"The Baudelaire orphans, at the time this story begins, were certainly wishing that they weren't reading the newspaper that was in front of their eyes."
The saga of the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans continues. Oh these children make me so sad indeed. I think their adventure in the 'Vile Village' was the saddest one yet. However, in this book we get a hint of a bigger story and I am very curious on how the story will continue!
It takes a village to raise a child, goes the saying in the village in question, so the children are placed on yet another guardian. This time Mr. Poe puts them in the care of the residents in a village called: V.F.D. Now, for someone who has read the series so far, these are no random initials. They contain a secret, but the orphans don't know any details yet, because the Quagmire triplets (who were the ones to discover the truth about it) were snatched before they could confine in them. In this story we learn that V.F.D stands for 'Village of Fowl Devotees', where crows are sacred. This small village has a Council of Elders, who all wear crow hats and have established a set of rules, like Rule #19.833 (!) that clearly states that no villains where allowed within the city limits. There were so many ridiculous rules; some contradicted themselves and some that made no sense, but they were so fun to read!
The children are taken in by the village's handyman, Hector, who is so far my favorite guardian (even before uncle Monty). Hector is kind and sweet and cares a lot about the orphans. He even has a secret inventing studio and a secret library for Violet and Klaus. You might think once again that the children after so many bad experiences they have found the perfect guardian for them. But, you will be once again mistaken. The V.F.D's Council of Elders make Hector very skittish. And this is a really bad quality, because even though Hector listens and believes the Baudelaire orphans, he won't speak up for them. He reminded me of Jerome (in the previous book) that wasn't a strong personality too.
The orphans soon discover that they are not alone in the village: you guessed right! Our favorite villain is once again here! Count Olaf is disguised one more time, as one detective Dupin. You got to admire his persistence: his disguises are so diverse. So far, he has been a reptile expert, a boat owner, a female(!) receptionist, a gym coach, a foreign auctioneer and now a detective! Oh Olaf, just give up! I hope the series have a nice ending. Anyway, Olaf was really funny being a detective using the word 'cool' all the time.
The Baudelaires are such clever children that they manage to overturn his plans, but not in the way you might expect. After this one, the story will change the familiar formula it had so far: children go to incompetent guardian, Olaf shows up, children figure out his evil plan aaand repeat! I think this is a nice thing as it became a bit predictable. But the stories do become better - better here means: rather unfortunate for the Baudelaires,but more complex (hehe I am imitating Snicket's narration).
Off to read the Hostile Hospital!!
A man named Jacques Snicket appears in this book and he is captured by officer Luciana(guess who she is!), as he is mistaken for count Olaf. He then mysteriously dies in his cell and the children are accused of his murder. I liked the introduction of this mysterious Jacques, as he shares the same last name of the story's narrator and I'm guessing this is no coincidence.
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