The Carnivorous Carnival
by Lemony Snicket
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Series of Unfortunate Events 9: The Carnivorous Carnival / 9780061757211
What is there to say about this series that I haven't said eight times before already? Once again, Lemony Snicket tells the beautiful, terrifying, and delightfully sardonic tale of the poor unfortunate Baudelaire orphans; once again, the incomparable Tim Curry lends his rich voice talents to the audiobook narration in a tale-telling that is a pure joy to listen to. And if you've liked the series so far for the last eight books, nothing in "The Carnivorous Carnival" is going to stop you from continuing the series further.
In some ways, this ninth installment is the scariest of all the books so far. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are forced by circumstances to work in close proximity and daring disguise close to Count Olaf and his troupe; a constant source of tension is simply whether or not the children can continue to maintain their disguise in the company of a man who considers the changing of an identity to be a daily occurrence. At the carnival, the children are forced to pretend to be "freaks" so that people can come to the carnival and laugh at and humiliate them, and it's utterly disheartening to see how this treatment has hurt and embittered the other employees at the carnival.
If you're reading "The Carnivorous Carnival" for the first time and haven't already purchased the tenth book ("The Slippery Slope"), you'll want to go ahead and order it in advance -- "The Carnivorous Carnival" ends on the biggest cliffhanger of the series so far, and you'll be dying to know what happens next in the unfortunate lives of the poor Baudelaire orphans.
~ Ana Mardoll
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3 comments:
I think this book really hit its stride after the "Austere Academy"; while the books before that were pretty much the same and felt almost like they could be read in any order, Handler ratchets up the tension quite a bit, with the VFD plotline and the breakneck pace that makes this book and the later ones in the series feel so powerful. Count Olaf is a fantastic villain who strikes a delicate balance between humor and menace. You laugh at his antics but you never forget that this is a brilliant serial killer who would murder these kids as soon as he can.
*these books.
"These Books really hit THEIR stride after..."
I think... I'm not sure, but I think I read that around Austere Academy was when Handler was offered a long-term multi-book contract and thus was he able to do a longer plot line than just the usual formula each time. I do agree that it adds a new dimension to the series as a whole. :D
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