"Who Could That Be at This Hour?": Also Published as "All the Wrong Questions: Question 1" (All the Wrong Questions, 1)

I had almost forgotten how much I love Lemony Snicket. It’s been nearly 10 years since the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events was released, and aside from squeeing at whispers of a Netflix adaptation, I hadn’t thought much about it since then. But then I drew this book out of my TBR jar and everything came flooding back. For those of you who have never read A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket is a fictional author who devoted his life to researching the Baudelaire orphans (the novels’ main characters), and is also a character in the novels himself. The books are mysteries in a sense, and they are some of the most smart and weird and hilarious books I’ve ever read. All The Wrong Questions is Snicket’s newest series, focusing on himself as a child and acting as a prequel of sorts to ASoUE. I devoured this first book in just a few hours and immediately ordered the rest of the series.In “Who Could That Be at This Hour?”, Lemony Snicket is a thirteen-year-old boy, fresh from an “unusual education” at the hands of a secret organization that readers of A Series of Unfortunate Events will recognize. His apprenticeship begins when he climbs out the window of a tea-shop bathroom and only gets stranger from there. In a very strange town filled with very strange people, Lemony is hired to find a stolen object that might not be stolen at all. His mentor S. Theodora Markson, a mostly incapable woman who refuses to answer what the “S” stands for, is little help, so Lemony finds some associates of his own and solves the mystery of what exactly is going on in Stain’d by the Sea.His associates, the side characters in the book, were fantastic. There’s Pip and Squeak, two literature loving boys who drove a taxi for “tips” (mostly cryptic book recommendations that were super fun to figure out). Later on we meet Ellington, a mysterious, coffee-loving girl with intentions unknown. Moxie, the last journalist in town and the girl in possession of the maybe-stolen statue, helps Lemony with research and pasta-making. And the adults, in typical Lemony Snicket fashion, are not nearly as helpful as they ought to be. All of the characters are quirky, and their idiosyncrasies (a word which here means whimsical peculiarities and peculiar whimsies) were so much fun.One of my favorite things about Lemony Snicket’s writing is the wordplay. He uses repetition, definitions (see above), and strange similes (“Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate, if the cup of hot chocolate had vinegar added to it and were placed in a refrigerator for several hours”). It comes off clever, laugh-out-loud funny and very weird at the same time, and I just love it.The mystery is also typical Lemony Snicket style, in that you have more questions at the end than you do at the beginning, but not in a frustrating way. The book does have a cliffhanger, though, just as a warning. Overall, this was a great first book in the series and has reminded me of my long lost love. I will definitely be continuing the series, and I think it’s time to give A Series of Unfortunate Events a re-read too!www.geekglitter.com

Who Could That Be at This Hour? is the first book of a new series called All the Wrong Questions. If you have never read Lemony Snicket before, consider this a friendly warning: once you start, you might be intrigued, you might want to keep turning the pages, and you might even laugh, but there is no guarantee the sad scenarios presented in his stories will ever lead to a happy ending. If you have read Lemony Snicket before, I am sorry to say All the Wrong Questions contains more of the quirky characters, gloomy settings, and dry humor that filled readers with melancholy and dread in A Series of Unfortunate Events.Still willing to take the risks mentioned above? Very well. Although the style and humor of Who Could That Be at This Hour? are very similar to Snicket’s first series, this hard-boiled detective-style book introduces a new cast of characters and a new plot, so you don’t need to be familiar with A Series of Unfortunate Events in order to experience the same quality of nail-biting anticipation as those who have read Snicket before. The story begins with 13-year-old Lemony Snicket receiving a secret message from S. Theodora Markson (don’t ask what the “S” stands for), his new chaperone. Snicket and his chaperone travel to Stain’d-by-the-Sea, an almost ghost town that was once the center of a thriving ink industry, in which they take on an assignment to recover an allegedly stolen statue of the town’s legendary Bombinating Beast (not to be confused with the Maltese Falcon—that’s a different story). Unfortunately, Ms. Markson is not much help in solving the case. She is that dangerous combination of being completely convinced she knows everything while actually being completely incompetent. Snicket does meet some other characters who may or may not intend to help him, including Moxie Mallahan, a budding journalist; Dashiell Qwerty, the town’s sub-librarian (not to be confused with Dashiell Hammett—that’s a different person); and Ellington Feint, a girl who is a mystery herself. The more Snicket investigates, the more he realizes nothing is what it seems. To his frustration, he keeps asking all the wrong questions. However, as frustrating as this seemingly unsolvable mystery is, it corkscrews between dead ends and new clues in such an intriguing manner that the reader may come up with many questions of his or her own before anxiously reaching the last page.Reader, be warned: I have read this book three times, and the frustratingly unsolvable parts do not get any less frustratingly unsolvable, nor does the gloomy mood hanging over Stain’d-by-the-Sea as darkly as its few remaining inkwells get any less gloomy. However, if you think laughing at the story’s frequent absurdities (“absurdity” is a word which here means something so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh at it) will make up for the unsolvable gloominess of it all, then read at your own risk.

What better way to bring in the future of Snicket's universe than with a deep dive into the past? Once again, Snicket is building a world that is alluring and intriguing to navigate! Read the book now, before Netflix inevitably brings it to the small screen!

Como muitos livro importados, ele é leve, impresso em papel jornal.Tem algumas ilustrações, impressas com bastante qualidade, mas a maior parte realmente é texto.Comprei para utilizar nas aulas de inglês para um aluno do 5o ano, nível Intermediário 2.A história de mistério é interessante e traz muito vocabulário novo, mas a maioria tem a explicação no próprio livro. Um bom produto para alunos de 10-13 anos com boa fluência de leitura.

Got this book for my ten year old..he loved it. Ordered next book in the series.

Great read!

Wonderful I loved it very much and I think it had the perfect amount of dramas, kidnapping, mistletoe and murder. I think 8+ for ages as it can be a bit scary although I am 11 I still found it chilling to say the least

有名な子供向けの作家さんの作品みたいです。内容も面白いです。アリスワンダーランドより読みやすくて良かった。お試し版なので、これからってところで終わりますが。