The Ersatz Elevator
by Lemony Snicket
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Series of Unfortunate Events 6: The Ersatz Elevator / 9780061757181
I first came to this series after watching the tie-in movie "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events". I love the series for its superb characterization, lovely writing, quirky plotlines, and deeply dark humor. This sixth book in the series carries on the tradition and will not disappoint fans.
Like the rest of the novels in this series, this book is very slender and can be whipped through in a few short hours - if it has any drawbacks at all, it would perhaps be the price-to-page ratio. However, the story is engaging and well-told and it's impossible to not be drawn into the drama of the Baudelaire orphans as they struggle to survive in their new home in the penthouse apartment of the Squallors. The neighborhood is intensely interested in being fashionable and as elevators are now "out" and stairs are "in", the orphans are faced with the daunting prospect of living in the top apartment of a 66-floor skyscraper.
A note about the audiobook edition of this book: this installment returns to the superb narration of Tim Curry that the early books in the series featured. Curry does an incredible job with the story and it is impossible to not be drawn into his deep, rich narration as he follows the orphans in their adventures.
~ Ana Mardoll
View all my reviews
10 comments:
I notice a lot of these reviews seem, well, rather formulaic...
Well, there's only so much I can say about the books as I go through them without major spoilage. I love the books, but they're pretty formulaic themselves. The major points as I go through are (1) what's the setting for this one and (2) who is the audio book narrator and (3) are the books still good. (ANSWER: YES!)
Anything beyond that is either same ol, same ol, or MASSIVE SPOILERAGE. Ah, reviewing. :D
if it has any drawbacks at all, it would perhaps be the price-to-page ratio.
I have no idea about the books-on-tape or e-version. But when my daughter was into this series, we bought most of them in hardcopy, some paperbacks and some hard-bound. And I can report that the hard-covers especially were very nice physical objects: good quality paper and ink and font and illustrations and generally a nice "feel" to them. I can't remember what we paid, but I don't remember it being exorbitant by hard-copy standards for a decent-quality production.
Post a Comment