I am absolutely flying through these books! While this isn’t particularly surprising, as I’m a fast reader and these books aren’t super long, I’ll probably slow down a bit as the books get longer towards the end (like most children’s series). My goal is to hopefully finish my complete re-read of the series by the end of the month.
This week, I finished books 4-6, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, and The Ersatz Elevator. I think these definitely mark a turn in the series, as this is when the V.F.D is introduced, as well as the Quagmire triplets, which are both important elements later in the series. Not to mention that the Quagmire triplets are the first children that we get to see the Baudelaire orphans interact with (besides Mr. Poe’s children). Most of the time, we just see how they interact with the horrible adults in their lives, and their friendship with the Quagmires is a moment of happiness and hope that is well deserved. It doesn’t last long–we are repeatedly warned that the Baudelaires’ story is not a happy one–but the moment of happiness allows the Baudelaires to grow as characters.
Throughout this re-read, I’m also picking up on things that I didn’t notice the first time them, as one does when re-reading books from childhood. For instance, I’m noticing more connections between Lemony Snicket and the Baudelaires, especially in the book I just finished,The Ersatz Elevator. Esme, the Baudelaires most recent horrible guardian who ends up being in cahoots with Count Olaf, mentions something about Beatrice, Snicket’s tragic love interest. If I recall correctly, I think this gets made more prominent as we go on, and I think I’ll be able to make more connections as I go forward. Plus, I think this gray area is what they played with in the Netflix series, as we get glimpses of what happens to the Baudelaire parents. I’m excited for the next season, especially since the series will now be fresh in my mind! Plus, my re-read has shown that they follow the books almost to a tee, which is an even better plus!
I’ll be taking a brief pause from these books as I read something I was assigned for Booklist, but I’ll be back to it shortly! And I hope to have another 3 books finished by next weekend.