The Slippery Slope
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| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
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| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | September 23, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 337 |
| ISBN | ISBN |
| Preceded by | The Carnivorous Carnival |
| Followed by | The Grim Grotto |
The Slippery Slope is the tenth novel in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler).
[edit] Plot summary
This book starts where The Carnivorous Carnival left off. Klaus and Violet are rolling down a steep mountainside in an out-of control caravan, while Sunny is held captive by Count Olaf and his henchmen. Violet manages to devise a method to slow and eventually stop the caravan by using the hammocks as a drag chute and spreading sticky stuff on the wheels, saving her brother's life and her own. They gather supplies and after they get out, the caravan tips over the mountainside. The two siblings travel up the mountain and are attacked by snow gnats. They find shelter from the vicious insects in a cave, which is occupied by a recreational organisation under the name of Snow Scouts. Carmelita Spats, the children's rival from The Austere Academy, is one of the Snow Scouts, along with her uncle Bruce and a boy wearing a sweater, which seems to posess knowledge about V.F.D. During the night, he talks to them and leads them up the hole over the fire (also known as Vertical Flame Diversion) to the V.F.D. headquarters.
During this time, on the peak of a Mount Fraught, the tallest mountain in the region, Sunny is constantly dehumanised by Olaf. The next morning, he forces her to cook breakfast. She makes a meal described as "delicious", but Olaf believes it is disgusting and orders the Hook-Handed Man to fetch salmon from the water fall. Two people, the one described as a woman with hair but no beard, the other as a man with a beard but no hair, having "an aura of menace", and who are also acquaintances of Olaf arrive, and announce that they have successfully burned down the headquarters. They also give Count Olaf the rest of the Snicket File. The man gives Esmé a green cigarette which is actually a Verdant Flammable Device. Sunny notices Esmé's Verdant Flammable Device and has the idea to use one under the pretext of cooking lox for Olaf and his henchman, but really in order to signal to her siblings.
Meanwhile, down below the mountain, the siblings and the boy come to the V.F.D. headquarters and find it has burnt down. The boy reveals himself to be Quigley Quagmire, whom the children believed to be dead. Violet, Klaus, and Quigley see the plume of green smoke, being emmited from the Verdant Flammable Device, rising from the cliff. Violet invents a device for her and Quigley to climb up the steep cliff to find out who signaled them. During a rest on a ledge of the cliff, Quigley appears to express romantic interest in Violet, and it is suggested that Violet and Quigley kiss. This, however, is not specified. When Quigley and Violet finish their climb and meet Sunny at the top. Violet wants Sunny to return with them, but she refuses, telling her sister that she can spy on Olaf and learn useful information. Violet reluctantly agrees, realizing that Sunny is no longer a baby.
Upon meeting again, Violet, Quigley and Klaus hatch a plan to lure Esmé to them, trap her, and use her to bait Olaf into giving Sunny back. They dig a pit and light a Verdant Flammable Device next to it. Esmé sees some green smoke at the bottom of the slope. She goes down it, thinking the smoke is coming from the "in" cigarettes that she has now run out of. The children realize that two wrongs don't equal a right and that there is a better way to rescue Sunny than kidnapping Esmé. When she reaches the bottom, she runs into three masked strangers (the Baudelaires and Quigley), and they help her climb back up the slope, hoping to get Sunny as their reward.
As they reach the top, the Snow Scouts reach the same peak of the same slope. However, there is a trap that can put all of the scouts in a huge net. Klaus, Violet, and Quigley take off their masks to convince the scouts to run. Olaf orders the two white faced women to grab them and throw Sunny off the mountain, but they leave, quitting the troupe (before they leave, they tell Olaf that one of their siblings was killed when their house burned down). The Baudelaires and Quigley are too late as the scouts, except Carmelita, are taken up into the net, including the freaks and the hook-handed man, carried by eagles. As Carmelita is convinced to join Olaf and Esmé in their evil schemes, the Baudelaires and Quigley grab a sled and slide down the slope, but when they reach the bottom, the entire side of the slope breaks open, causing a waterfall. The Baudelaires and Quigley are separated. Quigley tries to tell them to meet him somewhere, but cannot be heard over the rush of water.
[edit] Plot notes
- On the last picture, there are some mushrooms on the rocks, foreshadowing the Medusoid Mycelium in the next book, The Grim Grotto.
[edit] Cover images
 US cover |
 UK cover |
