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The Carnivorous Carnival Review

(Series of Unfortunate Events Book 9)

Author: Lemony Snicket

Year: 2002

With every one of the books in the series of unfortunate events there is usually a new setting or place which helps makes the tone as well as create the new home of the orphans. In this chapter they are pushed into a carnival, and as the title says a carnivorous one at that. And this one feels just as if not more dangerous than the last title. This time all three children must take on the disguise as carnival freaks in order to live in the carnival while also try to unravel the many mysteries that are piling up around them. By the ninth book in the series you’d think there would be less mysteries coming into play, and more of them would be solved, but no, there’s mostly just more and more mysteries being added onto the old ones. The theme and tone is mostly about people who are different. It shows how they shouldn’t get down on themselves and that later in the book that everyone is really different, and could appear just as freakish to someone else. At one point the crowd actually thinks that more of the bad guys are freaks than the actual freaks in this book. And as always the three Baudelaires get zero luck, more misery, meet and confront villainous and outrageous characters that want nothing more than for them to end up in the belly of the beast. Just like before every adult in the book mentioned is flawed, a villain, and or absurd in reason. That reporter from the newspaper returns to give you more headlines, and there is a new villain introduced named Madam Lulu. Lulu is somewhat a reminder to the villain introduced in the Miserable Mill, but establishes her much more important role in the series as well as simply being a better character. Lemony Snicket as always makes the story around his pen name character just as interesting as the events between the Baudelaires, and you slowly learn things about him as well. Also you get as close and personal with Olaf and his associates as you ever been as they are all no longer playing costumes, and are all participating at once. Rather it is the orphans who are now in costume, but they don’t give personality to their costumes like Olaf, so a whole different feeling and writing tool than when Olaf was in disguises. And as in disguises the orphans soon start to question what they’re doing is bad, try to keep their character in front of their nemesis, and if not most importantly, try not to be eaten. Each book slowly gets more and more dangerous yet miserable for the orphans while also bringing in much more new, and you feel like it’s all going to just blow up at any moment. It keeps up the pace of the last book, and slams on even more with one of the most intense ending to the series so far. You’ll be anxious for the next entry as well as fulfilled with the title as a whole.

Carnivorous Carnival gets a 4/5

Spoilers: Probably the biggest cliffhanger of the series as a whole. Literally, they are dangling off a cliff as the book ends. The first time I read this I gave up, I thought they were dead, Sunny was screwed, and all hope was lost. Madam Lulu, she was a terrible person! She was a bad guy, turned good guy, turned to bad guy who says sorry, turned to lunch meat. And the Bald Man, he seemed to just have died for the sake of dying. He deserved a little bigger role in the book, but who really cares? As the list of characters who dies goes on one can only imagine who’ll survive. (Just wait, cause it’s not many) Also the freaks had a lot of messages around them, but they turned out to be bad guys, which I guess is like the kid who got picked on turning into a bully? Either way still a good entry to the series while also leaving you at the biggest literal cliff hanger ever.