Lemony Snicket
The Austere Academy
True to his word, as the Mill situation did not work out, Mr. Poe sends the children off to boarding school.
While the children are excited to be going to school: the thought of a library, of a workshop class or two, the chance at other children to talk to and make friends with .... they then see their school.
Prufrock Preparatory School looks more like a prison, than a school - lack of colour, tow shaped buildings and a domineering headmaster who is atrocious at playing the violin (but he clearly doesn't hear himself).
However, the children manage to find a shimmer of hope in this gloom and doom part of their life: Two-thirds of the Quagmire triplets, Duncan and Isadora
However, since this is the 5th time the children have been moved around since the unfortunate event that took them from their life, they have gotten smarter. This time, when Olaf shows up in one of his many disguises, Violet lets him get away it. (of course, he hasn't really fooled them. The children are much too smart for that).
This time, Olaf's plan is quite convoluted - a word here meaning complicated and tricky to figure out - but the children, along with their new friends, figure it out just in time.
Unfortunately, Olaf figures out their plan in time too and pulls another trick - he kidnaps the Quagmire Triplets.
Not before Klaus hears Duncan yell "If anything should go wrong...[...] V.F.D"
In the hubbub of all of this, the children are suspended.
The Ersatz Elevator
Even though the children are terribly worried about their friends, whom Mr. Poe promises he is searching for, they are still happy to be out of that school.
The new guardians they are sent to live with are an interesting couple, who live in a community that is obsessed with what is "in" and what is "out" at that very moment.
This list ranges from Pinstripe suites, Parsley soda, tools, elevators, dark/light, decor items ... I could go on but what is the point? Lists are probably out.
The wife, Esme, is in the charge of this year's "In Auction". She invites the auctioneer, Gunther, over to plan it all one night and ... you guessed it, Gunther is just a disguise.
The children and the husband, Jerome, are sent out to dinner. When they arrive back, the doorman tells them they are not allowed to go back upstairs (literally, up the stairs. to the penthouse. as the elevator has been disabled until it is "in" again) until Esme's guest has left.
Since it is quite late, Jerome ignores this rule and takes the children up anyways... to which Esme responds with "he left hours ago". Suspicious, no?
The children have a mystery on their hands. Violet ties back her hair, Klaus goes in search of a book and Sunny ...well, her teeth come in handy later on.
When the children solve the mystery of the mysterious disappearing guest, they discover a deeper mystery and more clues leading to Duncan's clue of "V.F.D".
Some of you, myself included, may have been getting very sad over how many unfortunate things have happened to these children. I am happy to report that it is now the beginning of a more in-depth plot. Beatrice, who Snicket dedicates his stories to, the fire in which claimed the children's parents, and the mystery link that connects all these unheard of relatives before now will all come to pass.
Of course, that is not before many many many many more unfortunate things do happen. It is a series of events, after all, and one must read the whole story to understand it all.
We are about half way through the books at the end of 6 (well, half way through 7 if you wish to be specific but I do not) and they just get better and better as you go on.
They also get thicker as you go on, and therefore take longer to read, but the writing is the same all the way through. The style that Snicket has is very unique and is very mature for a "children's story" (which I find offence to - these stories are made for those of any age. Not just children. Just because they are about children does not mean they are for children. My word, whoever is in charge of marketing should be fired. but that would be unfortunate and I think we've had enough of those kind of events)
As we get into a deeper plot, you seriously want to just build a blanket fort and not leave your house until all of them are finished and you are left in a pool of unfortunate feelings. Possibly tears but I am not one to cry over these things (although I do feel quite sad for those the children have lost in a short amount of time).
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