The Vile Village

by Lemony Snicket

My thoughts:

After finishing up The Ersatz Elevator, we couldn’t wait to start this installment with hopes that the Baudelaires would find a way to locate and save their friends the Quagmire triplets. The book begins with the Baudelaires once again in Mr. Poe’s incompetent hands as he attempts to find them a new and safe home. This time, he’s exhausted all options and finds it extremely difficult locating a place for them. The children are informed that they’ll be living at V.F.D, a.k.a. The Village of Fowl Devotees, where there are rules for pretty much everything under the sun. This particular town believes in the aphorism, “It takes a village to raise a child” which is the entire basis for taking the children in.

One of the women in the Council of Elders spoke up. “We are now discussing the guardianship of the Baudelaire orphans. Under the new government program, the entire town of V.F.D. will act as guardian over these three children because it takes a village to raise a child. Are there any questions?”

What the Baudelaires don’t know yet, is that the town of V.F.D. is incredibly disturbing and full of crows, but they still have hope that the Quagmire triplets are there. Unfortunately, the children have been put in the hands of an entire village of idiots and all they can do is search for clues to find their friends once and for all.

“Now, Baudelaires, I’m sure you are very concerned about this Olaf fellow, but as your guardian, the town will protect you. That is why we have recently made up a new rule, Rule #19,833. It clearly states that no villains are allowed within the city limits.”

This book was quite slow for the first half, but then we ended up flying through the second half because it’s fairly action packed. The story itself wasn’t as comical, but there are additional characters which was nice. There’s also an interesting mystery to it, and it was fairly unpredictable.

Even though the series is quite formulaic, the kids always end up enjoying these. The author manages to instill hope in the reader with every book, but unfortunately, something always goes wrong and Count Olaf prevails. This book is a little darker, ends a little bit differently, and we have no idea what predicament the children will be in next with the way this one ended.

4****

Find this book on Amazon and Goodreads:

• Age Range: 8 – 12 years
• Grade Level: 5 – 6
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064408655
• ISBN-13: 978-0064408653

From Amazon:

Dear Reader,

You have undoubtedly picked up this book by mistake, so please put it down. Nobody in their right mind would read this particular book about the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire on purpose, because each dismal moment of their stay in the village of V.F.D. has been faithfully and dreadfully recorded in these pages.

I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats. It is my solemn and sacred occupation to research each detail of the Baudelaire children’s lives and write them all down, but you may prefer to do some other solemn and sacred thing, such as reading another book instead.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Thanks for reading my review of The Vile Village. Have you read any of these books? Let’s chat in the comments section.

❤ Mischenko