I think this one has my most favorite opening, definitely so far anyway. I feel like he’s getting better at breaking the 4th wall too. Now we add formal placement in adoption to placement in employment and placement in a school for our official organizations of caregiving. They have frequently lived in squalor, now they’re living with Squalors lol
Pinstripe jeans were so “in” when I was a teen lol It’s an interesting concept to take on for this audience since they are right on the cusp of entering young adulthood where popularity becomes so critically important. And having the right clothes, the right hair, body shape, teeth, skin etc. are soooo anxiety producing for so many of them who are deemed “wrong”
I like that in addition to avoiding Olaf’s schemes, we are starting to get more hints into the Baudelaire parents and their past along with the meaning of VFD. I think it’s good for kids to think about their parents’ lives before they became parents. It makes them more relatable as people who once had childhoods too.
Does Esmé always interrupt Jerome when he’s about to share a memory? And I love that her initials spell out E.G.G.S. Also the assumption that Olaf would be afraid to come to a fancy neighborhood is classist while Jerome is chastising the Baudelaires about xenophobia
I liked the setting this time, this hilariously oversized penthouse, and the mysterious elevator. And I think having Esmé as another villain is a great addition - her suspected connection to the Baudelaires; and also someone on Olafs team who has more of a memorable character. The "red herring" thing at the auction went completely over my head.
And I am wondering more and more where all the money those people have comes from. Okay, Esmé seems to have a job that pays well, Olaf does crime (and seemingly can afford to own a big house with a tower). But what did the Baudelaire parents do for a living? Or the Quagmire parents? Things my adult brain asks itself.
I enjoyed it and it's in top3 so far. The mix of action, thinking and being sad for the orphans. I am glad new things got introduced. In the previous book we got friends (that we are still rescuing) and here Olaf "getting smarter" (except slipping on a doily). I like that we have something that goes from book to book if that makes sense. Like those are its own closed stories but we have some background plot - like here the Quagmires - that reappears and goes for longer than just one book. I think that's something that makes it more enjoyable for me, a bit deeper in a sense? And we got some hints and interesting things to think about like the hidden passage to the old house.