Listened to: "The End" by Lemony Snicket

Listened to: The End by Lemony Snicket, downloaded from Overdrive.

A very good ending to the series and, more importantly, the book. I was thinking about the long term themes of the series (orphans making their way, duplicity of people, unavoidability of 'unfortunate events' in life, ethics and honesty, etc.) but I'll leave that to a PhD student.

After fleeing the Hotel Denoument in the previous novel the Baudelaires are at sea with Count Olaf when a storm washed them upon a coastal shelf and an island. The island is composed of other castaways and 'ruled' by Ishmael. Ishmael doesn't want "to force anyone" but his suggestions are accepted as orders. Ishmael orders are meant to keep the islanders safe from the evils of the world by keeping things as simple and primitive as possible.

Anyway. Olaf dies - either from a harpoon wound or Medusoid Mycelium - the islanders flee the island and the Medusoid, Kit Snicket is washed ashore, gives birth and dies, and the Baudelaires find an island history partly written by their parents. The Baudelaire parents are dead after all and Beatrice is the orphan's mother.

The ending is well done by Snicket. Loose ends are sort of tied up but, as Snicket writes, there are always mysteries and life goes on. The Baudelaires and Kit Snicket's daughter leave the island at the end.