For Beatrice - 
 When we were together I felt breathless. 
 Now, you are. 
 With dedications like that I wonder why Lemony Snicket didn't go into the greeting card business instead of being a novelist. 
 ARGH! Comeuppance must come. It must. It certainly didn't in this one, and there's a slew of people to add to the rapidly growing list of those who need to be executed. Some for terminal stupidity, others for being buttheads, and the rest for being both. 
 Formulaic, thy name is Snicket, but it's cool. I think it works in this series, but that's just a personal preference. Same plot outline mostly. Mr. Poe drops the kids off at their new guardian (which is an entire village in this case), they're fuck-ups like all adults in this world, a disguised Olaf arrives with an accomplice, Baudelaires cry "OLAF," adults are all "nah, can't be," Olaf nearly gets them, the Scooby Doo gang pulls the mask off in the last chapter, Olaf escapes... 
 Then something different happens, or doesn't happen, rather. Mr. Poe doesn't show up to take them to a new place, and the Baudelaires are left to fend for themselves without adult supervision. This is different because normally the Baudelaires are fending for themselves with adult supervision. In fact, I'm sure they can do better without the adults trying to help since all they seem to do is take a potentially pleasant scenario make it FUBAR. Except Hector. He shows up in this one, and while he's a couple fries short of a happy meal (which is better than the rest which are at least 11 eggs shy of a dozen), he has promise. It's nice to find a grown-up on the Baudelaires' side who isn't a complete wimp. (He's just a moderate wimp.) 
 Also, (view spoiler)[the Quagmires finally escape (hide spoiler)]. And you can definitely tell there's a bigger story being woven together. I'm still expecting Snicket to leave me infuriated with a miserable end, but there's only one way to find out, and that's to keep on keeping on. Well, I could cheat and look it up on the internet, but that's no fun, and I feel like wasting my time, so watch me go at it with gusto. 
 There weren't any passages that stood out as uber-hilarious, but the entire thing was amusing and infuriating all at the same time. Can't these kids ever catch a break? They get minor ones here and there, but all in all they're just shat on all the time and don't deserve any of it. Poor kids. My own life is often two steps forward, three steps backward, but these poor ragamuffins... It's more like one up, 39 back for them. 
 As for this village... The well-known phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" is thrown about in here constantly, but it just reminds me of my typical rejoinder when people are making that argument with me: "I've seen the village, and no thanks," which is a slightly politer way of saying "You people suck, so leave my kids alone." I guess if I ever have children of my own (egad) I'll have more of a leg to stand on with that one, but it works just as well when discussing my nieces and nephews whom I watch often. 
 Onward and upward; The Hostile Hospital is next. 
 Author's Bio: 
 Lemony Snicket is the author of quite a few books, all dreadful, and has been accused of many crimes, all falsely. Until recently, he was living someplace else.