OFFICIAL BOOK TWELVE DICUSSION THREAD.

[Hooky]

I liked many things about this book:

-All the illustrations were excellent, even though the cover and triptych pictures turned out to be entirely useless. The only person on the cover we recognized was Kit (and the Baudelaires, obviously).
-The mystery man did seem to fit Lemony's personality, but I was sad that he left before we learned anything important about him.
-I was very satisfied to see the Mystery One page from the NamelessNovel website fit in with the rest of Chapter Six at last.
-I laughed when I read about the court having everyone but the three judges being blindfolded.
-I loved how Sir in Chapter Five said that he loves the smell of hot wood.
-I was happy that Olaf dropped the stupid laugh from TGG and merely said "Ha!" every so often.
-It made me sad that soon after we met Dewey Denouement he was killed by the accidental shooting of the harpoon.
-Loved the return of Geraldine, Sir, Charles, Nero, Remora (who was especially hilarious), Bass, Jerome, and Justice Strauss.

When I heard the name Bruce being called by a hotel guest twice, it made me think: Where is Bruce? And where are the Snow Scouts? I thought they would be at the hotel, but we didn't see them there. Or are they up in the air at the eagle battle?

That's all I can think of for the moment, and, all in all, I thought it was a wonderful book. It held me in, and I couldn't stop reading, especially when I was reading the countdown part where Olaf had the Harpoon Gun aimed at Dewey.

[Antenora]

About the "non-fitting" siblings matter--Lemony would be the one who "doesn't fit" in the Snicket family, either because he has a really rare name, or the other two are twins.

Interesting thoughts on the pictures, Dante. I was wondering why they were out of order the second time. Also, we still aren't sure who the woman with the drill was.

And I think some of the TCC crowd people were at the hotel, as well as some minor characters from the past. We saw a man wearing salmon-decorated pajamas, and a woman wearing clown pajamas--I think they're waiters from the two terrible restaurants we've seen.

I was also wondering how they got that boat up on the roof. Maybe someone brought the parts of it up to the roof, and it was assembled there, then set to float on the pool for Carmelita.

[Juan Roberto Montoya De Toledo]

If you look closely, the feline-looking woman on the cover appears to be Mrs Bass. She says that she's wearing a mask underneath her blindfold, with eye slits cut out of the material.

[Dante]

Carmelita Spats, of course, was not on the high seas, but had managed to drag a large, wooden boat to the rooftop sunbathing salon so she could prowl a high swimming pool.

Not completely reliable, but it seems... Oh, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't need to. It's just so funny, and very important to the ending.

I'm guessing Bruce was at Hotel Denouement, as he wasn't at the submarine and his name was mentioned. But is he dead? Why was he apparently free? It seems now that the Carmelita was crewed by all the children that Olaf and the sinister duo managed to catch between them, as there didn't seem to be any others at the hotel - unless they are indeed at the battle between the eagles (Olaf says "my" eagles) and the SSHAMH.

Edit: I'm not sure which woman on the cover you're referring to, Scotty. Mrs. Bass had a small blonde wig perched on top of the rest of her messy black hair, and her mask was small and narrow and had two tiny holes cut out for the eyes.

[champ103]

I see what you mean, Scotty. She's just above Kit's head, although I doubt it's actually Miss Bass. The figure is wearing a hat.

[Linda Rhaldeen]

Ok, I finally managed to read the book, reread it and take notes in a commonplace book, and read this entire thread. I'll try not to repeat what other people have said, but there's so much I'll probably forget stuff. By the way, this isn't in any particular order.

-Sir likes smelling hot wood. Possibly a clue that he likes fires?
-When the Bauds are starting the fire, right before Jerome's book bursts into flames, they notice a detailed diagram of a passageway. It might be the 667 Dark avenue passageway, and it might be another VFD passageway.
-Sir has an "L.S." inscribed on his pajamas, which Lemony hurriedly explains probably stands for "Lucky Smells". It just seemed a bit suspicious.
-Olaf admits to setting the Denouement family fire, making him several years older than the Denouement triplets and the Snickets.
-Thousands of frogs live in the pond. I wonder if they have something to do with Dewey's library?
-In chapter 6, a woman drives away from the man she loves in an automobile. At first, I thought it was Beatrice, then as the story went on, Kit. But Kit was traveling across the water and Hotel D. was right on the waterfront, so now I think it's Beatrice again.
-The woman in the diving helmet was searching for things in the sea, not the pond, although if there were an underwater passageway she could be searching in both. Then when the mysterious man shows up that night in chapter 10, he has a woman in his trunk and a damp object in the front seat. I'm not sure whether I want to believe that they have the sugar bowl or not. Perhaps the woman is the swimming woman of book 11.
-The sugar bowl rightfully belongs to Esme. I thought that particular piece of information very interesting. It had been implied before but never confirmed. Also, the contents of the sugar bowl are still unknown.
-And I wrote a complete listing of Hotel Denouement's catalog (or at least as much as the Bauds found out), but I have to go now, so I'll write it later.

[Deleted]

the next book will be really long, won't it? I mean we really didn't learn anything in this one. do you think that the lemony writing the book could be kit's son and the first one is her brother?

EDIT: the guy in the chapter one image is the same guy in the chapter ten image.

[Juan Roberto Montoya De Toledo]

You don't say. Just kidding. Yes, he is. Thanks for noticing that, Browncoat, (although I knew it already.).

[Deleted]

sc0tty said:

You don't say. Just kidding. Yes, he is. Thanks for noticing that, Browncoat, (although I knew it already.).

well, someone said that the taxi driver was of no importance and obviously it does. he also opens up a "spin-off" series. a "what-if" series. what-if they went with that man in the taxi. "Another series of unfortunate events" it could be written by Kit's son or Lemony himself(assuming they are not the same person). after all lemony said it would take 13 more books to tell that story, he also said it about something else but that escapes me right now........

[Dear Dairy]

The bow tie boy from page 265 is Alfalfa from the Little Rascals. Here's proof:

[denoumontdisaster]

hatramroany said:

the next book will be really long, won't it? I mean we really didn't learn anything in this one.

actually I get the Washington Post and there was an interview with LS and he says:

Interviewer: It has been more than a year since "The Grim Grotto" came out. What took you so long to write another book?

LS: I could say my dog ate it. The new book is something of a longer book, 353 pages. They keep getting longer and loner, not unlike hair. But also like hair, I think the 13th volume will be a bit shorter. Because hair grows for a while and then, after a long time, you start to lose it.

you can read the full intwerview here: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801409.html

[Antenora]

ffwf said:

Carmelita Spats, of course, was not on the high seas, but had managed to drag a large, wooden boat to the rooftop sunbathing salon so she could prowl a high swimming pool.

Not completely reliable, but it seems... Oh, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't need to. It's just so funny, and very important to the ending.

Maybe Carmelita had Esme(or someone else) build the boat for her...but I'm probably analyzing this too much. You're right, it's very funny and doesn't necessarily need to be explained.

Even if Book 13 isn't quite as long as Book 12, it'll probably have a lot more information, though not necessarily clear information.

And the frogs in the pond could be working for VFD; then again, I'm not sure how intelligent frogs are, and therefore how helpful they'd be as trained animals. But if VFD can train crickets they can probably train frogs--possibly to retrieve information.

[PJ]

ffwf said:

Edit: It's possible that Kit Snicket smuggled the poison darts to the Baudelaire parents after they'd been used, as evidence, and Olaf got his timing wrong. I prefer to think, though, that the Baudelaire parents murdered Olaf's parents. Either way, it's almost certainly the wicked thing that Fernald says the Baudelaire parents did.

I thought Fernald said that Jacques could do something villanous. I don't recall him mentioning the Baudelaires.

I do hope he brings out another UA-type thing, after Book 13. Or a Rare Edition, or something, or just a bunch of short stories about various asoue characters, like how Fernald lost his hands or whatnot.

[SnicketFires]

I find it kind of funny that Lemony said that this would be the "denouement" book, as it is next-to-last, page 177, but we didn't really learn any huge secrets. Maybe I'm reading that incorrectly.

negativenine said:

Anyway, I also think the person's mother may have more importance than we give it. After all, issues of old family ties relating back to the good ol' days of VFD seem to come back rather often...

"Signaling" for a taxi may also have the smoke-signal meaning, of course. And isn't dropping something into the pond also a signal? Kit mentions it at the beginning. And mysterious taxi-man shows up right after Dewey falls in. Am I reading too much into this?

Also, anyone out there still for the Beatrice=Baudelaire's mother? It would be a nice alliteration...

EDIT: And most importantly, is swans still around?

Allison! Swans hasn't been on for about six months, but I'm hoping to see a return of her now that the Penultimate Peril is released. *sigh*

I thought that the person obsessed with their mother might be the person from TCC who attends the carnival with his mother. (Looking through TCC, I can't seem to find the character. I'll edit this once I do.) Later on in TPP, however, a female voice is used for the mother-obsessed person.

[PJ]

snicketfires said:

Allison! Swans hasn't been on for about six months, but I'm hoping to see a return of her now that the Penultimate Peril is released. *sigh*

Not to be the bearer of bad news...
but, actually, the last we saw of Swans she was fleeing a hurricane that has most likely put her house under 20 feet of water, so she might not be online for quite some time. Let's hope she's allright.