Product Description

Fleeing the village of VFD, after some time in the Deluxe cell for a murder they did not commit, the Baudelaires hide with the Volunteers Fighting Disease on their way to the Heimlich Hospital. Addressed by Babs, who can only be contacted through an intercom speaker on a desk, the orphans start work with the near-sighted Hal in the hospital library of records. Hal says he remembers a file in the records to do with the Snicket fires, but before the children can find it, Babs is suddenly replace by Mattathias - none other than Count Olaf - who plans to inspect every employee in the hospital. Staying late to find the file, the Baudelaires find a picture of their parents with Jacques Snicket, and another, partly obscured figure who may be a writer. But at that moment Esme Squalor arrives - Klaus and Sunny escape, but Violet is led to the operating theatre for a cranioectomy. Disguising themselves, Klaus and Sunny manage to rescue the unconscious Violet, but not before Esme has set fire to the library of records, adding arson to the false charges now facing the children. Chased through the now burning hospital, they make their escape, only to discover that the only way out is to hide in the trunk of Count Olaf's car - possibly the most dangerous place of all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8775 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Synopsis
Fleeing the village of VFD, after some time in the Deluxe cell for a murder they did not commit, the Baudelaires hide with the Volunteers Fighting Disease on their way to the Heimlich Hospital. Addressed by Babs, who can only be contacted through an intercom speaker on a desk, the orphans start work with the near-sighted Hal in the hospital library of records. Hal says he remembers a file in the records to do with the Snicket fires, but before the children can find it, Babs is suddenly replace by Mattathias - none other than Count Olaf - who plans to inspect every employee in the hospital. Staying late to find the file, the Baudelaires find a picture of their parents with Jacques Snicket, and another, partly obscured figure who may be a writer. But at that moment Esme Squalor arrives - Klaus and Sunny escape, but Violet is led to the operating theatre for a cranioectomy. Disguising themselves, Klaus and Sunny manage to rescue the unconscious Violet, but not before Esme has set fire to the library of records, adding arson to the false charges now facing the children.

Chased through the now burning hospital, they make their escape, only to discover that the only way out is to hide in the trunk of Count Olaf's car - possibly the most dangerous place of all.

Customer Reviews

Best of the 13 books!!!
Before you throw this awful book to the ground and run far away from it as possible, you should probably know why. This book is the only one which describes every last detail of the Baudelaire children's miserable stay at Heimlich Hospital, which makes it one of the most dreadful books in the world. There are many pleasant things to read about, but this book contains none of them. Within its pages are such burdensome details as a suspicious shopkeeper, unnecessary surgery, an intercom system, anaesthesia, heart-shaped balloons, and some very startling news about a fire. Clearly you do not want to read about such things.

"But this might be the right VFD"
Let me say before talking about the book that you should not read this review. There are probably happier things to do with your time than read a review that will tell you what to expect from the unfortunate story of the Baudelaire orphans. Therefore, you should click on the x at the top right of your screen right now!

Still, here? OK, don't tell me I did not warn you; here is where we are. At the beginning of the book we find the poor Baudelaires running away from the police. They are wanted for a murder the did not commit. And what is even worse, the supposed victim, Count Olaf, is not even dead! At least the two Quagmire triplets have been able to escape from the evil Count, but they are on an air balloon and cannot communicate with Violet, Klaus and Sunny to explain the secret of VFD.

Violet, the inventor, Klaus, the erudite reader, and Sunny, the ferocious biter, send a telegram to the useless Mr. Poe to ask for help STOP But before getting a reply they have to run away again and join the Volunteer Fighting Disease. Is this the VFD they are looking for? That is how they end in Heimlich Hospital working in the Library of Records. Here, they come across many picturesque characters. The hospital administrator, Babs, communicates with everyone through speakers. She has the theory that kids should not be heard and adults should not be seen. This is just as snippet of Snicket's genius, which he uses to create novel ideas to work with, and thus, make us laugh throughout his stories.

As you can imagine, Count Olaf will show up sooner or later, as will the repugnant Esme Squalor. In that regard, this is the book in which we see Lemony Snicket coming closer to the story of the Baudelaires and drop hints left and right as to his involvement in the events that led to the current status quo. For example, he alludes to his interaction with Esme Squalor, several times throughout the story.

This is the darkest story in the series so far, and it is plagued with dangerous situations. Snicket is at the top of his game in using humor to keep us engaged. He keeps regaling us with expressions by Sunny and their appropriate translations making us laugh non-stop. He also is extremely good at applying common sense in dissecting popular sayings, such as "No news is good news". Everyone knows that "No news is no news".

Even though I know I should not be reading this series and should instead find something happier to do, I will go ahead and plunge into the next book as soon as I finish writing this sad, sad, sad, sad review. I hope you are as miserable reading this installment of the series as I was.

One of the funniest
I loved this book.I read it nonstop and it took me one hour to read.Though that's actually a very long time for me, but never mind.I've read all of Snicket's books and thought that this was the funniest book in this series.I can't explain why.I just did.It was pretty gripping, and you could also have quite a few good laughs and i loved it.One of the best books in the series, that's what i thought.Iwould reccommend that you read this, though you should read the books in order so that they'll make more sense.If you start with this book, you will get very confused and won't know what anyone is talking about.This was a good story and a great read and i loved it.