Title: The Austere Academy [A Series of Unfortunate Events 5]
Author: Lemony Snicket
]Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Length: 230
Rating: 4.5 Star rounded down
Series Review: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Description/Synopsis:
Dear Reader,
If you are looking for a story about cheerful youngsters spending a jolly time at boarding school, look elsewhere. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent and resourceful children, and you might expect that they would do very well at school. Don’t. For the Baudelaires, school turns out to be another miserable episode in their unlucky lives.
Truth be told, within the chapters that make up this dreadful story, the children will face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, comprehensive exams, violin recitals, S.O.R.E., and the metric system.
It is my solemn duty to stay up all night researching and writing the history of these three hapless youngsters, but you may be more comfortable getting a good night’s sleep. In that case, you should probably choose some other book.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I was a little worried after the last one that this one was going to go downhill from there even more but I was pleasantly surprised.
I think what made this book the most for me is the fact we are introduced to other kids, the two remaining Quagmire triplets Duncan and Isadora whose family also died in a fire. Loved these new kids, really liked seeing the orphans interact with people their own age let alone people they can relate to. Introducing these kids though makes me think that the author is trying to put across the message kids are smart, adults are stupid.
The writing style is still just as funny and annoying at the same time as all the books before it. There were a few quotes I really like:
There is no worse sound in the world than someone who cannot play the violin but insists on doing so anyway.
God yes. Its so so so painful. And the other is:
As I’m sure you know, a good night’s sleep helps you perform well in school, and so if you are a student, you should always get a good night’s sleep unless you have come to the good part of your book, and then you should stay up all night and let your schoolwork fall by the wayside, a phrase which means ‘flunk.’
Again. I agree. Though I haven’t flunked because of it a good book has done this to many times and I am sure it has done it to you as well!
Plot wise this book is very much the same as all the other ones so I really don’t know what else I can say in this review. With the children both being in similar situations we are finally getting an idea of a much bigger plot that will hopefully start taking over the story. The ending really got to me and a big mystery is opened up and I read on to find out what the answers were. If it wasn’t for this opening of larger plot I think I would have dropped the series because its not so much fun to read the same story with slightly different details over again and again.
Till Next Time…
