I read the book, "The Austere Academy" by Lemony Snicket. I liked this book, as I have been reading The Series of Unfortunate Events. This book was just another great writes Lemony Snicket has done, making this book exciting and suspenseful. Overall, this is a great book with a fantastic plot, like any other book that Snicket writes.The Plot starts out where Klaus, Violet, and Sunny learn they will be living in the "Orphan Shack" at the Academy because they don't have a guardian to give them the benefits of living on campus. They have very boring classes, which they don't really learn anything from, and they have a horrid vice principal, that is very arrogant. The orphans are told that the Academy has an advanced computer that will keep Count Olaf away, but the computer fails when Olaf disguises himself as a gym teacher that wears a turban to cover his eyebrows, and running shoes to cover the tattoo he has on his ankle. The children are asked by Olaf to run laps every night after dinner, which takes up the whole night. The kids eventually make friends, called the Quagmires, whom try to help the Orphans reveal Olaf as himself. The kids fall behind in school because they are tired from school all day, then running all night. When the midterm finals come up, the orphans are completely drained of all the energy they have, and don't know anything that will be on their tests. The Quagmires come up with a plan where they disguise themselves as the orphans, and then Klaus, Sunny, and Violet can prepare themselves for the tests, which if they fail, they will be expelled and will land in the hands of Olaf. The plan works well, and Klaus, Sunny, and Violet all pass their tests, but the Quagmires are discovered, and trapped by Olaf. The orphans try to save the Quagmires, but it is too late, Olaf abandons his plan with the orphans, and he runs away with the Quagmires, because they have a fortune of their own.Klaus is a clever boy, who is very caring about his sisters, he tries his very hardest to keep them happy and accompany them in the journeys they are in. Violet is a very smart, individual. She likes to invent things, to help Klaus and Sunny. She invents a claw machine to help Sunny make staples, and she invents a way to help Klaus study. Sunny is the youngest of the children, and she has the same mindset of Klaus and Violet. Sunny agrees with everything Violet and Klaus say, she likes to chew on and bite things because she has very sharp teeth. Nero is an arrogant vice principal who can't seem to realize that he is terrible at the violin, and he can't seem to figure out Olaf in disguise. Nero isn't a very smart individual who is very conceded. Olaf is a tricky individual, who always seems to come up with clever plans, and who is also very elusive, can never be caught. He is always accompanied by his sidekicks, always in disguise. The Quagmires are triplets who are great friends to the orphans, they try to help out because they have went through the same thing. The Quagmires always put the friends before them, they were very loyal and trustworthy.The setting isn't very vivid, all that is really told about the setting is that it takes place at The Academy with a motto of "Remember, You Will Die." The children are housed in a tin shack, not very good conditions for living. Time isn't specified, takes place in modern times during the school year.I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the previous books in the series, or anyone who enjoys suspense. Snicket has a rather larger vocabulary, so I wouldn't read this book if you are younger than 6th or 7th grade.
I didn't read A Series of Unfortunate Events in order; so this was the first book I read, and I liked it. I liked it a lot. In fact, I liked it so much so, I read all the other books, attempted to draw Count Olaf, watched the film and I get seriously defensive if anyone dares to insult the books.These books are often branded as being for children. I'm not really sure I would brand it as just being for children. It will definitely appeal to children, but I think to fully understand the humour in these books, you need to have relatively adult-ish mind set. I was about 12/13 when I picked up this book, I liked it, I found it funny; but looking back a lot of the dry humour went way over my head, and when I re-read some of it back, it seriously makes me chuckle, more so than it did when I was 14. I think what makes this book even funnier, is the fact that it is presented as a child's book, due to the slightly patronising definitions of hard words etc, however, I think adults (with dry humour) can most definitely enjoy this book and find some form of pleasure in it.This novel will always have a special place in my heart, because it signifies the moment, I realised I was an awkward child, that much preferred reading depressing books in the library to having sleep-overs reading Jacqueline Wilson.It helped me embrace my kookyness. FOR THAT, I THANK YOU LEMONY SNICKET. I THANK YOU!I went completely way off topic, but for the record, I really like this book in case all what I said was lost in translation.
Do You like book The Austere Academy (2000)?
Another decent read with Celyn. It seems that The Miserable Mill may have been the low-point of the series as this volume is an improvement. The formula is applied once more, but with a slight variation in that the Baudelaires find friends of their own age and this alliance faces Count Olaaf with predictably grim consequences.What steps this up from the previous book is a return to the established level of surreal, i.e. marked but not extreme. In The Miserable Mill we had Sunny fighting a sword-wielding adult with her teeth (on all fours) and Violet moving a tree trunk with the adhesive power of wet chewing gum. Here we get none of that, instead the strangeness is mostly reserved for the personalities of the adults. As in previous books these are generally an extreme but also amusing combination of stupidity and vindictiveness. These books are perhaps unique in children's literature in as much as the nasty adults not only have the upper hand throughout the entire tale, but there is never any revenge, retribution, or comeuppance for any of them. The evil school vice principle is never punished - he is left in charge to mock and bully his students. The evil mill boss is left unchastened to profit from his slave-labor workforce, and five books in not a single one of Count Olaaf's large and murderous gang has suffered the slightest misfortune...Do children appreciate the honesty - bad people often prosper? Or are they just too caught up in the Baudelaires' struggles to notice? Either way if I have managed to grasp the gist of what people think "grimdark" writing is then The Series of Unfortunate Events books have a great claim to being one of the early pillars of the style!
—Mark Lawrence
Pleasantly surprised!I expected it to be mediocre in comparison with the others (being the 5th book and all) but I found myself liking it more than the 4th. It was good to finally have some friends for the Baulelaire children, in spite of what happens in the end. This time the children handled their unfortunate situation better although, as we all expected, things didn't go as planned. We do finally get some hints about Count Olaf's secrets but only in the end of chapter 13. What the hell could VFD stand for???? I'm looking forward for the Baudelaire children uncovering the truth in the next books! I'm definately going to listen the first chapters of the 6th book on my way to work in the morning.P.S. Can anyone tell me if the songs I'm hearing in the audiobooks are also written in the book? I mean, they are about each theme or Beatrice (Who by the way is very puzzling! What's up with her? And Lemony Snicket? And Count Olaf?) but I can't picture them just written in a book :/P.P.S. Do get the audiobooks! In this series they rock!
—Penny Raspenny
The Austere Academy is a rather important book in the Series of Unfortunate Events. It introduces us to 3 important new players in our story. The First and unfortunately the most horrid, is Carmelita Spats. There is no getting around it. You will hate this character. She is obnoxious and rude and cruel. She is the opposite of everything the Baudelaire children are and stand for I almost can't imagine a most unlikeable child and I have to give Daniel Handler kudos for creating her. The next two characters are much more welcome additions to the series. Duncan and Isodora are the Quagmire triplets. Duncan and Isadora share a history similar to the Baudelaires in that their parents also perished in a fire along with their brother, the third triplet, Quigley. The Austere Academy sees our heroes not going into the care of yet another guardian but instead finds them attempting to start out fresh in a boarding school. This might seem like a change for the better for the Baudelaires until we learn that the schools motto is "Remember you will die." cheerful, no? Things basically go downhill from there. Count Olaf of course makes his customary appearance, once again scheming for the children's fortune.The Austere Academy may be one of my favourite volumes in the series mainly because of the introduction to the Quagmires. It's also the first book where parts of the riddle that is their parents death begins to unravel, with the inclusion of the acronym VFD. I feel like this book really marks the turning point for the series making it less about the Baudelaires trying to find a place where they belong and more about this mystery of which they were previously unaware.
—Lesley
