“If you were going to give a gold medal to the least delightful person on earth, you would have to give that medal to a person named Carmelita Spats, and if you didn’t give it to her, Carmelita Spats was the sort of person who would snatch it from your hands anyway.”

From Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy.

When the book opens, the Baudelaire siblings are again in a time of great transition; they have been removed from their previous guardian at the mill and are being placed under the care of Prufrock Preparatory School. Prufrock Prep is a dismal, depressing boarding school, and most of the students match the school in unpleasantness. The Baudelaires are subjected to multiple cruelties because they are orphans; one of the few positives is that they are able to befriend Isadora and Duncan Quagmire (fellow orphans attending the school). Count Olaf shows up disguised as the school’s new gym teacher and begins making the young orphans run countless laps every night so much so that the Baudelaires begin sleeping through and failing all their other classes. The Quagmires and Baudelaires devise a plan that would allow Violet and Klaus to study at night with the notes that Isadora and Duncan took during the day. If these children can just pull off this plan, each one of them be able to benefit from the others’ help, but can they pull it off before Olaf gets completes his plan for the Baudelaires?

Snicket again proves that characters can be solid and well-fleshed-out regardless of the age of the audience. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are more developed in this book, both as reoccurring characters and growing children. The writing is, as always, quick-paced and full of wit; if there is a chance for an explanation of a word or phrase, the story will be paused for the betterment of the reader. The story, writing style, and characters all come together to create a book that really resonates with the unfortunateness that is the Baudelaires’ lives. The Austere Academy is a fun addition to the series and definitely not to be missed.