The Carnivorous Carnival/Lemony Snicket

Okay, so book nine of A Series of Unfortunate Events is, if anything, more depressing than book ten, and this is an stunning accomplishment. The Baudelaires find themselves at a run-down carnival out in the hinterlands, run by a mysterious fortune-teller who's been supplying Count Olaf with information as to their whereabouts. In order to learn if one of their parents may still be alive, the children start down the morally ambiguous road of doing Olaf-like things to survive. They adopt disguises and are hired for the carnival's freak show, and it's all downhill from there. This book is a disturbing look at human cruelty, and the narrative keeps the plot rolling forward tidily. By the end, people are dead, fires have been set, and the children have to ask themselves if they're bad people. And I need to go have a good cry or eat a cookie or something. 286 pp.