The Ersatz Elevator

 Series: A series of unfortunate events #6 

Author: Lemony Snicket

Genre: Children Fiction Fantasy

Original publication date: February 20, 2001

Book description (from the back of the book) as usual in the series it comes in the form of a letter from the author:

Dear Reader,
If you have just picked up this book, then it is not too late to put it back down. Like the previous books in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, there is nothing to be found in these pages but misery, despair, and discomfort, and you still have time to choose something else to read.
Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda.
I have sworn to write down these tales of the Baudelaire orphans so the general public will know each terrible thing that has happened to them, but if you decide to read something else instead, you will save yourself from a heapful of horror and woe.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

Thoughts:

This is a very quick easy read. 

The Baudelaire orphans are sent to the Dark street, to the penthouse (the highest and biggest apartment in the apartment building) with the couple who is their new guardians. The childless couple is not very parent like but they are giving them a very comfortable life in the standard sense. The couple is a fashion slave, always on the lookout for what is in and getting rid of what is out. The woman is very very self-centered and unlikeable. 

As a side note, this book is so engaging that I got through it in a single sitting.  Since the moment they arrive the siblings feel unease, at first it due to the dark and gloomy street and the overall weird atmosphere on the building. The day they arrived, dark was in, and as fashion slaves, the whole building was adjusted to that. The street, the hallways, and apartments were all dark and barely lit with candles to find your way. The funniest part and the most unbelievable. Elevators are out, so the whole building gets rid of the elevator and has to only use the stairs. 

The good thing was that light became on the very day the Baudelaire children arrived and the changes were adjusted in the building and apartment. Jerome, the stay at home husband became their main caretaker. He was not a good guardian either but he tried to listen and take care of them for a bit. Jerome is trying to provide the children with things that are to their taste, even if only things that are in are allowed to be in the house. It is really very silly.

The children did not stay there long, maybe a few days. Count Olaf made his appearance once more pretty quick. HE is as usual in disguise, the children do not get people to believe them. Once more we see adults simply ignoring the possibility simply because the person who is accused of using a fake identity insists that he is not lying. Very illogical, the children have been placed in danger, wouldn't it make sense to be untrustful and check references for people? It makes sense to be on the paranoid side when you have already been harmed. But oh well again inept people all around.

We also see more mentions of V.F.D. but we are not close to figuring out anything about it. Claus, Violet, and Sunny make a few more discoveries and get more questions instead of more answers. 

A lot of bad luck and a few bad decisions take place in this part of the story. 

The formula is the same but I enjoyed it more in this one, not sure if because they have to climb up and down a fake elevator shaft, or the new level of betrayal and defeat the children face from the adults around them. Mr. Poe is still useless, but I can't even get angry anymore, it just something I expect to happen. 

It was a very good story. I felt even better to be able to finish a second book so soon. The good thing about children's books is that their easy-to-read language allows you to fly through in a single day.  I am tempted to jump straight to the next one. I am very intrigued now with the V.F.D. Also the hints to the fires and the more and more people who are uncovered as working with Olaf. These clues of a bigger plan that started even before the fire that killed the Baudelaire parents. I am anxious to get to the ending and yet I am going to put it off because I am not sure I can handle too many depressing situations they will face from now on.

Now that I finished this book I can go back and find out my next prompt. By the way, thanks to this readathon I am ahead in my TBR. Participating in readathons does help me get back on track and read faster. 

So that's it for now, see you later. Stay safe!