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The Vile Village Review

(Series of Unfortunate Events Book 7)

Author: Lemony Snicket

Year: 2001

We’re officially past the halfway mark! The Vile Village takes place now in village, and technically the new caretakers of the orphans are the entire village, even though only a skittish man named Hector is the only one really looking after them, as the rest of the village is more interested in making rules that don’t make sense while also making the children doing all their chores. Hector is probably one of the more boring guardians, but this is the first book starting to leave the familiar format of the past six books. It’s not as much rinse and repeat, as it is it’s own individual story. Also this was the first time mystery was a huge theme in the book. On top of the V.F.D mystery alongside the past mysteries, the Baudelaires have to uncover a murder, the location of their friends who are somewhere in down, an encoding of a series of poems, and the usual who’s Olaf’s and his accomplices. Olaf’s new personality is probably the most comedical one yet, even passing the one from the Ersatz Elevator. You’ll have to read the book to find out which accomplice is which person in the story, I actually didn’t know for along time because their disguise is such a stand alone character like all of the roles and disguise characters shown before. As far as the orphans go they’re as good as ever, like they are in each book. As always Snicket’s writing is as clever and oddly educational as it is entertaining as ever. It’s filled with all the random facts and breaking down of terms and words like before. The book brings up psychology, which Snicket has been using since day one, and even puts his pen name’s character into the book physically, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what that means. The Vile Village seems to have all the usual unique characters, settings, dialogue, and story arches as the past books and more, and from this point on the series really starts to get crazy. The end is surprising as it is fulfilling, and ultimately is satisfying for it’s own stand alone book. The book also is probably more ridiculous than ever before, as the Village of Fowl Devotees are probably more obnoxious and think skulled than a hundred Mr. Poes. But somehow say end up smiling at how irritating and stupid they are rather than annoy you and get on your nerves… most of the time anyway. Ultimately the seventh title of the series of unfortunate events is better than the six before it due to it’s excellence of keeping up the pace while also bringing more new characters, settings, and story arches that haven’t been seen yet. Things at this point seem really dangerous in the lives in the Baudelaires, and with the next title being called the "Hostile Hospital,” nobody knows just how unfortunate the lives of the Baudelaires will become.

The Vile Village gets a 4/5

Spoilers: Okay, I’m sick of rereading these books and seeing how stupid I was at not seeing the most obvious things. Of course Esme was the officer chick, it was so obvious now. Also I didn’t know how I couldn’t guess that the fountain was where the triplets were located. Were they in that fountain for four days straight? God damn Olaf is a sick guy. Anyway I also think Hector although a protagonist got on my nerves more than the actual council of elders. By now we can establish the good and bad guys, and I’m used to bad guys being jerks, but I hate seeing the good guys being "skittish,” "hate to argue,” or "optimistic.” Hector was actually still around after being stupid, and in the end he helped the Quagmires escape so I guess he makes up for it. Also the council had me laughing so many times. Just imagine a bunch of old people with big ass crow hats screaming and yelling at you with torches and you’ll know what they mean. And when Esme accidentally hit a crow they act like it’s the end of the world. And by now the Baudelaires are known as criminals "at large.” I know what happens, but I’m certainly excited to reread how they avoid the law while also avoiding Olaf and the others.