The snake and the apple tree. The benevolent dictatorship and the tyranny of peer pressure. A floating library and a deadly fungus. The saga of the Baudelaire triplets has come to The End. Some loose ends are tied. Some mysteries remain. The atmosphere is not as treacherous, dangerous and heart-stopping as the previous twelve books, but that comes as a relief! Makes you think more instead of cowering for your life. Even with the final resolution, enough remains open-ended for Snickety to start a whole new series.
I'm surprised more people aren't pissed at the way he chose to end the book. It was really a parable about how innocence is harmful to children, how the fall of man was a good thing, how life is boring without sin/deviance, and amazingly, how religious mobs are dangerous and self-destructive.
Really, I'm amazed this hasn't become a banned book. I loved it, of course.
I forgot to mention, sympathy for the devil.
The reading level of these book is way over fundies' heads. And even if they can read it, they cannot understand - they 'don't do' metaphors.