neck ties, and curtain pulls, climb back up, climb back down holding broiled fire tongs (did I mention one of these children is an infant?), climb back up, fall down the shaft only to have said infant climb back up using only her teeth, yada yada yada. Okay, so maybe a little more than a wee spoiler, but you'll forgive me.

Yeah, I get it, it's a children's book, but my voice of reason was shouting at me and it's never fun to be yelled at. So, otherwise the book was okay. A few funny moments and Handler's definitely adding nicely to the mytharc of the story now, which I'm glad to see. Overall, this one entertained me about as much as The Miserable Mill which is why I'm giving it the same unfortunate rating.

A Series of Unfortunate Events:
The Bad Beginning – 3.1
The Reptile Room – 3.2
The Wide Window – 3.6
The Miserable Mill - 3.3
The Austere Academy - 3.4
The Ersatz Elevator - 3.3 ( )

I've decided that this series is too repetitive, and the tone of the books too annoying -- pedantic and condescending -- so I'm not going to finish reading it. Just reading the first book was fine, but more than that was a trial.

(You can see this same review on the other books in this series I have shelved. Sorry. I don't like shelving just part of a series, and my review might help someone... I have more detailed reviews of the first three books here, here and here.) ( )

Thanks to this book, Z is now a stickler on the proper usage of anxious versus excited. ( )

So far not my most favorite book in this series, but it feels like the plot of the Baudelaires is finally going someplace besides guardian to guardian!