Sign in with Facebook
Jack Parra's Reviews > The End
The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #13)
by
by
** spoiler alert **
A total let down.
I loved the first 12 books! Witty, creative, and intelligent.
There are many things about this book that dissapoint.
To start off, don't expect to get answers to the plot points he brought up in the other books. Not even points from book 12 are answered. No answer to Poison Darts or the Sugar dish. No resolution to the Quagmires. Olaf's resolution is forced at best.
If you like the little quirks that each of the Baudelaires had in the previous books, don't expect them here. Violet doesn't invent, Klaus doesn't research, Sunny doesn't bite/cook.
Even the title doesn't fit with the rest of the books. The title to every other book in the series uses alliteration, but not this one, why?
I know they wanted the series to end in 13 books, but honestly if there was more story to tell than just one more book, he should have just gone on. The "life's unanswered questions" direction can work in some cases, but it does not replace plot resolution.
This book was such a let down, that I sold all of my books. I did this because I knew I would never re-read them thanks to the poor ending.
I loved the first 12 books! Witty, creative, and intelligent.
There are many things about this book that dissapoint.
To start off, don't expect to get answers to the plot points he brought up in the other books. Not even points from book 12 are answered. No answer to Poison Darts or the Sugar dish. No resolution to the Quagmires. Olaf's resolution is forced at best.
If you like the little quirks that each of the Baudelaires had in the previous books, don't expect them here. Violet doesn't invent, Klaus doesn't research, Sunny doesn't bite/cook.
Even the title doesn't fit with the rest of the books. The title to every other book in the series uses alliteration, but not this one, why?
I know they wanted the series to end in 13 books, but honestly if there was more story to tell than just one more book, he should have just gone on. The "life's unanswered questions" direction can work in some cases, but it does not replace plot resolution.
This book was such a let down, that I sold all of my books. I did this because I knew I would never re-read them thanks to the poor ending.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
The End.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Started Reading
October 1, 2006
–
Finished Reading
January 22, 2008
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)
date
newest »
newest »
I really liked this book. I think that if Lemony Snicket answered all of the questions, and the baudelaires lived happily ever after it would just be really cheesy (and it would be a very long book). I think that it is better that some questions are left unanswered. It lets people think of their own answers. It just leaves it open for imagination.(By the way, i think that is was a sugar bowl, not a sugar dish... but whho cares!)
Hmmm. I agree with this review (except I would still re-read the books). I think the author could have answered readers' questions without giving the book a cheesy, happy ending.
It is a great book, I just wish Lemony Snicket would have made another one and really end it by not having another mystery behind it. I would recommend it, but if you don't want to be let down I suggest don't continue reading it.
Have you ever read a book with a perfect ending? Don't you think it's too forced?I don't know about you, but I hate those endings like fairy tales. I think that a story ending should be in a happy, sad, or none of those (it depends on the kind of book) moment, instead of an ending when everything really ends, when everything is happy or sad just like by magic.
Don't you think that's more forced than use your book as a metaphor explaining that anything ends?
Don't you think that answer all the questions at once is truly forced?
I'm just gonna reply to all of these at once since I didn't realize they were here earlier.I like happy endings, but I'd be crazy to expect one out of this series, and I didn't. That doesn't bother me at all. I also don't expect all endings to be finite.
However, these books are basically mystery novels and should have some resolution. I don't expect all of them to be answered, but some would be nice. I never said everything had to be answered all at once. He could have spread it out, he had 337 pages to do so.
To me a forced ending is to go a direction with basically no lead in to it. To have a antagonist change drastically with only a little prodding after no lead up for the 12 previous books he was in.
This review, and the reply to all the responses (which were mostly the same response, different words) was spot on. This whole book felt to me like a contract fulfillment, and to my seven-year-old daughter like - well, like nothing. We've been reading this series together for the past year, and she was hardly even listening by the last tortuous chapter. I don't think it's unfair for a reader to expect a writer to at least acknowledge the previous books, especially after the shift around books 6-7 away from regurgitation of the same plot and toward some sort of narrative progression. We just finished it this week so my initial reaction upon finishing it is still strong, but this was honestly one of the wrost ways I could think to end a long book series.
It did answer the questions. The Quagmires are probably dead in a child-friendly what-if way but if you wanted to believe they were not you could because everyone thought Lemony was dead and he was not. VFD is whatever the members want it to be. The infighting and schisms have always been and will always be. The story repeats, with detail differences.
Well said. This book was such a let down.
I believe that the title is simple because it's re-emphasizing its theme - there is no definite order, reason, or answers to life or anything; just because the first twelve books used alliteration doesn't mean the last one has to, not everything in life 'fits in'.
I see where you're coming from, but 'The End' made me realize just how cloudy the distinction between good and evil is, and it made me understand that we won't always have answers to our questions.