The Baudelaires are passed back to actual relations for guardians again - with the excuse that Esmé and Jerome Squalor couldn't take in orphans until it was on trend. Our archetypes for the adults in this book are The Influencer and The Pushover - Esmé actually seemed more ridiculous to me when I was younger, but that was pre-social media. Now, the concept of adopting orphans because it's trendy doesn't feel quite so absurd (unfortunately.) Jerome might actually care about the kids and wants to get them gifts relevant to their interests, and it almost seems like they will have an okay home - sadly Jerome has no backbone and "doesn't want to argue," which will always leave him falling in line with the other adults over any of the children. Still wouldn't be too bad if Esmé was just a vapid trend follower, but that isn't all there is to her. Even in their more pleasant times with the Squalors, the kids still realize their grief will be there whether they tell themselves they should feel lucky or happy or anything but what they actually inevitably feel.

This entry in the series definitely feels the most adventurous so far - the Baudelaires aren't just hiding from Olaf anymore, they're trying to fight back for the sake of their friends. The elevator climb was thrilling while being quite a bit over the top, but if you haven't suspended your disbelief enough by now you may have to give up.

It was frustrating to have the Baudelaires so close to helping the Quagmires, or at least learning more about VFD, only to be thwarted by their own limitations and putting their trust in the wrong adult. The adults being a letdown is not new, but as the orphans begin to put more and more weight on their own shoulders their failures become more heartbreaking - and their lesson is quickly learned on having "hope." Jerome exits as a passive villain - not much better than the active villains simply by doing nothing.

I know the repetition is annoying to a lot of older readers, and I get that in the formula of the books, but I do love the repetition of language and phrasing in this series. With the book titles beginning to use more expanded vocabulary, I loved seeing "ersatz" applied throughout the story.