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Jul 23, 2018jandt_mcmurray rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
It's here. The end of a very long series of unfortunate events in the lives of the poor Baudelaire orphans. Or is it the end? Violet, Klaus, & Sunny along with Count Olaf find themselves stranded on a deserted island. They first meet Friday who gives them a brief rundown of how things are run in this community. The children are taken to meet the chief, but Olaf, due to his bad manners, is left alone on the seashore. Eventually Count Olaf does make the acquaintance of the chief & villagers only to bring the entire tribe to destruction. He is holding the diving helmet full of the deadly spores when the helmet is broken, infecting the entire island. The very resourceful Baudelaires discover the only remedy on the island, a special cross-breed of apples planted there by none other than their very own parents! The children eat the apples & are instantly healed of the poison. The selfish chief dooms his followers by not allowing them to eat the apples. He instead convinces them that the only way to save their lives is to journey away from the island in search of a remedy, but only after eating some of the apples for himself. We do not get an update on the fates of the villagers, but we can assume that they all die in the boats. The very pregnant Kit Snicket has also been infected, but she chooses not to eat the apple in order to protect her unborn baby. Count Olaf, also dying from the poison, in his final moments, helps the children deliver Kit to safety on the beach. In a matter of moments, both Count Olaf & Kit die leaving the orphans with a new orphan, the baby of Kit Snicket, a girl which they name Beatrice after their mother per Kit's instructions. After some time of the 4 orphans living on the island, it is decided that they are ready to set sail back to home. It is never confirmed whether or not they safely arrive at their destination. It is, however, where the series ends. It took me a couple of minutes of reflection after the conclusion of the book to determine whether I liked it. Ambiguous endings don't bother me, but in this case, I really did want confirmation that these poor children finally get the happy ending that they deserve. Of the 2 theories of what happened to them, I choose to believe the one that says they make it safely to their destination, continue to raise Beatrice, & pick up their parents work with VFD. It seems to me that this kind of an ending is only fitting for the tone of the series. Age recommendation: 10 & up (death by poison) On a scale of 1-10 stars, I give it 9.