A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Seventh

Cresting the halfway point in the series, the Baudelaire orphans have finally reached a point where “guardians” as they’ve known them are almost a thing of the past. Because it seems that everywhere the children go, their guardians turn up either villainous or dead, Mr. Poe finally arranges for the orphans to be raised not by a single guardian (as per their deceased parents’ wishes) but rather by an entire village of them. After all: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Up to this point, the settings for these books have been building-focused, with not much description of the outdoor area surrounding them (Briny Beach and Lake Lachrymose being exceptions). Whether it was Count Olaf’s dingy residence in A Bad Beginning, Uncle Monty’s mansion and laboratory in The Reptile Room, Aunt Josephine’s house atop the cliff in The Wide Window, the workhouses or eye-doctor’s office in The Miserable Mill, the shack and headstone-shaped buildings in The Austere Academy, or the penthouse in The Ersatz Elevator, these stories have been set predominantly in buildings with little exploration outside. The Vile Village changes all of that.

In this story, the children enter for the first time The Hinterlands, a vast and desolate place which here looks like a desert but also eventually includes mountains and a few odd attractions. The village to which they’re headed is V.F.D., important initials which inspire in the children a hope that they’ve come closer to the mystery of their parents’ past, but which ends up being only a sad coincidence. The Village of Fowl Devotees has nothing more to offer them than a love for crows, ten-thousand rules, an opportunity for the kids to become slaves, and a place for Count Olaf and his troupe to hide their kidnapped cargo.

The two Quagmire triplets (kidnapped in Austere Academy and lost again in The Ersatz Elevator) find a way to secret messages to the Baudelaires in the form of couplets. While the children slave away alongside Hector, the fearful yet rebellious groundskeeper of the village, they search for the missing children and try to keep out of Olaf and Esme’s clutches. When Jacques Snicket shows up in town and is mistaken for Olaf (or was it Omar?), things get vile real fast.

Lemony Snicket’s story-telling ability heightens in this book, I felt. It’s hard to say whether he had already outlined the books before writing the full series—i.e. if he knew the end from the beginning—but he clearly maintains a strong symmetry between them all, a familiarity that makes one look forward to what’s coming next. The unique locations, the endless libraries, the constant definitions, and the playful idioms (often taken quite literally) make for stories that are just fun to read, even for me as a parent.

©2021 E.T.

Read More in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket:

1. A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (1999)
2. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket (1999)
3. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (2000)
4. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (2000)
5. The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket (2000)
6. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket (2001)
7. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket (2001)
8. The Hostile Hotel by Lemony Snicket (2001)
9. The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket (2002)
10. The Slipper Slope by Lemony Snicket (2003)
11. The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket (2004)
12. The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket (2005)
13. The End by Lemony Snicket (2006)