Book Review - The Penultimate Peril

Author: Lemony Snicket

The Baudelaire children are back for a twelfth adventure of misery and misfortune in The Penultimate Peril. Read on to find out what horrors are in store in Lemony Snicket's newest book.

The Penultimate Peril - The Next To Last

In case your after school hobbies don't include reading dictionaries and thesauruses, the word "penultimate" means "next to last" - as in the Penultimate Peril is the next to last book in Lemony Snicket's miserable, yet extremely entertaining Series Of Unfortunate Events. The next to last adventure takes place at the Hotel Denoment - a bizarre hotel that is organized according to the Dewey Decimal library system (for example, a group of German poets are staying in room 831, where German poetry is found in the library). The Baudelaires are forced to disguise themselves as hotel concierges in order to track the movements of both Count Olaf and the V.F.D. (the secret organization of noble volunteers who are trying to help the Baudelaires and save the world).

The Penultimate Peril - Clever Clues, Familiar Faces

As the inventive Violet, the researching Klaus and the sharp-toothed Sunny try to sort their way through the confusing Hotel Denoument, they run into several familiar faces - both good and evil. From the kind Justice Strauss to the vile Principal Nero, the Baudelaires encounter several characters from their horrifying past, who have descended upon this hotel for an undetermined evil reason. While trying to figure this mystery out, the Baudelaires walk the fine line of trying to be good and noble in world that has given them so much misery, injustice and evil.

The Penultimate Peril - The Bottom Line

The Penultimate Peril is one of the best books yet in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. It's filled with Lemony Snicket's quirky humor and has a slightly darker tone (if you can believe it) than some of the other adventures in the series. It's also much longer than any of the previous books and if you haven't read any of the other books, you may find some of the plot lines and characters a bit confusing. Overall, it's a great read and sets the stage for the final chapter of this miserably entertaining series.

The Penultimate Peril Rating:

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