The End: A-

The Baudelaires have got it rough: subject to be witness to countless crimes, including murder, obsessed with investigating a mysterious organization that is alternately noble and sinister, and above all they're orphans. Luckily Lemony Snicket, the author of all 13 volumes chronicling (some of) the stories of the orphans, has seen fit to give them an ending that is marginally happy. To those of you who can't remember every coded detail of the Baudelaires sad history since the day on Briny Beach when they discovered their parents had perished in an awful fire here are a few refreshers: They're still dead set on discovering the secrets of an almost omnipresent secret organization known as V.F.D. (which underwent a shadowy civil war of sorts years ago that split its members into "noble" volunteers or "muderous" villians), they're currently in the same boat (a metaphor that Snicket rides almost to death) with the treacherous Count Olaf, and they're still on the run from numerous villians and volunteers who are heavily trained in the arts of deception, disguise, rhetoric, and arson since they fled the burning ruins of one of V.F.D.'s few remaining headquarters: the Hotel Denoument. Snicket is a marvelously orginal writer with an ear for both clever and absurd dialogue but what has kept this series interesting isn't his style, which can grow slightly stale after 170 chapters, it's the mysteries that surround the three orphans lives. In this final installment in which the Baudelaires come under the watch of a colony of islanders lead by a charismatic facillitator known as Ishmael some of these mysteries are solved, some sadly are not. Snicket still proves himself a master of the plot however with the darkest scenarios yet, more faceted characterization, and the hallmark dread. Eventually he brings us to the realization that to answer every mystery surrounding the three siblings, and the mysterious organization with which they are inexorably intertwined, you would have to lay out all 15 novels he wrote and piece every bit of the puzzle together, in some cases by hand. If you're much too lazy to be bothered with such an arduous task you'll still be satisified with the secrets he lays at your feet and satiated with his brilliant literary devices - a phrase which here means snarky word definitions, self-aware narration, insidious but charming characters, fascinating illustrations and morbid/absurd wit.