Very Frustrating Denouement

Books Review: The End and The Beatrice Letters, by Lemony Snicket
I was planning on packing this post with all sorts of witty wordplay and diverting digressions, but that would have made more sense for a postive review. Alas, this Series of Unfortunate Events came to a rather unfortunate ending. While one of the characters does go out with a bang, the books go out with a whimper.

I'll throw an obligatory SPOILER ALERT warning up, although I'm not sure the events of the book are clear enough to spoil. Because here's the major issue: most of the main mysteries go unresolved.

This series, a 13 (ish, given the numerous tie-ins) volume chronicle of the lives of the three industrious Baudelaire orphans and an evil Count Olaf in search of their fortune, has thrived on parceling out pieces of clues: a tattoo here, a scrap of paper there. And it's worked well; by and large this is a delightfully fun series. True, the books are a bit formulaic, but let's not forget that their primary audience is kids.

Now it closes with The Beatrice Letters, an almost impenetrable series of communiques between Lemony Snicket (who writes the remaining books), and a Beatrice (or two?), who features prominently in the series. It's linked to the final book in the regular series, The End, which only lives up to its title on a technicality, as nothing feels very final. After 13+ books, one deserves a more satisfying conclusion that answers, oh, say, maybe some of the multiple mysteries threaded throughout these tomes. Instead, we get one – sort of – in that we learn who the orphans' mother was. Aaannndd... that's it.

Bear in mind – this isn't a Matrix Revolutions-level disaster, but it certainly leaves readers hanging. Wondering things like what happened to the Quagmire triplets? To the V.F.D. organization? To, frankly, the stars of the 13 books, the Baudelaire orphans? The answer, unfortunately, is "dunno."

The final image readers are left with is a murky question mark submerged beneath the waves. Perhaps there'll be another series that answers that question, perhaps we're supposed to pose it to ourselves...

...or perhaps the author should have provided an answer.