Lemony Snicket Promises Characters Will Die in Last Book
Newsweekreports that Lemony Snicket has warned fans that two characters die in the last installment of his bestselling series.
Young readers, already worried about Harry Potter, now face a new threat. Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, 36) says at least two characters will die in his 13th and final "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book, The End. The fate of the Baudelaire orphans and their nemesis, Count Olaf, will be revealed when 2.5 million copies go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on the appropriately unlucky day of Friday, Oct. 13. The first dozen "Unfortunate" books have sold more than 50 million copies.
Booksellers applaud the timing. Mary McCarthy of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee hates to see the series end, but says "certainly 13 is the way to go." In a Potter-less year, "this will fill sort of a void," says Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Illinois. On Oct. 13, her stores will hold trivia contests with "unfortunate prizes" like moldy cheese and socks with holes. And Barnes & Noble will raffle off 797 autographed copies (one at each of its stores). "The books have a Dickensian charm," says Josalyn Moran, B&N's VP of children's books. Readers' lives "are a piece of cake compared to the poor orphans."
On Sept. 5, HarperCollins is releasing The Beatrice Letters, a related book with clues to how the "Un-fortunate" series will end. Paramount/Nickelodeon has the rights to more movies. As for The End, the book's editor, Susan Rich, promises that it delivers an "unhappily ever after" finish.
The End will be available everywhere on the planet on October 13, 2006: we can hardly wait to see how horribly it all turns out.
