2007: #64 – The End (Lemony Snicket)

Book #64 was The End, the 13th and final book in Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. The back of the book reads:

Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can’t stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

This was an interesting end to the series. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but I don’t think it would fit in with the rest of the series if everything was explained. While I can’t say it was a completely happy ending for the Baudelaires, I think they’ve reached a happy medium.

As a whole, I adored this series. It was intelligent and creative and unique and gloriously dark for something meant for 9-12 year olds. I can’t wait to some day read it to my children.

Page count: 335 | Approximate word count: 52,582

2006 – Narcissus in Chains (Laurell K. Hamilton)
2005 – Nora, Nora (Anne Rivers Siddons)