Unfortunate ending to the children.

Upon reaching the end of The End, I had a lot of thoughts. But my first thought was this: I should have just re-watched Clue if I wanted to hear Tim Curry's voice, rather than go through this series that never interested me from the beginning and interested me even less as I was listening to it.

It's clear that there are plenty of people that this type of fiction appeals to, and it's also clear that I'm not one of those people. What others see as depth in the "moral" that the series brings out, I see as ambiguous and even lazy writing. I came to the realization by the end of the series that what it's really been about is the loss of innocence and understanding (the hard way and at a young age) how complicated and difficult life is. But I feel like it was all a bit abstract and complex for the target audience; for goodness sake, it was all a bit too abstract for me, especially since I went into it expecting it to be more for kids.

I'm definitely not the right audience for the purposefully dark tone of the series. I like some good things to happen in my fiction. Life is hard enough, and I read fiction (especially children's fiction) to escape it for a little while; why do I want to read about a world that's even darker (not to mention ridiculous)? The whole thing reminds me a bit of Charlie Brown and Lucy—I get that it's tradition and expected and maybe would be a let down if he finally got to kick the football, but dang it, I wanted him to finally get to kick it! And I just wanted something good to happen for the Baudelaires. What I got was a giant, cringe-inducing question mark. If you've enjoyed these books, I'm happy for you. I'm also happy to put the whole thing behind me. ( )

WAIT WAIT WAIT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK????? Omg I can't believe in this ending, and this coming from someone who already watched both the movie and the series, but I was not expecting???? Like, I never really paid attention to this baby name??? I loved this series omg ( )

Book 13 of 13 of the phenomenal series: Series of Unfortunate Events! Another of my favorites in the series. A conclusion for the ages, I feel this was a strong finish for the series.
Please Read my review of the series here, as my review applies to every book in the series. https://www.librarything.com/work/1748/reviews/227861550 ( )

i don't know how i feel about this book. i just finished it. i've given it three stars because that's somewhere in the middle, but that may change. i think i have to think about things a little bit, then i'll know. ( )