A Series of Unfortunate Events is the kind of series that has a mood of dread about it, and The Ersatz Elevator has it in spades. Some books evoke wonder, some evoke excitement, and some evoke dread. When I say mood, I mean the overall feeling that a book evokes in its reader. Of course, all the books have a very distinct style, and Snicket has a distinctly macabre, dry tone-but, at least the way I’m using it here, that’s different than mood. What this book does better than any other ASOUE book I’ve reread so far (and at this point I’ve reread through book nine) is mood. In this book, not only are the Baudelaires trying to outsmart Count Olaf, who is back to steal their inheritance, they’re also delving into the secret surrounding their parents, the fire that destroyed their home, and Count Olaf himself. While the book follows similar plot beats to the previous five, it also alters the formula in a significant way. Esmé is a financial advisor obsessed with fashion, and she constantly discusses which items are “in” and which are “out,” while her husband Jerome is exceedingly kind, but also exceedingly non-confrontational.

The Squalors are obscenely wealthy, and they live in a penthouse on the 66th floor of an apartment building.

In the sixth installment of Unfortunate Events the Baudelaires return to the city to stay with their new guardians Jerome and Esmé Squalor. In today’s post I review the sixth, The Ersatz Elevator, and talk about mood, darkness, and architecture. A Series of Unfortunate Events is one of my favorite book series from when I was a kid, and I’m rereading through all thirteen books.

The series of unfortunate events book 6