le book review number seventy-two~ the end

title: The End
author: Lemony Snicket
series: a series of unfortunate events #13
personal star rating: 4/5 stars

from the back cover:

Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of THE END. The end of THE END is the best place to begin THE END, because if you read THE END from the beginning of the beginning of THE END to the end of the end of THE END, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so THE END does not finish you.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

first sentence:
"If you have ever peeled an onion, then you know that the first thin, papery layer reveals another thin, papery layer, and that layer reveals another, and another, and before you know it you have hundreds of layers all over the kitchen table and thousands of tears in your eyes, sorry that you ever started peeling in the first place and wishing that  you had left the onion alone to wither away on the shelf of the pantry while you went on with your life, even if that meant never again enjoying the complicated and overwhelming taste of this strange and bitter vegetable."

review:
The End. Where do I begin with The End? This book was the final book in the series so I was a bit hesitant to dive right in. My reluctance stemmed from my fear of disappointment in this final book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Fortunately, not extremely so. I was left slightly confused and I felt like it couldn't really be the end because there were so many unanswered questions. I suppose I felt that the end wasn't exactly finished in a "clean cut" sort of way. I do think the series was worth it overall and I do think that the books were interesting and unique enough for the purpose of enjoyment, but the "denouement" was not as final or complete as I would have really liked. Perhaps I missed something integral along the way, some obscure fact hidden in the earlier books that I would have to read the series again to understand. That will have to be determined at a later point because right now, I'm simply happy I read the series but I'm almost apathetic with the way it ended. It could have been better, it could have been worse.