After the near-disastrous events at the end of The Vile Village, you really don't know what's going to happen to the poor Baudelaires next. Violet, Klaus and Sunny, find themselves for the first time without a guardian, entirely on their own. Not only that, but they are widely believed to be murderers (well, a murderer and her accomplices) of Count Olaf himself. They find refuge in a hospital, working as volunteers in an expansive Library of Records, where they discover some tantalizing hints about their parents, the Snickets, and some terrible fires.

So this is the point in the series that really starts to break the formula of all of the books so far. There's no guardian to speak of, the Baudelaires are really independent, and Mr. Poe doesn't even appear once (thank goodness). Count Olaf has a pretty unique disguise and a really different style this time, which will start to be even more evident as the books go on, since he's reportedly dead. Esmé emerges as an even more prominent (and still in, though debilitatingly so) figure in Olaf's troupe, but I just have to wonder why there's not a single mention of, you know, her husband?... In some ways this book kind of feels like filler, like The Miserable Mill, just some random events drawn way out to fill one more book on the way to thirteen, but there are some pretty interesting things that are worth noting here. I love how the hospital is perpetually half-finished, and it breaks my heart a little when Hal feels so deceived by their methods to discover the truth about their parents. The Volunteers Fighting Disease are a pretty amusing incarnation of V.F.D., and the Baudelaires have their first dip into the world of using disguises (including a bit of an identity crisis wondering if they're becoming villains). There are a couple of real life-threatening situations (O, Violet!), Klaus has a really nice heroic moment right near the end, and the kids have still managed to stay together by the end. Also, it should be noted that this book contains the hints of a possible survivor of the fire, as well as the first mention of the infamous and enigmatic sugar bowl...

This isn't my favorite book in the line-up, but it still has a lot of great hints to the overall plot and memorable moments, including Klaus and Sunny hiding behind heart-shaped balloons, one of my favorite mental pictures from the entire series.