The Hostile Hospital (2001)
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The Hostile Hospital Book Review
The Hostile Hospital is a 2001 children’s book written by Lemony Snicket. It’s the eighth chapter in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and it just might be its darkest.
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“The sad truth is the truth is sad“
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Yes, I was taken aback at just how dark and creepy this installment was. It must be a difficult, and highly memorable read for the young ones. Being set at this horrible hospital, the novel was able to take a very nasty, very detailed and horror-like tone with many immediate details of injuries and illnesses that are sure to provoke a child’s inner interest in darkness.
The emphasis on all the medical instruments and how horrifying they are is one of the highlights of the entire book. The rusty knife, the operation room and especially the gurney are all wonderfully utilized into both the story and the action in particular.
My main issue with this entry is its excessively detailed nature. Yes, most of Daniel Handler’s novels are meticulously crafted, but sometimes he goes overboard with it, and that is the case here. I found the anagram scene, and the books parts all intriguing and well intentioned, but still they took way too much time from other plot points how overly comprehensive they are.
Let’s talk about the characters. I found the lack of Count Olaf here rather frustrating. I mean, he is there, don’t get me wrong, but not for much of the book unfortunately. But Esme Squalor got another very meaty role, and I just love how she became this major part of this villainous group as a very capable, highly dangerous girlfriend of Olaf’s.
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The book actually ends with the death of one of his henchmen which I found suitably dark for such a dark novel as a whole, but overall the other, newly introduced characters are nothing to write home about with only Hal making some impression at all.
As for the main trio, an interesting thing happened here where the entire second half of the book saw only Klaus and Sunny in action as Violet was anesthetized and unable to defend herself. That made her role here quite reduced, but she was very good in the first half. But I loved how that led to these two being so proactive at helping their sister. In particular, Klaus is phenomenally utilized here, especially his comprehensive reading, and Sunny herself gets to be at her most talkative which is also a nice change of pace.
There is one thing that I absolutely loved about The Hostile Hospital and that is the book’s major theme of the difference between being a good and being a bad person. Are the kids now becoming as bad as Olaf for utilizing his bad, manipulative tactics just to escape? That was a phenomenal point to be made, and it’s such a shame that it was handled in such an abrupt, quick manner. I do hope it gets tackled more in the future.
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The book overall isn’t as great as ‘The Vile Village’ was. It needed a quicker pace and more memorable supporting characters. But its inherent darkness made it one of the series’ most memorable installments. The imagery here is highly memorable as this hospital is so perfectly utilized. The change of formula to the series is paying off as this particular story ended in such an intriguingly cool, very dangerous way that made me instantly excited for the next entry. The mystery elements continue to be quite interesting.
The Hostile Hospital is excessively detailed in some parts and not that great in the supporting characters, but this is by far one of the darkest entries in the entire series with a phenomenally utilized setting, a creepy tone to it throughout and such a cool, very intriguing ending.
