The Slippery Slope (ASOUE #10)
Author: Lemony Snicket
Published: 2003
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
Rated C for cautious and careful choices that put three children in a complicated crossroad between good and villainy.
Dear Reader, like handshakes, house pets, or raw carrots, many things are preferable when not slippery.
In this installment, Klaus and Violet Baudelaire travel the Mortmain Mountains to get their sister back from the crystal and evil Count Olaf and his troupe. More so, the VFD headquarters are here and it’s there that they hope to see if one of their parents really did survive the fire.
Still, like much of if not all of their journey and struggles to defeat Olaf, this book is full of dread and heart-dropping aches from loss and horrors like snow gnats. Maybe it’s best that you find a happier book to read.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is 1 of 3 books series I am rereading this year as a part of my New Year’s Resolution. This is book 10 of 13.
ASOUE Reviews
Lemony Snicket Wiki 
Goodreads 
Goodreads 
Goodreads 
Goodreads 
Goodreads 
Wiki 
Wikipedia
This book took on a whole new POV. That of Sunny Baudelaire, which in and of itself showed that she was no longer a small infant but now a growing child. This expressed it long before it was said towards the center of the book. It’s one of those things that just smacks you in the face, honestly. Like, for some reason, you thought she’d stay this little infant and suddenly she wasn’t.
More so, the way the narrator breaks the fourth wall in telling the reader about his research, reminding the reader that this isn’t a typical telling of a story was brilliant. A truly great way to keep the series fresh and remind the reader of Snicket’s style of stoicism and, what I get a feel for, noir. Containing moments of metaphor and brevity, there is always something to learn.
Even more stunning was the mega-reveal of who survived the fire. I’m not a spoiler if I can’t help, but I will say that it was still surprising even as a reread. Who they met up with filled in so many blank spots and answered so many questions.
A more tumultuous and terrifying journey, more difficult than ever before filled these pages along with dangerous mountain climbing, a biting bout of snow gnats, and most deadly, a crossroad between what’s right and wrong. It’s a theme constantly approached in this series and how each choice ripples and affects the young minds of children and who they may become. It really does play on the title of the book because the kids literally and metaphorically climb a slippery slope.
Even Count Olaf found himself facing unexpected problems, one of them being his own henchmen no longer wanting to work for him, especially the white-faced women who openly admitted to losing a sibling in a fire. It’s one of the biggest Easter eggs that maybe their own family had been a part of VFD and had gone down the similar road the Baudelaires and Quagmires did. Rather than follow in their family’s footsteps they walked down the road of villainy, but it stopped here as Olaf’s demands became increasingly horrifying. This realization by what was once a devoted set of villains really. showed just how dark Olaf ha become with his obsession with the Baudelaires and their fortune.
Overall
A truly pivotal book in the series that not only provided some answers to long asked questions but asked bigger questions and faced more dangerous obstacles. This is a book that marked a major change for the Baudelaires which really had me so attached and captivated with this book. A really good push forward for the series.
Quotables:
“That night was a dark day. Of course, all nights are dark days, because night is simply a badly lit version of day, due to the fact that the Earth travels around and around the sun reminding everyone that it is time to get out of bed and start the day with a cup of coffee or a secret message folded up into a paper airplane that can sail out the barred window of a ranger station.” (p. 67)
“…if VFD really stands for Volunteer Fire Department then they’re an organization that stops fire. If everyone fought fire with fire, the entire world would go up in smoke.” (Violet, p. 272)
More to come soon…
-K.
Song Today? My World by Sick Puppies.
Find Me:
Thoughts? Let’s chat in the comments below!
The Scarlet Reader 
Leave a Reply