The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13)

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Picking up from the final pages of the Pentultimate Peril, this farewell installment to the ridiculously (and deservedly!) popular A Series of Unfortunate Events places our protagonists right where we last left them: on a large, wooden boat in the middle of the ocean, trapped with their nemesis Count Olaf, who has armed himself with a helmet-full of deadly Medusoid Mycelium.

The situation quickly and--this being the Baudelaires--predictably deteriorates. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny find themselves tossed in a storm so terrible that our beloved narrator spends four pages describing how he cannot describe it. From this point on, fans of the series' smarty-pants wordplay and acrobatic narrative can rest assured that they're in for more of the same (and how) in this 368-page finale, and Daniel Handler's deadpan Snicket continues to tutor a generation in self-referential humor (including one particularly funny bit regarding three very short men carrying a large, flat piece of wood, painted to look like a living room). Snicket notes, of course, that if you read the entire series, "your only reward will be 170 chapters of misery in your library and countless tears in your eyes."

There's one big question, though, for anyone who's made it through "the thirteenth chapter of the thirteenth volume in this sad history": is the final book a fitting end? That question is probably best-answered by one of The End's most oft-repeated phrases: It depends on how you look at it. Those looking for conclusive resolution to the series' many, many mysteries may be disappointed, although some big questions do get explicit answers. Not surprisingly for a work so deliberately labyrinthine, though, even the absence of an answer can be sort of an answer--and reaction to The End can be something of a Rorschach test for readers. Or, as Lemony Snicket says, "Perhaps you dont know yet what the end really means." --Paul Hughes

Product Description

Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Customer Reviews: Read 298 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Don't Expect Alot of Answers October 18, 2006
77 out of 98 found this review helpful

WHat started as a delightful young adult series has become a near philosophical meditation on the nature of good and evil, which is all well and fine, except what happened to the fun? I almost thought I had missed something at the start, when the orphans find themselves washed up on a beach somewhere with the evil Count Olaf. An island with it's own inhabitants that are leading a life free from the dangers of the outside world. One wonders if the author has been watching 'Lost' because this island holds as many mysteries as the one on the ABC show, and gives you about the same amount of answers. I can appreciate that the ending is mostly ambiguous, however for the kid (or adult)who's reading this hoping for a payoff, they're going to be quite disappointed.

1 out of 5 stars

Great series, Terrible ending. March 18, 2007
55 out of 64 found this review helpful

Are you kidding me Mr. Snickett? I've followed these kids through 13 books of misery only to NOT get answers to the majority of the questions? I still don't know why there was a tunnel between the kid's house and Dark St.? I still don't know what was in the sugar bowl? I still don't know what happened to the other triplets? I still don't know (really) what the deal is with you and Beatrice?
Dear sir, I have the sneaking suspicion that these books started as a great original idea, but as of about book 8 you realized you had no way to resolve the myriad plot threads that you'd sent spinning off in a million directions. I feel taken advantage of - a phrase which here means "ripped off." I am ashamed of you, and your publisher for purposely stringing the reader along when you must have known you had no true ending to the series. How do you sleep at night?
Let's hope Mrs. Rowling does better than this in June. You Mr. Snickett, are a hack.

1 out of 5 stars

What a waste of time. October 15, 2006
26 out of 40 found this review helpful

Here's a nickel's worth of free advice -- if you haven't already started reading the Baudelaire books, don't bother to start now. It will only end in soul-crushing, anger-inducing disappointment. As I predicted after I read Book the Twelfth, there are no answers to the myriad (a word which here means never-ending) mysteries and storylines introduced by the author in this series. There are so many dangling threads, that in order to address them all, Handler would have needed both the 2nd-to-last AND the last books. And of course, he addresses pretty much none of them. Instead he writes himself an escape hatch from the wrath of his readers by including in his narration the fact that every answer only leads to more questions. And so, his characters and everpresent narrator/unexplained and never-seen character Lemony Snicket conclude -- why bother getting any answers at all?

I'll tell you why bother: to finish what you bloody started. To satiate the millions of people who've spend hundreds of dollars and MANY hundreds of hours following this series from Bad Beginning to HORRIBLE End, to fulfill the rules of literature set down by all the writers you abstractly and/or directly reference so often.

"The End" is nothing of the kind. It's just another stepping stone, another doorway Handler hopes you'll be fool enough to trek through, so that when the inevitable follow-up materials and sequels or prequels are released you'll be a good little lapdog and go buy them, letting the promise of questions answered and mysteries solved lure you like a fish to a money-grubbing hook. I was a fish and a lapdog myself, I'm sorry to say. I rushed right out on Friday to grab this book, even though I knew it would disappoint me. I guess I still harbored a *shred* of hope that Handler would surprise me, and actually explain some of the mysteries. Actually provide a satisfying conclusion to the stories of all the characters he's come to make me care about. Actually write some kind of RESOLUTION.

No such luck. Instead, everything he worked for falls away, and I am left not particularly caring about anyone in these wretched books. But it's my own fault, really. After all, he's been warning us from the Bad Beginning not to keep reading any more of these stories, hasn't he? He must have known all along how it would all End.

Pity I didn't listen. I could have saved myself a lot of time and money. I write this review hoping I can help you avoid a similar fate.

2 out of 5 stars

The Bad Ending - or - Call This Book Ish November 16, 2006
24 out of 26 found this review helpful

Bottom Line: Fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events will most likely be disappointed by this book. "The End" does for series what the movie did for the franchise; and that's not good.

Before I get into the negatives, first let me state the positives. While not as good as in earlier books, the writing in "The End" is clever and still has the trademark Snicket whit and wordplay, although the jokes seem forced and repetitive - but I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Also, the final revelation in Chapter 14 (yes, there is an additional chapter at the end of the book) gives careful readers a lot to ponder. As with all the other books in the series, this is a fun and fast read and, even though there are major problems, I must admit that I still had a good time reading this book. That's about it for the positives.

Now for the downside. First off, you will not find resolution to many of the series' mysteries in "The End": No information on the contents or location of the sugar bowl, nothing more about the purpose of VFD or its schism, nothing about the fates of the villains and volunteers from the fire at the Hotel Denouement (or the hidden library), not a word about the "man with a beard but no hair" and the "woman with hair but no beard," not a peep about the possible survival of one of the Baudelaire parents, etc, etc, etc. The problem isn't that "The End" doesn't explicitly resolve these issues for us (did anyone actually expect that it would?), it's that the layers and layers of intrigue that have been building up for years are largely ignored. The true unfortunate event would be if the series were to end like this, with nothing more to bring closure to these outstanding mysteries.

This volume does add an extensive cast of new characters, however they are all as flat as a pancake (read the book, then try telling one of your associates or enemies anything about the characters Marlow, Larsen, or almost any of the other islanders for that matter - bet you can't). This time around even the series' mainstay, Count Olaf, seem utterly lifeless and even out of character.

The plot of this book is rather dull, which is perplexing considering that this is the longest book in the series. What you will find within the pages of this book are 12 chapters of fairly slow paced and repetitive "story," followed by a long Chapter 13 that is so utterly ridiculous that the writers of Scooby-Doo would feel guilty ending their story (let alone a beloved series) in such a way. It is as if the author got to the end of the book and noticed he hadn't moved the ongoing story forward, so decided to have certain characters monologue about the fates of others. For example, we have all been wondering what happened to the Quagmires and expecting some type of glorious reunion, but I'm quite sure that nobody wanted to hear Kit Snicket say "yeah, they captured some birds and then crashed into the ocean, where the 'question mark' shaped vessel swallowed them up. I don't know if they're alive or not. P.S. - Fiona and the Hook-Handed Man got swallowed too." Lol! As terrible as that sounds, the actual text in the book isn't much better than what I just wrote. Not to spoil anything, but the bit about Count Olaf's fate isn't much better either. The pacing is all wrong: why spend chapters going on about the tedium of island life, and then cram the important contents into a few scant sentences?

Judging by the response to this book, it looks like old Lemony has really dug himself a hole. The fans are mad, and justly so. Even if the series continues in spin-off books for years to come, many fans have been turned of by "The End" and just don't care anymore. The prevailing attitude is that readers would be better off stopping with Book 12; in many ways it is better to use your imagination and think of the millions of possible ways that the series could have ended, rather than reading the thoroughly unfulfilling way that it did end. All I can say is that if there are future books coming, they had better be something 'really' special, or "The End" may be the beginning of the end.

1 out of 5 stars

Verrrry Disappointing November 11, 2006
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

Imagine this: you sit down to read "The Lord of the Rings" and learn about Frodo and his quest to destroy the Ring against overhwelming odds. You think with excitement "wow, I wonder if he will be able to do it?" Then you read about Aragorn and his destiny to become the King and you think "gosh, there's even more to this story than I thought!" Through the betrayal of Saruman, the romance of Arwen, the re-appearance of Gollum, and the seige of Minas Tirith you think "man he keeps weaving more and more threads into this story. I can't wait to see how this turns out!"

Then you get to the last chapter, where Frodo and Gandalf wash up on a tiny island, look around it a little, then make a boat and sail away. The end.

This is the kind of conclusion to a series that basically gives the middle finger to its readers. None of the questions that were posed throughout the first 12 books is answered. Not one. What is VFD? Is one of the orphans' parents still alive, and if so which one? What is the signifigance of the sugar bowl? What ultimately happened to the Quagmires and will they stay friends with the Beaudalaires? Who knows? "Lemony Snicket" doesn't seem to care, and he doesn't seem to care that we care.

Of course I could be wrong, but it seems to me he fell in love with his wacky characterizations and pompous asides and faux melodrama and forgot to actually tell a story. I always thought a story had a beginning, a middle, and an end, but heck, what do I know? This book may be The End but it sure isn't the end. Oh well, "Lemony Snicket" has my money, why should he care?

If you've read the previous 12 books in this series you might as well read this one, I guess. On the other hand, if you have read any of those 12 books, the possible endings you have in mind are probably better than what is actually written.

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