…………………………………………………

The Penultimate Peril Book Review

The Penultimate Peril is a 2005 children’s novel by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler). It is the twelfth entry in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and unfortunately one of the weakest.

………………………………………………….

“A great man once said that right, temporarily defeated,

is stronger than evil triumphant“

…………………………………………………..

The Baudelaire orphans have a quest in this book and that is to observe the people inhabiting Hotel Denouement. The hotel isn’t named like that incidentally of course as this is where the plot of the series truly thickens and a lot of the revelations are finally being made about the villains and the heroes as well.

Then why is it that I didn’t care about this entry all that much or certainly not as much as the previous ones? Well, that is mostly because of the writing style and the repetitive nature of the scenarios. Handler has the annoying tendency to repeat himself to buy more time (or a longer word count to be precise), so all those enumerations definitely got on my nerves along with the book’s refusal to quicken the pace and get things going sooner rather than later.

With that being said, there is still a lot to love here. Yes, the first half of the novel is quite repetitious, but the second one delivered in both action and plot development. The ending, in fact, was so incredibly thrilling and unexpected that it was a perfect hook for the final chapter of this story that I hope will be worth it at the end of the day.

…………………………………………………..

I truly adored the last couple of chapters. The hotel burning was instantly iconic imagery for this series with the most special moment being the kids going on the elevator and witnessing so many people before their ultimate demise or escape, which was left ambiguous. It is by far one of the deepest and most artistic moments of the whole series, and the emphasis on the blurring side of right and wrong, of good and evil, continues to be the driving force of the later entries and a perfect accompaniment to ‘The Grim Grotto’.

I loved everything about Justice and her arc that was quite moving. Her relationship with the kids was wonderful to witness and that final moment was heartbreaking, but necessary for the arc of the kids. Yes, I love the treatment of the main trio and how mature they have become. They know that sometimes they have to go through bad means to arrive at a good goal, and that was a painful, but necessary lesson for all the kids reading this book.

The Penultimate Peril isn’t so great in the villains, though. Klaus, Violet and Sunny all got their moments to shine as all three got separated and we followed them all individually, but Olaf has become by now such a buffoon that I couldn’t handle him to be honest. His whole story in this novel was unrealistic and silly while the treatment of Esme was also surprisingly weak as she got sidetracked way too much. Jerome Squalor and Dewey are both well realized and important, but more could have been done with Frank and Earnest, both underdeveloped.

…………………………………………………..

The descriptions are fine here, but the dialogue is so over-the-top as is the humor that those are the weakest parts for sure. The writing has gotten rather problematic by this author throughout the series, which is unfortunate. Still though, for all of its faults, and it has plenty, this is an important progression for the story that now can enter into its final stretch with my interest definitely maintained.