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The Austere Academy Review

(A Series of Unfortunate Events book 5)

Author: Author

Year: 2000

Book five in the series of unfortunate events almost seemed to be the last one, the way it was hyped almost made me believe it was the last one when I first read it. But oh no, we’re only getting started! In this edition to the series the orphans are sent to boarding school, a miserable boarding school nonetheless. (Were you expecting a non-miserable boarding school?) But this time they are not alone, and they meet some friends who are a big part in series. They’re names are Isodora and Duncan, and they’re a lot like the Baudelaires but they’re not at all new versions of them, even though it appears like it at times. At this point in the series I’m very welcome to characters who’ll actually stay in the series so I’m happy they’re in the book. Also this is probably the best book so far as it holds the most story, and possibly the most emotion. I know the gap for these books on terms of quality isn’t far, but this one I think does a good job at staying to the story more, rather than drift for more of Lemony‘s writing off topic, which isn’t a bad thing. I believe when he does this it is much more effective and I’m glad he does it as it helps the books tremendously, but in this one book I felt like I was actually in the scene more than actually hear Lemony talk to me about what was going on. But Austere Academy also does another really good thing, and that is start an event that will trigger the rest of the series. At this point the series has truly already begun as a series, but three letters mentioned in this book start a trigger to a whole new thing. This isn’t really much of a spoiler, but those letters are V.F.D. While rereading this I almost found it how simple it was when the children hadn’t had the faintest idea what V.F.D. meant. This series raises hundreds of questions and they’re mostly answered for but I laugh now as I see these questions being raised. Another thing I would like to mention I found bad was Count Olaf in this book. I mean he doesn’t fall flat or anything but he doesn’t grow as much as I thought he would. By book five he’s not nearly where I remember he was, and seems to not give more. I mean it’s still entertaining when you can’t believe he’s not being caught by how dense and ridiculous some of the characters are, but he still hasn’t grown enough character traits for me to like him as much as I remember. (Don’t worry there’s still time, eight books to be exact.) Another thing I’d like to mention is that in this series is how ridiculous these characters are. If you were in the children’s position you would be screaming your ass off trying to get things through the thick skulled adults. Just saying if I was any of the kids Mr. Poe would be dead, Aunt Josephine would have really gotten thrown out a window, Mr. Sir’s cigar would be shoved down his throat, Nero would’ve had his clarinet bashed over his head, and the "advanced computer system” would be in pieces! That’s how angry you get at the characters but in the end it’s a positive. Austere Academy keeps up the momentum of the series and brings even more to the table, and is a very memorable title in the series.

The world is quiet here.

The Austere Academy gets a 3/5

Spoilers: Okay, Mr. Nero is a complete asshole. Hardly ever in the series is there a dude as ridiculous, obnoxious, and irritating as him. Just saying, Monty should live and this asshole should’ve died! But one thing I would like to say is Coach Genghis seems a little more boring than the other identities Olaf has taken. He didn’t really do anything but get along with Nero, and why the hell would a gym teacher be wearing a turban? Don’t say religious reasons cause that’s a random thing just shoved in to cover his eyebrows. Also I want to say I did not expect the metal masked lunch ladies to be one of Olaf’s assistants. In the last book the foreman kind of caught me off guard, but the masked chicks I really didn’t expect but when I was reading it the first time I was caught off guard a little. The second time it felt weird to know they were them. And this is a spoiler for those who haven’t read the entire series but to know Quigley was alive and to read this book was actually kind of different.

The Austere Academy gets THE CHARACTER BADGE

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