The Official Review Thread Returns

[Dante]

It's the triumphant return of the Official Review Thread, ready and raring to go for all those reviews for ?2, The Second Question, "When Did You See Her Last?". They should start popping up over the next few days, so it's worth keeping an eye out - at least, once you've read the book, as you can never tell just what they might reveal... For this reason, and not less importantly, to make the thread more readable, all reviews should be posted in spoiler tags.

[spoiler]Normally you wouldn't be able to read this.[/spoiler]

All posted reviews will be indexed here.

REVIEWS

RagingBiblioholism.com (SPOILERS)
667 Dark Avenue
Kirkus Reviews (see below)
Booklist (see below)
The Guardian (see below)
tor.com

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Kirkus Reviews

SPOILER: Click to show

Questions answered, question posed (the wrong one again). Mysteries solved, mystery deepens….

Nearly 13-year-old Lemony Snicket chased the missing statue of the Bombinating Beast under the inept, ignorant and annoying supervision of his mentor S. Theodora Merkson (“Who Could That Be at This Hour?”, 2012). That case didn’t turn out too well. They now have a new case, and Theodora looks to be pursuing this as ineptly as she did before. The duo is searching for Miss Cleo Knight, daughter of the heirs of Ink Inc. Her unconcerned parents appear to have been drugged by their private apothecary, Dr. Flammarion, but housekeepers Zara and Zora are deeply worried. Cleo’s a brilliant chemist, but shallow investigation points to her having run off to join the circus. Young Mr. Snicket knows most things are not as they seem at first, and while his mentor celebrates solving the case, he investigates further, with the help of associates from his last adventure, and discovers connections to their last case…and the case his sister Kit is working on. Snicket’s second of four All the Wrong Questions is more sly noir for preteens. Chock-full of linguistic play and literary allusions to children’s and classic literature, this is adventure mystery for young readers who like to think as they read.

Little is answered definitively, but fans won’t mind; they’ll just be pleased there are two more young Snicket adventures to come. (Mystery. 8-14)

Booklist

SPOILER: Click to show

In book 2 of the All the Wrong Questions series, we find young Lemony still in Stain’d-by-the-Sea, still in the company of mentor S. Theodora Markson, but with a new mystery to solve: Where is Miss Cleo Knight? And what is the secret project on which she has been working? But as Snicket’s pal, reporter Moxie Mallahan, knows, those aren’t the right questions, at least as far as the big picture is concerned. These are: “What is this job exactly? Where did you come from? How long will you stay? When will you leave? Why are you investigating things in this town?” Though the Cleo case gets closed, the larger issues remain, becoming curiouser and curiouser. While we wait for answers, Snicket introduces a sometimes charming, more often alarming cast of characters: the bickering husband-and-wife police force (and their smirking son, Stew); Pip and Squeak, the taxi-driving Bellerophon brothers; the mysterious (and cute) Ellington Feint; and the mysterious (and sinister) Hangfire—all of whom keep the pages turning. The droll young Snicket makes a perfect presenter as he careens from difficulty to difficulty, yet always with his eye on the ball. Or is it?

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The major marketing campaign continues, including a national author tour. There’s no stopping Snicket! — Ilene Cooper

The Guardian

SPOILER: Click to show

When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket - review
'What I like about the book, and many of Lemony Snicket's other books, is that it's intelligent'

helloitsheath
theguardian.com, Friday 11 October 2013 12.00 BST

When Did You See Her Last? is the captivating second book in Lemony Snicket's newest series, All The Wrong Questions. Following on from the first book Who Could That Be At This Hour? the book follows a young Snicket in the town of Stain'd by the Sea. With a missing persons case to solve and no help from his inept tutor S. Theodora Markson, Snicket and his young friends band together to find Cleo Knight and stop the nefarious Hangfire from carrying out his unknown plans.

What I like about the book, and many of Lemony Snicket's other books, is that it's intelligent. Yes, it's aimed at children but there are so many subtle references to other writers and poets and artists that every time you read the books there is something new to find and people of any age can enjoy them. The tone of the new series is also a lot less somber than Snicket's previous books which makes the book far more engaging for the audience, especially younger readers.

Told from Snicket's point of view, the book also has a lot more depth to it as you can see the world through the narrator's eyes and there was a lot less guesswork about what the characters were doing. They still held the element of confusion and mystery that is expected with Snicket's writing but the first person viewpoint meant that it also has a very personal outlook on the plot. I enjoyed this because it made the book feel a lot more personal in comparison to A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Something I didn't like about the book was the lack of explanation surrounding the back-story. Snicket mentions his sister throughout the book which I liked because it gave him a past but there was no real mention of how they came to be in the situations they were in. Obviously it's a series and more will be revealed as the books continue but I thought that maybe something about the last time they had seen each other, or a bit more depth about their relationship would have shown another side of the characters for me. While there were things I didn't like about the book, the characters were engaging and there was, for most of them, a back story and side plots that gave them depth and crea elements that makes you care about them. And I think that's important in books.

All in all, I would recommend When Did You See Her Last? primarily to readers between 10 and 14 but I would also say that readers older than that can still get enjoyment from it because of the subtle references to other books and writers that are scattered through all of Snicket's books. I would also recommend the first in the series to readers so that this one makes sense.
The rating I'd give When Did You See Her Last? is 4/5.

[Hermes]

tor.com review

tor.com

SPOILER: Click to show

There’s a very real chance that the Lemony Snicket books are too smart for their own good. If you can detect every single literary allusion contained in any of Snicket’s book, but specifically in When Did You See Her Last? then I want to meet you! Smarts and friendship are still the real currency of the Snicket universe and the latest in the new series both continues the mysteries and adventures laid out by the previous volume, while still managing to be its own stand-alone romp.

Light Spoilers ahead.

When I ask adults whether they’ve read any Lemony Snicket, the answer tends to be, “I read the first one, I think,” which mystifies me. If you read the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and you’re not sure if you read the other ones, I feel like you missed something. It’s weird, and I end up sounding like some sort of broken record here (hopefully being played on Ellington Feint’s portable record player!) but why isn’t there more hysteria associated with the release of a new Snicket book? Loving these books as much as I do sometimes makes me feel like I’m in a secret society not dissimilar from the books’ VFD or Inhumane Society.

Chronicling the adventures of the 13-year-old Lemony, the character at one point contemplates his general lot in life by likening himself to a puzzle piece which he has to set aside for a moment in order to figure out where he fits in. I feel like the location where Daniel Handler stands in the contemporary literary landscape is similar. His writing is starting to define a larger puzzle which will comprise the 21st century lit canon, but we’re just not sure how he fits in, yet. Whereas a lot of novels for children are derivative of other children’s lit, while maintaining originality, Lemony Snicket books are original from the get-go and then derivative or homage-ridden seemingly, for fun. By the way, “derivative” is a word here meaning “people notice it might be like other books they also think are great.”

So, what’s going on in When Did You See Her Last? Well, if you read Who Could that Be at this Hour?, the previous volume in All The Wrong Questions, you’d know Lemony Snicket was hanging out in a town called Stain’d-By-The-Sea where he is trying to solve several mysteries at once. The nearest to his heart is clearly the elusiveness of the villain Hangfire, who is holding Ellington Feint’s father hostage for nefarious purposes. Handler renders Lemony’s crush on Ellington Feint in a way both touching and not at all corny. His affection for Ellington isn’t the driving force behind everything he does, but it does cause Snicket to make major decisions which may or may not betray his whole purpose in Stain’d-By-The-Sea. In one scene, Lemony grapples with the decision to keep this appointment with Ellington, despite her tendency for deceit and betrayal.

You don’t have to meet her. She’s a liar and a thief. She’s desperate. She’s trouble. She stole from you. Nobody knows what you promised. You could keep it to yourself. But you can tell yourself anything. A wildcat is just one of the wonders of nature, and it’s not going to give you nightmares.

Many analogies in the Lemony Snicket books might seem apropos of nothing, and yet it’s in these slightly manic assertions that Handler manages to keep readers on their toes. A constant inversion or challenging of children’s book clichés is one of the author’s favorite tricks, one which he sports in this latest book more than once. The Snicket universe likes to have it both ways with playful fantasies.

In these books you can both inhabit familiar clichés (bandaged villains in disguise, indestructible vehicles) and subvert others by mocking childish phrases.

In my favorite scene towards the end of the book, Lemony Snicket and Jake Hix are desperately trying to pry open a hatch which doesn’t seem to be budging.

“Hangfire did it,” I said. “We need to open this hatch, Jake. We need to open it now.”

“My aunt always says that if you put your mind to it, you can do absolutely anything,” Jake said. “Is that true?”

“No,” I said. “It’s nonsense. But we can open this hatch..”

Some might say the tone of Snicket novels is “sardonic” or “bittersweet,” but I think “counterintuitive optimism” is closer to the truth; a phrase here meaning “your assumptions about life, positivity and everything will be totally mixed up by reading awesome Lemony Snicket books.”

The stakes in these books are always deceptively low (missing statues, formulas for invisible ink) but the emotional stakes are secretly finding their way into the canals of the reader’s brain, just like the ink spreading out from a frightened octopus. This diffusing cloud of emotions created by a reading a Lemony Snicket book is different from said cloud of octopus ink in two ways: 1. It’s not a real cloud. 2. It makes you feel good. If you’ve never read a Lemony Snicket book, there’s no reason to feel like you need to “catch up.” Just read this one. We all know what “catching up” really means: “I’m too intimidated by this awesome thing to even begin tackling it.”

Don’t be a frightened octopus! Dive in!

By the way, do people think the Guardian reviewer has slightly Missed the Point?

[Dante]

I have a sneaking suspicion that that reviewer may have been a child. Great review from tor.com, though.

[Skelly Craig]

Really, though, this strange high-school-level of writing (from repetition "but the first person viewpoint meant that it also has a very personal outlook on the plot. I enjoyed this because it made the book feel a lot more personal" or the part "And I think that's important in books.") isn't something I would've expected from The Guardian.

[Dante]

I suspect that what they do sometimes is give their advance copies of books to people from the relevant age group to read and review. Which is arguably the better set of people to ask to review books, but causes the result to have a certain lack of professionalism, especially if it's not declared (save by the author's name being listed as "helloitsheath" rather than an actual name).