"When Did You See Her Last?" (All the Wrong Questions, 2)

I truly admire the fact that Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler seems willing to soldier on with his own style, at his own speed, for his own purposes without regard to the conventions of children's lit or the lack of precedent for his approach. That said, it seems to me that sometimes his books, especially the later "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, can be repetitive or just empty and clever for the sake of cleverness.In this series, (this is the second book in the series, although care is taken to make it practical to read this one without necessarily being familiar with the first one), Snicket has more to work with and has a grander design. The result is accordingly deeper, wiser, more inventive and more rewarding. What you end up reading is a sort of kid noir magical realism. You have a deadpan, world weary, gimlet eyed 13 year old narrator with a dark sense of humor and a seen-it-all vibe. But, this isn't your typical middle or high school noir in which each school kid plays a younger version of an established noir type, (cheerleader as femme fatale, jock as a goon, isolated nerdy guy as criminal mastermind, and so on). Rather, Snicket sets his deadpan just-the-facts-ma'am hero in an odd, illogical and twisted world filled with fantastical features.The effect is a surreal yet restrained tale in which the prosaic and exceptional swirl around to create an unstable world. Sometimes this can be upsetting to adult readers, who expect a cute fun story from "Lemony Snicket". But while they are surprised by the unsettled and contrary Snicket world, kids take to it. Maybe it's because kid readers don't have settled expectations or aren't committed to conventional approaches and so respond well to the freedom of a Snicket book.These books remind me a lot of Daniel Pinkwater's playfully mystical books, (say, Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl ), but where Pinkwater is lively and upbeat the Snicket books all have a strong undercurrent of melancholy. Maybe a closer comparison is to Edward Gorey's works, but with much more word play and good humored genre bending. That's potent stuff for a younger reader, but there's nothing wrong with a challenge.So, all of this is the long way around to saying that this book is sort of a mystery, and possibly a fantasy/adventure, and maybe a coming of age story, but most definitely an ambitious and rewarding introduction for a younger reader to non-linear and fantastical storytelling.Please note that I found this book while browsing Amazon Kindle goodies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

There are six things you need to know about this book. I will list them in order, so you will not be (too) confused, and so S. Theodora Markson will approve:1. When Did You See Her Last? is the second book of Lemony Snicket's All the Wrong Questions series, a hard-boiled detective style story populated with strange people, unsettling settings, and more wrong questions than you can shake a stick at. (Why would you want to shake a stick at anything? What good would it do? Well...let's not think too hard about that.)2. This book picks up where the first book, Who Could That Be at This Hour?, left off, so if you don't want to read any spoilers ("spoiler" is a word which here means, "stop reading this right now!"), read the first book first. Also, starting at the beginning of the series instead of the middle will save you from being more perplexed and mystified than necessary.3. Even if you have read the first book, you will still be perplexed and mystified by the perplexing new mystery introduced in this second book: Cleo Knight, the daughter of the Ink Inc. owners who once made Stain'd-by-the-Sea a thriving center of ink commerce, has allegedly run away and joined the circus. It is up to young Lemony Snicket and his not-so-competent chaperone, S. Theodora Markson, to find Miss Knight.4. As implied by the title of this book, Snicket attempts to locate Miss Knight's whereabouts by asking the obvious question. However, he soon realizes that, once again, he is asking all the wrong questions. The true mystery is not, "When did you see her last?" or "Why did she run away?" but "Why aren't her parents more upset about her disappearance?" and "How can she be seen in more than one place at the same time?"5. While trying to solve the new case of the missing Cleo Knight, Snicket is still working on the case introduced in the previous book, that of the disappearing, reappearing Bombinating Beast statue. Why is a wooden, milk bottle-sized statue in the shape of an ugly creature resembling the offspring of a shark and a seahorse considered so valuable by the evasive villain named Hangfire? Why is the enigmatic Ellington Feint, a girl who captured Snicket's fancy in the first book, so anxious to get her hands on it, too?6. Fortunately, in spite of his deadweight chaperone, Snicket gets investigative help from more competent friends, including aspiring journalist Moxie Mallahan, taxi-driving brothers Pip and Squeak, and Hungry's nephew (yes, you read that last one correctly). Unfortunately, When Did You See Her Last? introduces many more questions than it answers, which means you will develop an uncomfortable itch that can only be scratched when you get to read the as-yet-unreleased third installment of this series.

The ook came with no dust jacket, which was not made clear to me as part of it's condition. Other than that, the book is in fine condition and arrived promptly when expected, undamaged.

As a big fan of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book series, I couldn't help but pick up the first book of the prequel series entitled "All the Wrong Questions". I didn't even know this was a thing until I spotted the first book at a bookstore. The first book was incredibly fun and engaging and now I am on the this book (the 2nd in the series).It's silly, quirky and wildly entertaining. Lemony Snicket is at it again. This definitely isn't a book you have to force yourself to read. It's so addicting, I've changed my day plans just to schedule in reading it! I was focused and hooked on this book the whole time. I've already ordered book 3 and 4 to complete the series!

These books are full of great mysteries, with an effective film noir feel, while still being appropriate for the younger end of the YA audience. But what we have liked the most is, reading them together as a family, we end up having great conversations about the word definitions, book references and other subtle statements sprinkled in that probably only grownups would get, but sharing and discussing them adds a new level of enjoyment for the child as well. These are also not as formulaic as the Unfortunate Events books, which really helps in wanting to read more and more.

The adventures of young Lemony Snicket continues in the second All the Wrong Questions book with When Did You See Her Last?, a mystery where a young girl called Cleo Knight appears to have disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Like the first book, Snicket remains in Stain'd-by-the-Sea, the landlocked former prosperous town whose fortune derived from seas of ink now dried up, with his master, S. Theodora Markson (the S. remains a secret). But the game is afoot and Snicket is on the trail!I'd never read a Lemony Snicket novel until the first All The Wrong Questions book and quite liked it's barmy characters, eccentric narrator, and crackling wit - that the plot flew about like a Dr Seuss story and featured the amazing art of Seth was the icing on the cake (actually Seth's art was the selling point). So it's disappointing to say that the second book didn't live up to my hopes of an equally entertaining read.The story starts well as Snicket investigates Cleo's disappearance, the oddball characters interact brilliantly, and the pacing is perfect - and then the book gets bogged down with a number of slow, uninteresting scenes, a lot of middle where middling things happen, and then we're back to the plot where the mystery is revealed (and it's not much of a reveal - we know the bad guy is Hangfire already, so guess who's behind the kidnapping? Xactly).Daniel Handler can write excellent dialogue - "Boredom is not black licorice, Snicket. There's no reason to share it with me" (p.119) - but there are too many moments where it feels he's just marking time, filling up space, or else just plain spinning his wheels. I realise this is a kids' book so I won't judge it so harshly though I felt even kids' attention would be tried with this rather plodding book.So why am I reading a kids' book? It's not that I'm a Lemony Snicket fan but rather I am a HUGE fan of Seth's art. If you've never heard of Seth aka Gregory Gallant, you need to read his stuff. Clyde Fans, Palookaville, Wimbledon Green, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken - amazing comics all. Plus he did the art on Aimee Mann's record Lost in Space, arguably her masterpiece, enhanced and matched by Seth's retro art style. I honestly wouldn't have bothered with this series if it weren't for Seth.Daniel Handler can write really well but he writes such weirdly forgettable prose that disappears as soon as I read it. This isn't just a reflection of his kids books, but I've also read one of his adult novels, Adverbs, and even as I was reading it I couldn't have told you what it was about. 6 years later and the only thing that I recall about it is the title.The characters are by and large cartoonishly delightful - I love that in this book the kids behave like adults and vice versa - though besides some occasionally brilliant lines, they are generally static and therefore uninteresting in what is a plot-driven genre, besides which the plot is a very basic mystery, and there were too many scenes that had no relevance to the story and weren't even entertaining. I love Seth's art but I wish this book had had a tighter plot and stepped at a more brisk pace.(This is a minor point but for bibliophiles like me - not at all as perverted a label as it sounds! - it's important: this book is much larger than the previous one. The first book had this pleasantly compact size and nice-feeling cover; this second is larger and has a generically smooth cover. It's annoying because it looks a lot less appealing despite the wonderful design Seth's given it, and feels overall a lot cheaper. Books are wonderful objects in themselves and in this day and age if a reader chooses a book over an e-book, it's because we enjoy the tactile experience of a book - replace that with an inferior copy than the superior one previously experienced and it makes the experience that less enjoyable. Here's hoping they stop messing about with cheap formats for the next one!)

An accessible and cleverly written thriller for children? Is it possible? Yup - reading this book with my daughter, you almost feel you know the deserted, dusty streets of Stain'd-by-the-Sea and the eeriness of the Clustrous Forest. This is a great series that has my daughter wanting to ask the question on the title of the book. Except we know that's the wrong question to ask...

This continues following snicker as he goes through his apprenticeship to yet another of snickets strange and bizarre places to sole crimes and become part of the VFD.Not giving anything away in the plot characters from pervious novels come up at unexpected occasions as usual in these novels which kept my highly amused and snickets descriptions of characters almost feel like they belong in slices wonderland at times but this did not subtract from the story on the contrary it upped it !

Unlike some trilogys this one needs to be read in order as there is a continuous story as well as the individual ones.

Excellent service all round, this book was ordered as a Christmas present but it was quite close to the day when the order was sent. It arrived promptly and was good value for money.