Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth
Like bad smells, uninvited weekend guests or very old eggs, there are a good deal of things that ought to be avoided.
Snicket’s saga in regards to the charming, intelligent, and grossly unlucky Baudelaire orphans proceeds to alarm it is distressed and distrustful fans the world over. The 10th book in this outrageous publishing crusade features more than the general dose of distressing details, such as snow gnats, an organised troupe of youngsters, an evil villain with a dastardly plan, a mystery headquarters and numerous dangerous jokes you must not try at home. With the weather turning colder, this is one chilling book you would be better off without.
Ages 10+
- Amazon Sales Rank: #23332 in Books
- Published on: 2003-09-23
- Released on: 2003-09-23
- Format: Deluxe Edition
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.21″ h x 5.26″ w x 7.88″ l, .91 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
| ReviewWhat would you do if you found yourself trapped in a runaway caravan hurtling down a precipitous mountain slope? Fourteen-year-old Violet, the oldest orphan of the three Baudelaires, decides to undertake to slow the velocity of the caravan with a drag-chute invention involving a viscous combining of blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, maraschino liqueur, peanut butter, etc. If plummeting to their death weren’t scary enough, Violet and her brother Klaus have been divided from Sunny, their baby sister who is in a car headed in the opposite direction up the mountain with the “facinorous” Count Olaf, his “villainous and stylish” girlfriend Esmé Squalor, and their creepy sidekicks. Do Violet and Klaus find Sunny on the mountain? How will they survive the treacherous, snow-covered peaks with not much more than a ukulele and a bread knife, specially in the face of the “organized, ill-tempered” snow gnats? Will they at long last unearth the mystery of the V.F.D.? Will they find out if one of their parents is alive after all? The suspense! As ever, the Baudelaires’ unfolding tale of woe is sprinkled with Lemony Snicket’s ridiculous, hilarious observations such as “Fate is like a strange, nonpopular restaurant with odd waiters who fetch you things you never asked for and don’t always like.” The tenth book in The Series of Unfortunate Events takes readers through the Mortmain Mountains to the churning waters of the Stricken Stream with all the coexistent horror and absurdness a Snicket fan could hope for along the way. (Ages 9 and older) –Karin Snelson
From BooklistGr. 3-5. It’s clear allround that Snicket hasn’t lost his sense of the ludicrous or his momentum in this “Book the Tenth.” As in former episodes, the adventures of the Baudelaire sibs spun out with the zest and cliff-hanger dramatics of old-fashioned serials. Left hurtling down a mountain at the close of The Carnivorous Carnival (2002), Klaus and Violet concentrate here on saving themselves; rescuing baby Sunny, who is once more in the clutches of the evil Count Olaf; and continuing their crusade to put a stop to Olaf’s evil doings once and for all. Of course, they have their work cut out for them, but with a surprising ally, they stumble through the ordinary assortment of clues and mystery messages that genuinely seem to get them one step closer to their extreme goal. Characters are true to form, absurd and fun, and, once again, the wry telling is pitch-perfect, with a great deal of the joyful wordplay and the quirky imaginative touches Snicket’s legions of fans expect. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
ReviewPraise for A Series of Unfortunate Events:”Wicked Good Fun.” — Kirkus Reviews”Vivid. Designed to alight on the best-seller lists.” — The New York Times Book Review”Hilarious. Luckily for fans, the woes of the Baudelaires are far from over.” — Publishers Weekly
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Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth Picture
Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth Picture
Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth Picture
Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth Image
Unfortunate Events Slippery Slope Book Tenth Pic
37 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
 Lemony Snicket strikes again!
By A
Though this book was very anticipated, it doesn’t meet certain expectations and in my opinion, not really the best of the series.
I think Violet’s inventions in this book weren’t very fascinating as in the other books… or Klaus’ researchings… and I didn’t like the fact that Sunny and the elder Baudelaires were separated so much of the time. Definitely not one of the best…
But still, it is Lemony Snicket.
I read this book in a hour and my head was spinning after it. First someone the orphans hoped never to see again returns (No, it’s not Count Olaf, though of course, he’s still there.) Then a surprisng survivor of the fire… very shocking indeed. Additionally, 2 new VERY mysterious characters… and “the last safe place.”
SO MUCH of V.F.D’s secrets are revealed in this book, but not all of them.
If you haven’t read the earlier books of the series, you really want to read THOSE first before this one. If you HAVE read the other books of the series, BUY THIS BOOK NOW! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Okay, I’m ready for Book the Eleventh now. The mystery of V.F.D. is killing me.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
 Another brilliant Snicket installment!
By A
This book is amazing! Not only does it have the usual dose of the incomprable Snicket’s wit, but quite possibly the best-crafted and most exciting plot so far in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Its infinate twists and turns are sure to give immense delight to anyone, as they did to me, and leave the reader anxious to find out what happens next. There’s a shock near the middle of the book that is absolutely mind-blowing–unexpected yet logical. And it shines further light into VFD, and FINALLY, we’re getting a clearer picture of what the thing is, what it does, and what has happened to it. Also, where I felt the other books were short and over far too quickly, this one (though it still has the same ridiculously large font) actually seems novel length and gives justice to the story. I can’t recommend this book enough! Read the others first, don’t take the “unfortunate” aspect too seriously, and enjoy this one as I did!
With all due respect,
A Lemony Snicket fan
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Buy this book, however much its possession may imperil you
By Debra Hamel
The Slippery Slope is the latest installment–the tenth thirteen-chaptered book in a series that will eventually comprise thirteen books–in Lemony Snicket’s *Series of Unfortunate Events.* The books are the product of Snicket’s tireless research into the wretched lives of the three Baudelaire orphans, fourteen-year-old Violet, an inventor, her well-read brother Klaus, and their preternaturally accomplished baby sister Sunny. The siblings are orphaned in the first book in the series: as they are later informed by the apparently well-meaning but ineffectual Mr. Poe, the executor of their parents’ considerable estate, a terrible fire consumes the children’s home one day while they are off at the beach. The circumstances of the fire are, one must conclude, highly suspicious.
Mr. Poe’s efforts to place the siblings with a guardian land them first in the squalid home of a distant relative, a uni-browed actor by the name of Count Olaf, who begins scheming at once to make off with the Baudelaire fortune. Olaf’s villainous activity continues throughout the series and very often involves his employment of outlandish disguises which no one but the Baudelaires is capable of seeing through. (“Some people called this man wicked. Some called him facinorous, which is a fancy word for ‘wicked.’ But everyone called him Count Olaf, unless he was wearing one of his ridiculous disguises and making people call him a false name.”) As Olaf’s girlfriend puts it in The Slippery Slope, “money and personal satisfaction” make Olaf’s relentless efforts to seize the Baudelaires’ fortune worth the trouble: “Once we have our hands on the Baudelaire fortune, we’ll have enough money to live a life of luxury and plan several more treacherous schemes!”
Olaf’s villainy is a constant throughout the series, and so is the author’s linguistic playfulness–his clever aphorisms (“Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck”) ; his amusing verbal tics (“a phrase which here means…”). There are also hints throughout the series about the enigmatic, rarely photographed Snicket’s curious life. References to his “pulling aside a bearskin rug in order to access a hidden trapdoor in the floor”, for example, or to spending months on a mountain with “only a lantern and a rhyming dictionary for company” slip into the narrative. Snicket is evidently on the run–from whom it is not clear–and so he wisely employs as his legal, literary, and social representative a certain Daniel Handler, who is himself, as coincidence would have it, the author of novels for adults.
I should confess that I am half in love with Mr. Snicket, and I would pledge myself to him eternally were it not for a previous commitment of my own and Lemony’s apparent devotion to the deceased Beatrice, to whom he dedicates each of his books (for example, “To Beatrice–darling, dearest, dead”). But I *can* pledge myself to the task of promoting his research into the Baudelaires’ lives, and urge you to buy Snicket’s books, however filled with horrors they may be, and however much your possession of them may imperil you.
Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan’s Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
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