The End

We get exactly the kind of ending Lemony Snicket has promised all along and it leaves me melancholic and wishing for more of the Baudelaires and his own story.

It is really hard to review this book without spoiling anything, so I'll make it brief: "The End" is not that much of an ending, and I wouldn't be surprised if Snicket soon announced that there is going to be another Series of Unfortunate Events, or at least a book or two about the Quagmires, whose story is not at all resolved here. What we do get is a delightful (if sad) helping of Kit Snicket and Count Olaf and an ending of the Baudelaires' adventures that is at least as much of a beginning, and also makes them come full circle in an appropriately roundabout way. Much like J. K. Rowling with the Harry Potter books, Lemony Snicket has succeeded in creating a world that will go on and be interesting long after his protagonists have left it. After reading "The End", I was satisfied to know as much as I did about the Baudelaires (all of them), and longing to know more about V.F.D., the Quagmires, Fiona and Fernald, the Snickets, the islanders, the Man With No Hair and the Woman With No Beard, and and and...