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! ( )

I was about to give up on this series feeling that it had petered out at Book the Fourth, but after taking an extended break I picked up Book the Fifth and kept going. I'm glad I did as the series spun into a new, deeper, complex, and entertaining direction. The last two books have been the best of the series and as I approach the final stretch I only hope the "Denouement" is worthy of the well crafted build up. ( )

The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket is an adventurous story when three orphans Sunny, Violet, and Klaus all find themselves trapped on the slippery glaciers of the Mortmain Mountains. Violet is the oldest and most resourceful because she can invent all kinds of crazy things from objects as simple as a paperclip and a watch. Klaus is the smart, dorky who always wears glasses and loves to read books even the dictionary. Sunny is the baby with two big, strong front teeth, and in this book has learned to talk. They are in search of their parents even though they always end of in the hands of an evil villain named Count Olaf who is in pursuit of stealing their fortune. However, this time the little baby Sunny is trapped with Count Olaf holding her hostage on hidden cliff of Mount Fraught.
Violet and Klaus are stuck in a desperate search of her using all kinds of tricks to make their way through the mountains. In one instance Violet and Klaus are about to fly off the edge of the mountain, but together they stop the caravan by throwing two hammocks out the back on top of sticky foods to stop the rolling. The whole story consists of life filled moments and mystery as Violet and Kalus begin to discover their parents who they thought were dead in the mansion fire may still be alive because of evidence found on a volunteer fire fighter headquarters called the Vertical Flame Diversion(V.F.D), which was really their parents secret society. It is ironic because they heard their parents had stayed in the Valley of Four Drafts, which was also V.F.D and the location of the headquarters. Towards the end they find their sister Sunny with Count Olaf and his villain crew trapped making food and being a servant. they eventually escape his clutches yet again, but the journey never ends because he always follows them to their next destination. ( )

When you're leaning against the counter of a juice bar, and a woman steps up behind you and says "If you want to live, order an apple, strawberry and cucumber smoothie," you should probably comply.

This was me but a short while ago. I ordered the beverage, but instead of receiving a cup full of revitalizing liquid, I received a piece of paper and a moderately dull pencil. I assume the woman had a knife, or at least something that felt like a knife, for it was poking my spine between two of the lower vertebrae.

"You don't write me poems anymore," she said, giving the knife enough of a jab to sting, or even draw blood, were it not for the fact that I was wearing an extra under shirt for this express purpose.

"Fine," I said, squeaking the dull pencil across the paper.

"In a time of series unfortunate," I wrote, "I find a trend with which I infatuate.
I find works of cryptozoology, Medieval France, and rope
To be less interesting than, say The Slippery Slope.
It tells the tales of Baudelaires three,
Though the two eldest have been plucked from Sunny.
They toil in vain to reach to top
In hopes of commanding vile Olaf to stop.
But along the way they meet
A boy once considered dead, but alive, and sweet.
They discover much disappointment when they find the HQ,
For it has been burnt more badly than well done chicken cordon bleu,
By two villains, one with a beard, and one with hair,
And while each has such respectively, the other is not there.
Though the top of the mountain is cold, and would make one shiver,
While in their presence, even Olaf will find a quiver.
And though the mountain is plagued by Snow Gnat,
There too is a pest more foul: Carmelita Spat.
And in the end, we are not surprised to find
That fate is never surmised to be kind."

And with a final pencil stroke, I managed to emit a noise at such a high frequency that all the glass in the shop shattered, including, as I had suspected, the glass blade of her knife. Leaping through the now open window, I ran into the street until a safe solace I could find, or a benefactor I could meet. ( )