Who Could It Be At This Hour?

Who Could It Be At This Hour? is the first book in Lemony Snicket's newest series, All The Wrong Questions. The book is wonderfully fun. It's short, interesting and quirky. If your familiar with Snicket's series A Series Of Unfortunate Events, you'll see the same distinct writing style.  Who Could It Be At This Hour? follows Lemony Snicket's apprenticeship after his "unusual education."  I'm assuming this apprenticeship is for the VFD (if you've read Unfortunate Events, you'll know what I mean).  His chaperone is abysmal.  How she ever became a member of the organization I don't understand.  She's so annoyingly shortsighted.  There's also something strange about the innkeeper.... and the phone.... and the coffee shop.

Why do the adults not listen to children?  They're not even that young.  12 or 13 seems like a pretty good age where someone can explain what is going on. Also, Stew's parents are awful, so blind and so like other parents I've seen. I love Snicket's characters, especially the girls. Moxie and Ellington were fabulous, though different. I also loved brothers Pip and Squeak (nicknames). They were smart and fun.

The illustrations are super cute.  They're interesting and I think they really add depth to the story.  Snicket's illustrator is Seth, a different one from his last series and from his other books.  I really enjoyed this distinct style and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with for the next book.

My only minor complaint about Who Could It Be At This Hour? is that the story is left hanging, by a lot.  Not just a little.  I know it's the first of four volumes, but I still wish there was a little more conclusion in the ending.  I don't feel like enough questions were answered, though the series is called All The Wrong Questions, so what could I expect?  One thing the conclusion definitely did was made me eager for the second book, When Did You See Her Last? (clearly a "wrong question").  I have to know what happens.  I imagine I am already sucked into this world the same way I was with Unfortunate Events. If Snicket keeps publishing books with clever stories and mysteries that need solving, I'll keep reading them.

(You know, I really should read something by Daniel Handler.  I've only ever read the Snicket books... Though I've only read Sophie Kinsella and not Madeline Wickham too.  Maybe my brain can't made the crossover...)