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The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 12) Review
After any harrowing struggle, it is nice to consider checking into a hotel for a rest. In fact, this might be just the break Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire could use after their wearying deep-sea adventure. A hotel can be a good choice for any family vacation. With so many floors, such a variety of rooms, and a curious array of guests, spending time in the safety of the right hotel can be the perfect learning environment for children of any age. A keen researcher like Klaus, an adept inventor like Violet, and a sharp-toothed culinary master like Sunny are all sure to find engaging diversions during their stay. Regardless of how they pass their time while at a hotel, the three siblings will be sure to take in all the interesting sights and sounds—and write them down—just in case this episode turns out to be the darkest yet in a series of unfortunate events. User Submitted The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 12) ReviewsDecember 2, 2008 The suspects are assembled . . . The suspects are here assembled, as the participants, precipitators, witnesses, and victims of the unfortunate events described in the past 11 books gather . . . . But justice is miscarried in the penultimate event, and the Baudelaire children ponder their guilt or innocence, nobility or villainy. Followed by: The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) September 27, 2008 Twists are coming together Ah, now nice! Our favorite little orphans-of-tragedy get to hang out with some rich relatives in a snobby apartment building! Snicket introduces a nice new landscape, more mystery, and some developments that are very nice shockers. Not the best of the series, but nice-enough pacing and a [not-so]-pleasant story to keep up the action and plot. May 17, 2008 Complete fluff Tons of filler in this book. Snicket brings back most of the characters for a courtroom showdown which means he takes every opportunity to use the following format: "It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" "It's a hook!" "It's a book!" "It's a rail!" "It's a tail!" and on and on. And also to spend whole paragraphs hashing over what everyone is doing, e.g.: X was stumbling around and ran into Y who was hanging onto Z and they bumped into A who was still wearing the necklace she stole from B who was in the next room with C trying to blah blah blah... Snicket can get more than an entire page worth of that stuff. No good descriptions or plot developments, just list after list after list. He does try to inject a subtext commenting on moral ambiguity but all that gets buried under the Snicket cliches of melodramatic crying kids (stop already!), wimpy adults who are too poorly written to be witty satires, idiotic evil villains and plot holes. The kids are clever one moment and complete dolts the next. Yup, by this point, I detest the characters and Snicket and this wretched story that never goes anywhere. The lit and linguistic winks don't even begin to compensate for the crappily crafted story. I find it insulting how Snicket manipulates his readers. It seems like the kids tearing up and crying is directly proportional to the increasing crappiness of the stories. Since we're less sympathetic towards the kids because they a.) fail to learn from previous mistakes, b.) fail to seize opportunities, c.) repeatedly fail to use the brains they are reputed to have (for all the inventing skills, reading and life experience, you'd think they'd have a lick of common sense), Snicket makes them turn on the waterworks. Disgusting. I haven't had to skip this many paragraphs and pages since The Notebook. February 27, 2008 Lemony Snicket's Penultimate Peril My daughter loves the whole series. Hard to find book in our local community. Thanks~ January 5, 2008 The Penultimate Peril Review The Penultimate Peril is one of the best books written by Lemony Snicket in the Series of Unfortunate Events. It is the second to last book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. The book starts up right where the last book left off. This book is the darkest of all, but it is still very funny and entertaining. The book is very well written with great vocabulary. You see a lot of familiar faces that make you think of all the past incidents that the Baudelaires have faced. Three new characters are introduced, Frank, Ernest, and Dewey who are triplets. The Baudelaires can't tell which one is which. The Baudelaires have to decide who is evil and good, but that is their hardest task of all. Although it is very long, 353 pages, you stay in the same place for the whole book. Lemony Snicket rambled on and on throughout the book that made me want to just skip to the next page and get on with the book. The book kept me at the edge of my seat, which made me want to keep on reading. I can't wait to read the last book, and overall I would rate this book a 7 out of 10. December 31, 2007 Exactly as described This book came brand new, exactly as described. Well packaged and very quickly shipped. December 7, 2007 Great series _______________________!! In this latest installment of the Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaires arrive at the Hotel Denouement for the meeting of the Volunteers. But first, the Baudelaires must first check out the hotel to make sure that the last safe place is indeed safe. While disguised as concierges, the Baudelaires encounter a number of characters from previous books. They must figure out if these people are volunteers or villains before the meeting on Thursday. If they find that the hotel is not safe, they must signal to the volunteers not to come. The title of the book (Penultimate Peril), suggests that there is one more volume to come, but this book reads like a finale. I highly recommend everyone to read a new series titled Why Some Cats are Rascals, Book 2 October 15, 2007 Let's just wrap it up Just when it seems the Baudelaire orphans are in the hands of good noble people that will help them they discover that evil still lurks behind every shadow and door. They are whisked away by a women who identifies herself as Kit Snicket. She tells the siblings that she is working with Quigley Quagmire and the other volunteers to triumph over Count Olaf and his evil henchmen once and for all. Kit brings the children to the Hotel Denouement where they are to observe the hotel guests in disguise and determine whether or not the hotel is a safe place for the volunteers to come together for a meeting on Thursday of that week. The children are told that they are to evaluate the people with which they come into contact and decide if each person is noble and on the side of good or evil. The Baudelaires arrive and immediately realize that the hotel is full of people from their past - some good and some bad. Esme Squalor is there with the obnoxious Carmelita Spats so Count Olaf cannot be far away. But Hal and Charles from previous books are there to support the children. Soon Olaf appears and makes his evil plan known to all. They are going to ambush the volunteers when they arrive on Thursday and unleash a poisonous fungus that will kill all of the noble people. The children must figure out how they can stop Olaf without putting anyone in harms way and without being taken into custody for the bad things that people believe that they have done. It is time for this series to come to an end. The writing and vocabulary continues to be brilliant and clever, but the plot is no longer entertaining. While the series is somewhat designed to be formulaic, by book 12 that formula fails to keep things interesting. As stand alone books they are each wonderful for their originality but the series would likely have finished on a stronger note if it had been shorter. June 18, 2007 The next to last peril wasn't as exciting as the next next to last peril was (book 11). I liked the book. I thought that it was good, but it had way too many rambles from Lemony Snicket. It felt like I had been cheated out of a good book. Book 11 was good and had a lot of exciting and new information, but all book 12 does is give you an overview of the people the Baudelaires have met through their series or unfortunate events. The book does add some interesting information to the series and also has a well written ending. I'm hoping that book 13 is better than the next to last peril (penultimate peril, book 12). thank you for your time, Loran June 2, 2007 second to the last peril Peniltimate peril which if you dont know peniltimate means second to the last and well i hope you know what peril mean any whom if you dont know then its like some thing bad or a tradgedy now this book was very interesting ilove how snicket writes but im afraid that as you may read many others have written just the same as im about to write it leaves you needing the last book to answer the questions but as i have not read the last book yet. i am actually waiting for it in the mail around 4:00 today it will be in my grasp. This particular book the twelveth book of the thirten is about how our heroic but misfortunate boldilairs meet Kit Snicket she meets them at the beach and drives them uncontrolably to there destination which i hope you know is the hotel that every one who reads the Grim Grotto is dieing to find out if the children get to but to put you readers who love this seris as much as i do which i hope you dont because then that would mean you love the sorrow that follows the children and i must amit lemony snicket is a "awsome" writer and love his sob storys and am hopeing will write another seris of books. But here iam getting off subject my apologies well to put your mind at ease they find it because Kit takes them to it and tells them they are going to be in costem so no one will reconise them and that when they are done changeing throw a rock in the pond to signal frank unless ernest took his twin brothers place ernest on the bad side and frank is the good guy im sorry to say you have tomake the dission your self untill you meet dewey which is a very fasinating deadman. and that is all i may tell you with out getting off subject and telling you the whole story but i will tell you the boldilairs end up willingly in olafs cluches. Sincerly sorry D.J.C For more The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 12) reviews click here.
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