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Summary: The Hostile Hosptial By Lemony Snicket
Review: It was a great book! It was so exciting! There were so many cliffhangers. I found out so many things that made me speechless. I liked it because it was scary, daring, and just downright breathtaking. I think you should read this book. (but first you have to read the first seven)
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Summary: Really Great!!
Review: While this book wasn't the funniest in the series, it wasEdefinately one of the best. Lemony Snicket starts to play a HUGE role in this book, as do the rest of the charcters and gaurdians. There were some anagrams, but not enough. I hope anagrams will play a big role with the rest of the books, too.
If you are just starting this series, start at the begining. While the first book is one of my least favorite, they get better as you go along.
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Summary: Very Exciting!
Review: I won't give anything away, but this book was terribly exciting, more so than the previous books. The Baudelaires once again get into many sticky situations, and in this book one of these situations is much more serious than any their previous problems. It is impossible for the reader to guess how they're going to escape from it, or any of the other situations they encounter. Of course, all the solutions, though complete surprises, are entirely unbelievable. However, they're obviously done that way on purpose, and this adds to the charm of these novels.In short, a great little book! However, unlike some of the earlier books in this series, to understand what's going on in this one you really *have* to have read the previous books (at least the sixth and seventh) since they've begun a continuous storyline. The first few books were separate stories connected only by the first book (The Bad Beginning), whose plot was explained in the first couple pages of the books following it. Now, they no longer make an effort to explain to the reader what happened in the previous story, so it's up to you to do your reading before picking up this book!
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Summary: The Hostile Hospital
Review: Best one in the Baudelaires saga! The children are still running away. No help this time from Mr. Poe (as if there was some help ever). The kids grow up and mature. As in every other story, Sunny, Klaus and Violet show their special talents and their unity. Good news: Sunny is starting to talk a little. Olaf has a new accomplice: his girlfriend, Esmee, who is a fantastic villian. She is as bad as Olaf, if not worst. The ending is so exiting and suspensful that I can hardly wait for the next!
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Summary: The Darkest and Most Miserable in the Series
Review: I still don't think these books are strictly 'children's books'.
For a while now, I've held to the opinion that book 4, THE MISERABLE MILL, was the most 'unfortunate' book in the series. Snicket's word-play and trickery was a bit more scarce and Count Olaf was almost completely absent from the story...but you knew he was there...somewhere. All this resulted in giving the book a very, very dark feel. In this, the eighth book, Snicket takes the children to perhaps the bleakest of all locations they've visited thus far. It feels like Snicket is beginning to take a back-seat approach and lets the story 'tell itself' as the series becomes more and more connected to him personally, and his witticisms feel a tad weaker and don't come off with the speed we've become accustomed to, which makes the tone a bit heavier and somewhat unnerving. Add to that the ever-unraveling mystery of V.F.D., the children on the run, abandoned and friendless (what? Mr. Poe isn't in this one???), one of the children coming frighteningly close to death, a rather horrific pseudo-flashback of "The Event" that triggered the series, and perhaps the most unexpected cliff-hanger ending I have ever read in ANY book (move over, Rowling), and you've got a much more mature, darker read than the past seven books combined. The series is getting darker and deeper with each story...and if you have any doubt in your mind about that, take a look at the last three pages of this book. It's not my favorite book in the series, but it feels like a huge set-up for what's to come. It's clear that Snicket has this all VERY well-organized and he lets us in on little bits of information with such calculated grace that his stories are elevated to a higher level. All that said, I'm dying to know what happens next!
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Summary: The most sickening book I've ever read....
Review: ....but I mean that in a good way, of course! As usual, the author tells a very grim story, but his dry humor keeps it from being utterly unbearable. I love how Sunny is starting to say more real words. I can't wait to read the next book.
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Summary: Another Unhappy Ending -- if only the next book were out!
Review: Lemony Snicket is an evil man. Not only has he once again revealed a chapter of misery and woe in the lives of the Baudelaire siblings, but he has started to stretch out the excruciating pain of learning that... oh... but I shouldn't be so evil as to tell you! Suffice it to say, that this book goes BEYOND any of the others. Sunny is getting older and talks more, but her teeth are just as sharp. Violet is placed in the most dangerous situation yet, but her wits stay just as sharp. And Klaus must be strong when... well, I shan't tell you... but he doesn't shy away from grasping the sharp knife thrust into his hands! We also learn more about Beatrice, the Snicket files, and V.F.D.... but the most HORRIFYING thing is the ending... Because we are left knowing that the Baudlaires are not only unfortunate(as in the end of the first few books) or in danger (as they were at the end of _The Vile Vilage_) but that they are ALSO ONLY A FEW FEET AWAY FROM BEING CAUGHT BY COUNT OLAF!!! And now we must wait until the next book to find out what happens. And that is why Lemony Snicket is such an evil man and must be captured and imprisoned soon... to end our misery! :-p
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Summary: It's all about the action
Review: This Baudelaire Book is a book of firsts: This is the first book that is devoid of all humour except the dry humour Snicket adds in every now and then. One Baudelaire nearly bites the big one for the first time. And there is a wonderful action scene. Something this book is good for is that it gives you (The reader) one major clue, and that is Anagrams. This will explain most of the books names and places, but what about the other seven books? I want to see if Snicket is pulling a Soap Opera move and giving us secrets as the series goes along. This book contains a wonderful action scene, a wonderful suspense scene, and a wonderful close call. When the Baudelaires are in the Library of Records and SOMEONE walks in, this contains the best action scene in the book, let alone the series. Also, as I said, a Baudelaire nearly bites the big one in a most unexpected way. The suspense built up to this point is great. Also a wonderful close call is at the end of the book. This book contains a chase that rivals those of James Bond. One significant factor of this book is that Snicket and Beatrices place in the series begins to emerge. You'll know where Snicket appears in the story of HH if you've paid attention to his photos in the back. All in all, this is a wonderful book from the Baudelaire Series. It can only get better from here, and I am anxious to see what the Baudelaires will have to do and what they will find out in the Ninth book
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Summary: Different, but in a good way
Review: The Hostile Hospital was indeed very different from any other books in the series of unfortuate events. But that doesn't mean that it was bad. For example, Snicket's writing has dramatically changed and he shows it in this book. The beginning was great and really got you hooked. The Helmlich Hospital is very different, it is only half way finished! In this book, the Baudelaires work with Hal who is in charge of The Library of Records. In this book, the Baudelaires find out something very, very, VERY, exciting and important that is in one of the files that is about their parents! Another way this book is different from any other is that the reader really gets to know what the bad guys life is like. One more thing, Esme is back. The ending is what really blew me away. I would tell you what it is but I would really spoil it. Also, One of the Baudelaires is almost killed!! Who is it you will ask, but the only way to find out is to read the book. You never get a direct look at Count Olaf because he is not disguised as a person! Overall, this book will be a very good one to most of you that are reading my review but to me it didn't quite surpass my personal favorites which are The Reptile Room and The Vile Village. HAPPY READING!
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Summary: The mystery deepens, although not deeply enough
Review: The Baudelaire books, while clever almost to a fault, are also highly stylized and mannered. The arch tone used by Lemony Snicket is often very funny, but I have to say that eight books of it is wearing on me a little, and I hope that he can sustain his readers' interest for the next five installments. In the Hostile Hospital, the Baudelaires once again encounter Count Olaf and his evil henchpeople, and Lemony Snicket once again reveals in his asides to the reader oblique clues as to what the relationship is or was between him, Beatrice, Esme Squalor, and the Baudelaire orphans. Did a Baudelaire parent survive the fire? Is Beatrice the Baudelaire children's mother? Is Lemony Snicket Count Olaf? None of the answers to these questions is to be found in the Hostile Hospital. Of course, there are the anagrams. And the names of the other patients in the hospital (e.g., Clarissa Dalloway) are good for a chuckle.
For as little as he reveals about the mystery with each book, Mr Snicket should be churning these out a little faster.
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