06 April, 2014

Book Review: The Carnivorous Carnival

From Goodreads: For fans of that slippery author Lemony Snicket, Book the Ninth is here, and it's completely (but wonderfully) dreadful.When the Baudelaire Orphans finally make it out of Count Olaf's car trunk (from Book the Eighth), they wind up at the horribly perilous Caligari Carnival. Trying to avoid capture but desperate to find out more information about a possible surviving parent, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny pose as circus freaks, only to be humiliated in front of visitors and pushed to the brink of consumption by lions. Fortunately, though, the three discover a few surprises about fortune-telling Madame Lulu, who offers a faint clue about V.F.D. and even the Snicket family itself.
Snicket fans will be in Ninth Heaven. Again, it's a sad state of affairs for the Baudelaires, but there are some fascinating morsels of hope, plus a few small surprises that might help link it all together. With riveting suspense, wicked intentions, and gullible freaks, The Carnivorous Carnival is definitely an installment that can't be missed.

Thoughts: Thank goodness we managed to finish this before the school holidays! Fairly sure the kids would have held me hostage in the car if we hadn't.
The situations in these books seem to get more and more ridiculous, more and more entertaining and more and more thought provoking. You could read these books and get into quite a long philosophical discussion about right and wrong, the world according to children and adults and various other issues, or you can read them and just really enjoy the silliness and suspense.
The previous book, The Hostile Hospital left us with the three Baudelaire orphans in the trunk of the their arch enemies car - Count Olaf. They had discovered that one of their parents may have survived the fire - the first glimmer of hope in the tale of ongoing tragedies. In this they end up disguised as freaks at Caligari Carnival, still trying to evade the clutches of Count Olaf and his troupe.
There are only 4 books left in this series and I am hoping against hope that there is some sort of happy ending for the orphans. Book 10 is all ready to go for term 2!