The Austere Academy (2000)
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The Austere Academy Review
The Austere Academy is a 2000 children’s novel by Lemony Snicket. It’s one of the best entries in the series.
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“Everybody will die,
but very few people want
to be reminded of that fact“
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This is the fifth entry in A Series of Unfortunate Events and I honestly find it pretty on par with the first book which was the best one up until this point. That’s how great this one is. So the Baudelaire orphans arrive to Prufrock Preparatory School where they meet terrible teachers and headmaster along with Count Olaf in disguise as a school coach.
They also meet some friends and that is what makes this entry truly stand out from the rest as a different kind of beast. Before, the kids just hung out with adults, both good and bad, but here they finally meet someone their own age.
Yes, they also meet Carmelita Spats who’s a horrible girl, and she’s quite stereotypically villainous, but she serves her purpose in the story. But let’s talk about the Quagmires. This is where the book truly shined as these orphan twins are so wonderful and endearing.
They really wanted to help their new friends, no matter how naïve they ended up being in the process. But because finally we get to meet some kids of similar fate to the Baudelaires, that dynamic of theirs was wonderful. I liked their dark story that they were triplets before, and I found their role here very important as it hints to something similar happening to our protagonists as they also lost their parents to a fire which is interesting.
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I don’t know what Olaf is planning to do with them, but apparently they are not dead, at least not just yet. And that was also very intriguing, that whole V.F.D. mystery. Olaf has always been a great villain in his own right, but now realizing that he has his own dark history and plans really adds to the mythology. I can’t wait to find out what these initials really mean and what the eye imagery is all about.
As for his role here, I found him to be very smart as Coach Genghis. He had a great plan to really exhaust the children by making them run laps that they would be kicked out of school and home-schooled by himself. That was a terrific plan and I am glad that the kids unraveled it not too soon. I found him escaping too soon a bit silly, but it worked in the context of the humor.
Oh my God, how stupid can Mr. Poe get?! He has now become so dumb that I really question if he should be allowed to wander around out of the hospital confines. But the author got around to this issue by presenting it very comically so that the readers do not get too frustrated, and I found the humor in these instances so great.
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Vice Principal Nero is also a great new addition to the roster of unlikable adults the kids encounter and I found him suitably annoying. I found the imagery and descriptions a bit lacking compared to the others in the series, but the shack with the crabs and the fungus was highly memorable of a place.
The Austere Academy is very well-written with terrific dialogue and humor. I found the emotional investment with the kids and their friends palpable, and the more interconnected and epic storyline looms now which was a great development.
The Austere Academy is one of the best entries in this franchise thanks to a great addition of the Quagmires as the friends of Baudelaires. That in particular made the book emotional and the expansion of mythology made it more intriguing as well.
