The Slippery Slope
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| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre |
Gothic fiction Absurdist fiction Steampunk Mystery |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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September 23, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 337 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 52602720 |
| Fic 22 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.S6795 Sl 2003 |
| Preceded by | The Carnivorous Carnival |
| Followed by | The Grim Grotto |
The Slippery Slope is the tenth novel in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was illustrated by Brett Helquist and released on September 23, 2003. In the novel, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire make their way up the Mortmain Mountain to rescue their sister Sunny from Count Olaf and his troupe. They meet Quigley Quagmire, a character who they thought to be dead, and visit the headquarters of a mysterious organization called "V.F.D." They are reunited with Sunny and manage to escape from Olaf. The book has received positive reviews and been translated into several different languages.
The book starts where The Carnivorous Carnival left off. Klaus Baudelaire and Violet are rolling down a steep mountainside in an out-of control caravan, while Sunny Baudelaire is held captive by Count Olaf and his associates/henchmen. Violet devises a brake for the caravan by using the hammocks as a drag chute and spreading sticky foods on the wheels. The two siblings travel up the mountain, discovering that vicious Snow Gnats have followed them. They take shelter from the insects in a cave, discovering that it is occupied by a troupe of Snow Scouts. Carmelita Spats, the children's rival from The Austere Academy, is one of the Snow Scouts, along with her Uncle Bruce (the man who collected Uncle Monty's reptiles) and a boy wearing a sweater, who seems to possess knowledge of V.F.D. Bruce and the Snow Scouts, except for Carmelita, welcome the Baudelaires to stay with them. During the night, the boy in the sweater talks to them and leads them up the natural chimney (also known as a Vertical Flame Diversion) to the V.F.D. headquarters.
Meanwhile, Olaf, his associates, and Sunny are on the peak of Mount Fraught, the tallest mountain in the region. The adults are cruel to Sunny (though the two white-faced women shows her some sympathy and appreciation), forcing her to sleep in a casserole dish and cook them breakfast the next morning, which she impressively accomplishes despite the lack of ingredients. Olaf insists that what she has prepared is disgusting and orders the Hook-Handed Man to fetch salmon from the nearby stream. Two people, a woman with hair but no beard and a man with a beard but no hair arrive, and announce that they have successfully burned down the V.F.D. headquarters. They also give Count Olaf the first twelve pages of the Snicket File. The man gives Esmé a green cigarette which is actually a Verdant Flammable Device, a device used by V.F.D. to signal in emergencies by lighting it on fire and sending green smoke into the air. Esmé immediately says that they are very "in". Sunny notices Esmé Squalor's Verdant Flammable Device and uses one to signal her siblings under the pretext of smoking the just-caught salmon for Olaf and his evil associates.
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