What Does the S Stand For? (“Who Could That Be at This Hour?” – A Book Review)

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?” (All The Wrong Questions ?1)

Author: Lemony Snicket

Published: 2012

On Goodreads

My Rating: 

 

What happened to his parents? Where is that screaming coming from? Is it too late?

In Stain’d-by-the-Sea, a town boarded up and faded. Young Lemony Snicket, almost thirteen to be exact, begins his apprenticeship for a secret organization shrouded in mystery and secrecy. There was a girl and there was a theft. He’s determined to figure the real reason behind the theft of a statue, how this town lost its way, and who is really behind the sinister villainy.

But first things first, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you find sinister mysteries interesting?

[ ]   Yes.          [ ] Why do you ask?

2. Have you ever received a secret note and followed its very dangerous instruction?

[ ]   No.           [ ]   “No.”

3. Are you too young to be the sort of detective who retrieves a mysterious stolen item that may or may not have been stolen?

[ ]   None of your business     [ ]   Besides, I’m told I look young for my age.

4. Who is that standing behind you?

[ ]   I’m not going to fall for that old trick.      [ ]   Eek.

 

Lemony Snicket has a mystery to solve and it’s not as easy as his chaperone, S. Theodora Markson (who is 52/52) thinks it is. With the help of Moxie, a journalist, the Bellerophon brothers, taxi drivers, and Ellington Feint, a girl who is just trying to rescue her father, Lemony discovers a much bigger and nefarious plot at hand, but what is it? It has something to do with a statue of a mythical beast called the Bombinating Beast and a villain nobody’s ever laid eyes on named Hangfire, and let me tell you, he’s seems worse than Count Olaf.

I’m not a fan of mysteries. I’ve said that a few times, I think. They just make me sleepy and that’s no fun. Then there’s Lemony Snicket. While what he writes is certainly mysterious, he also weaves intrigue and curiosity into his stories. He’s well-known for his A Series of Unfortunate Events series. While the story of the Baudelaires had gothic theme, his own personal adventures in this series has a strong Noir feel. I. Love. Noir.

It only took me a day to get through this book. It was fast, not because it was simple, but because that was how fast the pace. I was clinging on trying to catch all of the Easter eggs and decode all of the hidden meanings. The word peril, which here means danger serious and immediate danger, is threaded throughout this entire book and that left me on the edge of my seat, bouncing, needing to get to end to discover who the culprit was and I wasn’t shocked, but I was desperate to start the next book. There wasn’t just some mystery. There were parts in between that if you weren’t careful, you’d miss them completely.

Lemony quickly gained fellow friends, and frenemies, and enemies. The characters were fun and smart and really clever. The adults however, acted the way you’d expect them to act, like kids knew nothing and you just couldn’t believe them about anything. In truth? Lemony and his allies were brilliant. They relied on each other to get to the bottom of theft and these connections really made the book that much more fantastic.

Though, the officers Mitchum, two police officers who insist that they’re good at their job (they’re not), also married, who bickered non-stop and nit-picked about trivial things really added some humor and left me bewildered. LOL.

 

I really really REALLY enjoyed this book. The author’s story takes a unique POV because now you get to follow his story, and if you remember correctly, most, if not all, of his stories come to dreary and dreadful ends. If you enjoy nefarious plans, perilous situations, and double-crossing then read this. Then again, if you prefer a happy, more upbeat story with a predictable happy ending for its main characters don’t even pick this one up because you will not find that in this book.

 

Quotables

“Knowing that something is wrong and doing it anyway happens very often in life, and I doubt I will ever know why.” (Lemony Snicket, p. 33)

“The children of this world and the adults of this world are in entirely separate boats and only drift near each other when we need us to wash our hands.” (Lemony Snicket, p. 114)

“Scolding must be very, very fun, otherwise children would be allowed to do it.” (Lemony Snicket, p. 151)

 

More to come soon…

-K.

 

P.S. Song today? The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel.

 

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