The previous book in the series, The Hostile Hospital, last saw the Baudelaire's fleeing the mob at Heimlich Hospital and making a split second decision to escape via the trunk in Count Olaf's car. The ninth book, The Carnivorous Carnival opens with the Baudelaire's still hidden in the trunk and on their way through the hinterlands to the Caligari Carnival.

Caligari Carnival is home to fortune teller, Madame Lulu and her House of Freaks. Madame Lulu has been predicting the whereabouts of the Baudelaire's every time they're moved and Count Olaf is confident she will be able to tell him the location of them and their possibly alive parent. So the Baudelaire's once again utilise Count Olaf's bag of tricks and disguise themselves as two headed Beverly (Violet) and Elliot (Klaus) who eat corn clumsily and Chabo (Sunny), the wolf baby - half baby, half wolf. Following Madame Lulu's directive, the Baudelaire's are set to "give the people what they want" - which in this case is violence and sloppy eating - and are introduced to their fellow freaks - Hugo the hunchback, Kevin the ambidextrous man and Colette the contortionist.

Then there's some very hungry lions. A brief stint of inventing that never goes anywhere. Philosophical discussions about whether using what they've learnt from Olaf makes them bad (frankly no - it makes them survivors but whatevs) and the reveal that Madame Lulu is not all she seems. Or exactly what she seems - a complete and utter fraud - a member of the V.F.D. named Olivia who has taken the motto give them what they want to a ridiculous extreme. Actually I take some of that back - I mean yeah, she's not a fortune teller but she does manage to predict (cough*research*cough ahem cough*read a newspaper*cough) an awful lot of locations. So it's just the name, the clothes, the crystal ball and the fortune telling scene she creates that's completely fake. You know, everything else. But she does come through with a location for the possibly alive Baudelaire parent - an old V.F.D. headquarters. I mean it's a complete guess but good on her for giving it a shot. Then there's some double crossing from a jealous Esme who wants to get rid of her competition for Olaf's affections (Madame Lulu) - (and who has a surprisingly decent plan to manipulate the freaks into thinking they can be real boys and girls as well as a job offer to join their evil troupe) but also a triple crossing from Madame Lulu who is a friend to no one , some extra hungry lions and an inevitable end of a lynch mob, a fire and a desperate escape. You know, par for the course, with this series.

The Baudelaire's are left broken with Sunny in Olaf's evil clutches and the older two siblings careening along in a caravan that has limited food, no steering or brakes and a likely dangerous end.

At 312 pages, this book tacks on an extra 30 or so pages on the last three installments and it's a slog. For all it's the longest book, it has the least amount of action and fails to answer any of the numerous questions posed. To be fair, it also didn't seem to bring up any further ones but there's only so long I can go without deciding I just don't care enough. I'm hanging on but it's a Slippery Slope. 2 stars. ( )

Gosh I love this series ( )

Love this series! Out of the 13 books, this was one of my favorites in the complete series, alongside the 2nd one.

Please Read my review of the series here, as my review applies to every book. https://www.librarything.com/work/1748/reviews/227861550 ( )

the story is really rolling along now, and the momentum should carry me through the final four books. i was excited that this took place at a carnival, but somehow it felt like there was some element missing in this particular story. also, there's a nice lesson about not judging people by their looks, and how being outcast can push you to do things you wouldn't otherwise do just so you can feel like you fit in, but the way the lesson is made makes me feel a little uncomfortable. ( )

This one was very dark since people got eaten alive by lions and the crowd were encouraging murder.
While this is good, this one can be viewed as problematic by the uncomfortable remarks about birth defects. One character says, "I thought people with birth defects were unfortunate, but they are hilarious" People are teased for being freaks and are deliberately put in the carnival to be humiliated.
However, this is where the question of being good or bad came in, it's where we question if you can be truly good or bad. We see the Baudelaires and how their morals have changed.
Also how the hell is having 2 equally strong hands freakish, I don't get it whatsoever, also hot dam is Esme cunning, possibly even more cunning then Olaf himself.

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