Self-Isolation Audiobook - The Vile Village

• Title And Author: The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
• Publisher: Egmont
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 272 Pages or 4 Hours 17 Minutes

Back into 2016, I made a plan to try and read the entire A Series of Unfortunate Events series. I reread the first few and started reading the books I hadn’t. I got up to book six - The Ersatz Elevator - and then, I stopped. I did like the book and I did have plans to continue but I didn’t. I think it’s mainly because the plot kept repeating itself and I was getting sick of the “Baudelaire go to new guardian, Count Olaf comes along to do dastardly thing to get hands on Bauldelaire fortune, no grown-ups believe Baudelaire, Bauldelaire unmask Olaf and, due to this, Bauldelaires must go to new guardians”. Rinse, wash, repeat. 

And that kinda happens here, though I read an hour or so into this that this, according to most fans, is classed as the “Plot Twist Book”, so I should have kept going, right? 

After the events of The Ersatz Elevator, the Bauldelaires are back in Mr Poe’s office, awaiting news of the next new guardian that will look after the three of them and, at the same time, keep them safe from Count Olaf, the man who is desperate to get his hands on the Bauldelaires and their fortune. But Mr Poe tells them that a new scheme is put in place and an entire village will look after the three. After it, “It takes a village to raise a child”. And the village that is going to look after them is VFD, the same initials as something their kidnap friends tried to warn them about in the last book. But is the town of VFD the same VFD? And how long are the children safe before Count Olaf returns in one of his awful disguises…?

I’m going to admit this right off the bat, I haven’t see the Netflix show (hence why I wanted to read this series back in 2016), and I’ve always consider this a solid series. That doesn’t change here - as a child, I would have hoovered these books up as these tick all my reading boxes. It’s dark, it’s a little absurd but it’s got an element of mystery to it. Perfect for younger me. But as an adult, I’m find it just ok. I’m getting a little tired of the “Rinse, Wash, Repeat” story that is happening, but with the final chapter throwing it out of the window as now, the Bauldelaires are on their own and it seems that, because of this, the children are now going to be more proactive in figuring out what VFD means. 

I don’t really have much more to say about. I’m intrigued to see what happens in next few books, but I’m not sure if this will live up to my expectations. But, like I said, I think a preteen me would have devoured this series, but thirty-something me is wanting something more…