Reader Response #4

Reader Response # 4

Assad Chamas

           This reader response is about the ninth book of “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” entitled “The Carnivorous Carnival” a fiction text by Lemony Snicket.  

Introduction

        “The Carnivorous Carnival” once again features the three Baudelaire orphans as the main characters and protagonists. The book starts off exactly where its predecessor “The Hostile Hospital” ended, continuing the story without any gaps. In this entry of the series the Baudelaires find themselves at an old “dying” carnival named Caligari Carnival. On the run from everyone for crimes they didn’t commit, the Baudelaires find themselves in a very desperate situation. The Carnival is in the middle of nowhere, so the children try to deal with the situation. They disguise themselves as freaks and are given employment at the carnival. While at the carnival the children try to hide from Count Olaf, who is now believed to be dead which makes him free to do whatever he wants. Also while at the carnival the children try their best to learn the secret of V. F. D. which can finally bring Olaf to justice and let the Baudelaires learn much more about why all these terrible things are happening. This book delivers a slightly different message then the other entries in the series and that is, sometimes things go wrong and there is nothing we can do about it. While in the previous books usually the message was, if you have someone by your side and you are determined, you will always find some happiness. 

Retell

          Ever since the 7th book the Baudelaires’ lives have been going downhill. With all the mystery that surrounds them, they are becoming overwhelmed. This was a nice change in the series because unlike the other books there is no triumph for the Baudelaires but for the villains. The villains are getting closer to what they want and the Baudelaires are getting farther from what they want. This entry in the series does this equation better than any other book so far. The text is very dark, sad and really makes you feel the unpleasantness of the children’s situation. When you read the story it feels as if you are part of it and this really immerses you.

          The antagonists of the story are once again Count Olaf and his troupe; however they seem different then before. In this book we get to see how the villains plan their evil schemes and how they act among one another. This makes you hate the villains even more and it makes the conflict of the story more interesting by showing us how the villains plan to triumph. By knowing what the villains are doing we can connect to the children even more and realize how desperate their situation really is. The potential of adding this to the story is fully realized and it really makes an impact that the others books couldn’t offer.

          The conflict of this book is that, the Baudelaires are trying to uncover the mystery that shrouds their lives in darkness and at the same time they are trying to avoid Count Olaf and everyone else. This conflict is part of a bigger conflict going on; we start to realize that the Baudelaires’ troubles are shared by other people. This opens up the scope of the story as the children venture out into the world not knowing what will come their way. With a larger scope the story has gotten deeper and now the author is starting to put more mystery and suspense. The series is also becoming less repetitive, leaving us, the readers, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. 

Relate

          Even though this entry in the series tries to expand the series’ formula by adding more depth to the story arc and by developing the characters, but unfortunately it does something bad that most of the other books in series do. I find that in most series when you start getting deeper into the story things become hard to handle. There are a lot of questions that pop up and in most cases the author doesn’t want to reveal the answers until the end. Therefore a few books before the ending will carry the story further but won’t answer many of the questions. This is what this book does, it develops the characters and adds more mystery but in the end not many questions are answered. The author is obviously building up towards the grand finale of the series but this is done so much in many other series that it just gets frustrating. I would prefer that the questions are answered bit by bit and by the time we reach the finale we know most of the answers and we will be eager to see how everything raps up.

          I can compare “The Carnivorous Carnival” a lot to its predecessor “The Hostile Hospital”. Both of these books have almost the same story pattern however “The Hostile Hospital” is written much more effectively. Yes it also leaves you with more questions then answers, but the suspense level is so high that you are kept guessing how everything is going to turn out and along the way unexpected questions pop up. That book was perfect for staging mystery however in “The Carnivorous Carnival” no new questions pop up and none of the old ones are answered. What I don’t understand is that both books were written in almost the same style and are very similar in many ways but the 9^th couldn’t hold up to its excellent predecessor. This shocks me since both books are so similar. 

          In one part of the book there is a reporter for a newspaper at the carnival where a disaster occurs. Count Olaf tells the reporter that the Baudelaires are responsible for the disaster and the reporter believes him. This lets me relate to the media in the real world. In the real world a lot of people don’t really express the truth and false information gets out and people believe that is the truth. What the reporter does in the story is what sometimes happens in real life, have you ever stopped and wondered if what you are hearing is the 100% truth? 

Reflect 

        I liked the humor that the author put in. This made the book even more enjoyable to read and it shows that the author knows what a reader might like to see in a book. There was one part that I really liked which I won’t spoil here because it is a nice treat when you see it in the book. I really like it when an author has fun writing a book because it just makes the book that more interesting and fun to read. The author also puts himself as a character in the story, so he can tell the story and also be a part of it. The author’s unique writing style improves with every book and it is really nice to see that he is putting a lot of effort into writing the books so we can have more fun reading them.   

          Having a few mysteries revealed in this book would have really made it better. The book is well written, the suspense was well raised and the characters were developed more. The only thing that this text was missing was a few answered questions because that would have made reading the book more worthwhile and it would easily be one of the best books in the series. This was the only thing that kept this book down from a perfect score. In my opinion it was a bad move for the author not to answer anything in this entry and that was the only aspect of the book that I disliked.

          This text helped me to get a better look at what most series do when the story gets deep. Since this is my favorite book series of all time and I have read every single book so far, I realize now how a series progresses.  This book helped me to analyze the series and now I can make many inferences on how the series is going to go for now on since I have found that many series do the same thing. Then again this series is not quite like many other series which is one of the reasons I like it so much, so I wonder if my predictions about the series will be right but I will have to keep on reading to see if I’m right or wrong.

          Overall “The Carnivorous Carnival” is not a bad book but it could have been better. I recommend reading this entry in the series because the events that occur trigger new plot points, plus the book still has the excitement and humor the series is known for along with a few extra touches. 3.5 out of 4. 

         

Reader Response #3 

Assad Chamas  

          For this reader response I will be responding to A series Of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket. This is the sixth book in Lemony Snicket’s popular series. The text is fiction just like the rest of the series. 

          The main characters and protagonists are Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire; They are the main characters of the entire series. Violet is the eldest child at age fourteen and she likes to invent things. Klaus is the middle child at age twelve and he likes to read and research. Sunny is the youngest child who is still just an infant and she likes to bite things. The genre of this text is realistic fiction mixed with mystery and suspense, just like the other books in the series. The setting this time is an enormous Apartment building. The name of the building is never given it is just referred to by its address 667 Dark Avenue.  The Baudelaire children have been sent there to live with their new guardians after the tragic events at Prufrock Preparatory School in the previous book. The children’s new home happens to be a few blocks away from where their Mansion used to be before it burned down. The new guardians are Jerome and Esme Squalor who own a huge and fancy penthouse apartment on the top floor of the building. The antagonist is once again Count Olaf and his associates who are still after the Children’s fortune. The conflict is that the Baudelaires are once again trying to lead their lives without the interference of Count Olaf. The children are also worried about their friends who unfortunately fell into Olaf’s clutches while they were back at Prufrock Prep. They are wondering if they will ever see them again. The theme of this story is family and survival because the text is showing how the children work together to get out of life threatening situations. The climax of the story is when the Baudelaires discover Count Olaf’s secret passageway. Foreshadowing is used plenty of times in this book such as the doorman always giving the three children a curious smile every time they talk to him.   

RETELL 

          What stood out from this text is suspense and mystery that the author gives us. This is one of those books that leaves you with more questions than answers but that won’t bother you because of the relentless pace the author offers us with all the twists and turns. Some major events are foreshadowed but they occur in different ways then you would imagine. This is especially true in the ending of the book which in my opinion is the best ending in the series so far. My favorite part of this text was when Sunny (the baby) used her skills of biting to get her older siblings out of Count Olaf’s trap in the secret passageway. This was my favorite part because it was something I totally did not expect, This was the first time Sunny did something that actually stood out in the series. Sunny did performed heroic deeds earlier in the series but nothing like what she does in this book; she really surprised me at how heroic her efforts were.  The character I disliked the most was Mr. Poe (the banker in charge of the Baudelaire affairs) because he was completely useless and stubborn. When the children tried to expose Count Olaf’s identity to him he wouldn’t believe them just like every other time they tried. Every time he wouldn’t believe the children that Count Olaf is in disguise under another identity. Even though every time he sees that the children were right, he still for the 5’th time won’t believe them. 

Relate

          As compared to the other books in the series I think this book is the most emotional. I say this because of all the family and friend relationships that are present in this text. The way the Baudelaires worry about their friend’s safety and risk their lives to try and help them really gets to you. You feel like there is a strong bond between these people for them to actually do the things they do. It’s not just the care they show to their friends that gets to you but also the care that the siblings have toward each other. The children never blame each other on their faults but encourage each other instead.  The part of the story when the children are climbing down into the deep darkness of the elevator shaft reminded me of when the children approached Count Olaf on the school field at night in the fifth book of the series. Just like the climb down the elevator shaft the children on the school field didn’t know what would happen at the end when they reached their destination. Also both scenes took place in a dark area which added to the mood of the situation. In other words, these two scenes just feel really close to each other in terms of suspense and set up. If I could talk to one of the text’s characters I would talk to Jerome and ask him why he wasn’t brave enough to argue with anybody even when it seemed necessary to. Jerome always wanted the best for the three children but when his wife says otherwise he just brakes down and says he doesn’t want to argue. There must be some reason why he acts like that and I want to know that reason.

Reflect  

          I think this text was an effective piece of writing because not only it has a lot of great mystery and suspense but also it has emotional parts to it that can get to you. Plus on top of that the pacing is very well done so the book never gets boring and the author’s writing style never gets old. The author has a style that is completely unique to him; I’ve never read anything that blends suspense, humor and intense moments as well as this series does. This text makes me want to just keep on reading further in the series, after the 4’th and 5’th books I thought the series was starting to go down hill but this book proved me wrong. It took the now getting repetitive formula and added more to it and improved in a way that I can’t wait to see what happens. It’s not my favorite book in the series but it is definitely one of the top 3 best in the series so far. It has given me many questions that I want to see answered later on. When I read this text I felt as if the characters were real. Even though some of the feats they accomplish are a bit unbelievable, the characters themselves feel human with real human emotions. In addition to that all characters were interesting even the villains because they have unique characteristics that characters in other stories don’t have. Basically what I’m trying to say is that these characters are original and they feel like real people.

          All in all The Ersatz Elevator is one of the best entries in the series and it improves the series’ formula which was starting to get repetitive. If you like mystery and suspense books you will love The Ersatz Elevator. 3.8 out of 4.