Revolting Reading: TPP

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 8

We learn that Denouement is the name of the family who owns the hotel. The "surviving members of the family" who have changed their names and are now working at smaller inns could be Frank or Ernest (or both) but I also wonder if other Denouements are employed at Hotel D at the time of this story.

"...but the end of their story still waited for them, like...a distant island in the midst of a troubled sea..." A little bit of foreshadowing for The End.

Continuing the mirror motif, Dewey's "You must have a thousand questions, Baudelaires" mirrors what Kit said to them at the beginning of the book.

It's interesting that Dewey's family organized their library according to the Dewey Decimal System. Can't say I've ever met anyone who organized their home library that way.

So Dewey and Kit went to retrieve Josephine's files from Lake Lachrymose to copy them down. Interestingly we learn in TGG that Captain Widdershins and Fiona were there as well, and in the TRR editor letter Lemony is on the shores examining the remains of her house.

I wonder what they were searching for at the childhood home of the man with a beard but no hair.

Dewey must be one of the most knowledgeable and informed volunteers, as far as VFD secrets go.

I like Sunny's backwards-mirrored 'Aha!'

I can totally picture the Baudelaires living and working at the catalog under Dewey's supervision, so it's quite sad that it never came to fruition.

It's cool they recruited Hal, since his experience with the Library of Records would make him a useful aid in VFD's research.

Justice Strauss calling Mr. Poe an idiotic banker is simply wonderful.

Jerome's description of 'Odious Lusting After Finance' sounds like a condensed version of ASOUE. It would be interesting if Lemony consulted his book in order to fill in any gaps of his own research.

Lemony welcoming any potential baby readers and congratulating them on learning to read so young still kills me all these years later.

Interesting that Olaf is actually wearing socks for once (although the hole isn't helping with the tattoo situation)

[Glittery666]

Chapter 7
I want that frog lamp.
How did that family manage to stay hidden among the fishtanks? I’d think they’d be more noticeable next
to the fishtanks.
Here’s another question:Why would anyone give Carmelita Spats a harpoon gun?
Although I was familiar with the Blind Men and the Elephant story before I read this book simply because of how much it
pops up in popular media, this book was my first encounter with the name John Godfrey Saxe.
So that’s what the birdpaper is for.
Dewey’s first appearance, and the chapter ends right before we find out who he is. Did I mention I love these cliffhangers?

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 9

Fun tidbit: The goat and dandelion illustration inspired Brett Helquist to later write and illustrate his picture book "Grumpy Goat" which came out in 2013. In his blog he said the drawing was a short moment, but he always felt there was more story to it. He kept thinking about it and eventually it became the Grumpy Goat book. It's cool when older (even seemingly minor) artwork fuels ideas for bigger projects (as an artist I can relate).

In the description of the cocktail party, it's funny to imagine villains hiding under slipcovers. Totally not suspicious human-shaped lumps in those couches over there. Nope.

"Beatrice stole it from me!" echoes Esme's statement way back in TEE when she said she wanted to steal from the Baudelaires the way Beatrice stole from her.


I like the callback to the peppermint allergy.

After 12 books we learn the rather startling revelation that Olaf himself is an orphan, and that a weapon is responsible for that fact.

"Parade around in an indecent bikini in the middle of the night threatening sub-sub-librarians" is such a great line. Also, I can't help but chuckle at poor Jerome being super hopeful Esme is turning over a new leaf (pun intended).

The last portion of this chapter is one of the most tense scenes in the series.

I love the Baudelaires shielding Dewey as they stand up to Olaf. And they were so close to talking him down! His quiet "What else can I do?" almost feels like we're seeing past his villainous facade at the scared child inside, the one who kept choosing to do bad things and no longer knows any other path. But because this is ASOUE, that potential turning point is taken away from us in an instant as everything goes to hell.


The harpoon jutting out of Dewey like a reflection of one of his arms is a truly haunting image.

"...he disappeared into the dark water, and the Baudelaire orphans wept alone for the mercies denied them, and for the
wicked, wicked way of the world." Such a heavy ending to an already tense chapter. It sat with me for a few minutes before I was ready to continue reading. Handler created such an interesting and likable character in Dewey even though we only spent two chapters with him. I wanted more! But alas, this is ASOUE.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 8
I wouldn’t mind reading the version of Goldilocks with the fire. It sounds more interesting than the original.
Was Hal living at the hospital?You’d think he’d just go home afterward rather than laying around and his initial reaction
is less “I lost my workplace in a terrible fire” and more “I lost my home in a terrible fire.”
It’s cool that Jerome is willing to help out now.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

He just really loved those records, okay? I think he did live elsewhere because when he's talking to the Baudelaires he says once the hospital closes for the night they'll all go home to their families.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 10

It's kinda funny that Mr. Poe assumed Dewey was their guardian with absolutely no context.

I wonder if Geraldine's yellow nightshirt is a humorous reference to yellow journalism, a phrase which here means "spreading sensationalism rather than reporting facts."

While the 'L.S.' on Sir and Charles's matching pajamas likely stands for Lucky Smells, it would be funny if it turned out those were Lemony's PJs.

I like to imagine that the man with swimming salmon on his pajamas is an employee of Cafe Salmonella. And right after him, the woman with dancing clown pjs is an employee of the Anxious Clown lol

Olaf's "We can't have treacherous people running around the hotel! There are noble, decent people here" followed by Collette's "Really?" is comedy gold.

'At the sight of the manager, the children suddenly thought not of Dewey, but of the family left behind...' This is a really touching moment from the Baudelaires. They have no idea which brother they're addressing, but it doesn't matter because they know the feeling of being left behind. I like Frank/Ernest's surprise at their apology, and then his tiny nod. Regardless of their affiliations, the Denouements have lost a brother, and I certainly hope the Baudelaire's acknowledgment of it amidst all the other chaos going on in the lobby was a small mercy for whichever brother they spoke to.

Violet leaning down to kiss Sunny's head, with Klaus leaning up to kiss Violet's, and Sunny kissing both her siblings is a sweet moment to end the chapter on. And a little heartbreaking as they utter a great, shuddering sigh and then quietly cry themselves to sleep.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 9
That goat looks possessed.
Besides it just being funny, Olaf thinking Giuseppe Verdi is a myth shows his ignorance.
It doesn’t seem to have crossed Olaf’s mind how complicated his schemes are and Carmelita shooting Violet
with the harpoon gun would make things easier.
I wish the weapon vs spit argument could go on a little bit longer.
Justice Strauss must have really interesting past.
It was very noble of the Baudelaires to shield Dewey. Shame it didn’t work.
Dammit Mr Poe, you made the Baudelaires drop the harpoon.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 11

The crowd illustration reminds me of the one in TCC. You can see the refinement in Helquist's style between the two, particularly in his use of shading.

I'm glad the underwater catalog is still safe. Dewey's skeleton is probably still down there somewhere (gulp).

The "destruction of a very important bathyscaphe" may also be the "certain bathyscaphe" that Ishmael traveled in when he was shipwrecked on the island.

So according to Lemony an account of the Baudelaire trial is stored in the underwater catalog. Maybe it's TPP itself, as I can imagine his books would be stored there.

Themis, the Greek goddess of justice, is often portrayed with a blindfold covering her eyes.

Sunny calling her parents Mama and Poppa is really cute.

If the guy who mistakes Klaus for someone named Jerry is the same guy in TEE who called Jerome 'Jerry,' that has to be one of the deepest cuts in this book.

The person assuming Sunny's head is a vase and trying to put an umbrella in her mouth is the sort of Snicket visual humor that I absolutely adore.

"I know what the word 'contempt' means," snarled a voice... This was how Klaus used to respond in the earlier books whenever an adult explained a word, and a volunteer used it in LSTUA during the VFD meeting transcript.

Also, it's a funny reveal that 'contempt' was used somewhere in Zombies in the Snow, and that's where the Baudelaires learned it.

I can't for the life of me figure out what Esme's ruby-encrusted blank pages are. Are they papers with flecks of rubies embedded in them?

Carmelita's book is her autobiography, which we got a snippet of in LSTUA.

The screenplays are probably film scripts by Gustav Sebald.

I wonder why that one individual submitted their mother as evidence, and it's pretty hilarious imagining her on the desk amidst the pile of evidence.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Remember, Monty took them to the movies every night for a week. Contempt might not have been in
ZitS. In fact, it probably wasn't, since we get a decent chunk of the script in TUA.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Ah you're right, I had forgotten it was a nightly tradition of theirs to catch movies.

(To be fair to Zombies, we only get pages 98-102 of the script. A lot of other scenes are only described by Lemony and Sally)

[Glittery666]

Chapter 10
Everyone thinks Dewey’s legendary?He must’ve kept himself really well-hidden.
The person calling for their mother strikes again.
While we never find out exactly who the taxi driver is, it’s generally thought that this is where Lemony finally catches
up to the Bauds.
They were just about to escape when Mr Poe interrupted.
I wonder why Kit had to waterski away from Widdershins.
You know how Zortegus has that theory about Esme being bald?Well it turns out that Mrs Bass is confirmed bald.
I’d be curious to know which of the Baudelaires looks like that person’s mother.
How much you wanna bet that the guy in the salmon pajamas works at Cafe Salmonella.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

Chapter 11 -

"I submit this book about how wonderful I am!” announced Carmelita Spats."


This little bit is horrible. It shouldn't be there. This makes the whole thing an inappropriate and wrong mess. When did she write her autobiography? We would have to say that she wrote before the main events recorded in TPP. So, Carmelita is a children's writer. She should know the difference between a comma and a question mark. Then, she described what she saw on the sonar as a comma in TGG. She must have been quite accurate. So there was no "dot" or circle separate from the curved structure at the time she looked at the sonar. So we can conclude that what she saw was a type of sea serpent and not a sea serpent followed by a small submarine. This complicates something that was already pacified for me.

Another detail: the chronology is again confusing. If she wrote her book when the librarian at Prufrock Prep was already receiving secret messages to pass on to others, we have to conclude that VFD had been infiltrating Prufrock Prep since the Baudelaires were there.

It is possible, however, that the secret message that the librarian had received from Lemony (from my point of view, years after the main events described in asoue) was a different secret message from the one that the librarian tested whether or not to deliver to Carmelita . So, for LSTUA to make sense with TPP, I still think Carmelita needs to have survived and returned to Prufrock Prep. Because of the events involving Miss K.


Chapter 10:

"My sister... waterskiing away from him".

I think rather than questioning whether Kit actually did this or not, it's more valid to question how well informed Lemony was on the subject at the time he was writing TPP. Imagine that Lemony, while he was writing TPP, still believed that Kit was alive. This is because years after the main events described in asoue, someone was pretending to be Kit Snicket. Or if he did know, he was purposely helping to hide the fact that Kit Snicket was actually dead and he was helping to maintain the lie of Kit's survival. Thus, Lemony published evidence in the books that pointed to Kit Snicket's survival. In this lie, Kit needed to be far from the submarine when it hit.

When he wrote TE, either he discovered the truth or there was no longer any purpose in keeping the lie. Does this call into question the entire credibility of the work? no, because we are not in a book about Kit, but about the Baudelaires.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 12

Petition to have Snicket write the 13-book series on the backgammon dispute that caused the Sinister Woman's broken finger. Plot twist: that backgammon dispute is the true origin of the schism lol

Even if Sir isn't wearing a blindfold, I imagine the smoke obscures his vision.

I'd love to know the context of Beatrice telling Olaf he'd fail, and what exactly he did at age 7 that he seemingly believes proved her wrong (in my head canon it's the first time he committed arson).

It's funny how puzzled Olaf is about the Baudelaires offering their help. He's like "Huh?...well, ok then..."

Whenever I see Richard Wright's books in the store I'm instantly reminded of TPP.

Olaf's "I always wondered how you did that" with some level of admiration/respect is interesting. It must be confounding how the Baudelaires keep solving problems, so at least he gets a couple personal mysteries answered.


Interesting that the Sinister Duo have also supplied Olaf with info on the Baudelaire's locations.

"No one's interested in their story," Count Olaf said scornfully. "Even if you wrote down every last detail, no one would read such a dreadful thing." Olaf's been reading the warnings on the back of the ASOUE books.

What a cliffhanger to end on!

[Glittery666]

Chapter 11
People shouldn’t be involved in the creation of sausages, I see what you did there.
On a semi-related note, has anyone here read Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark?There’s one story
that involves a crazy butcher grinding his neighbours into sausages.
I had to put this book down to look up what a bathyscaphe was.
Turns out Sunny was going places even before she learned to walk.
I wonder if the Jerry that person was looking for was Jerome.
Wouldn’t Justice Strauss be the one to say to say that everybody is innocent since the expression is “innocent
until proven guilty?”
The person who’s always bringing up their mother is like the my leg guy from SpongeBob.Popping in,
saying a signature line, and popping back out again.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 13

This is the first time we actually see Olaf setting a fire.

Frank or Ernest's "Which one?" in response to Violet's "Call the fire department!" has a double meaning. The obvious one is whether to call V.F.D. or the official fire department, but "Which one?" applies to the Denouement brothers themselves, as we are constantly trying to figure out who is who throughout the book.

I like the idea of Bertrand being a whimsical prankster, and it's cute that Beatrice finds his prank undignified. He totally ruined Eleanora's day lol.

Just as Olaf was set to poison his associates, the Sinister Duo are now throwing Olaf under the bus. Everyone is failing everyone here.

It's funny that the bearded man with the guitar from THH befriends the V.F.D. Elder, and he even serenades her with a song while the fire is spreading. If they escaped I hope they went on to have many adventures together.

The curtain falls one last time on all the wonderfully weird, noble and sinister characters we've met over the course of the series.

They heard...dozens of people...furiously compliment and kindly insult dozens of other people... Just some clever Snicket humor that I absolutely love.

Sunny has been getting some impressive sentences in the last few books, from TVV's "I am not a baby" to "Burn down hotel" in our previous chapter. And now we can add "The last safe place is safe no more."