![The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #5)](https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320706187m/131123.jpg)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After their disastrous time at the mill, the Baudelaires are sent to boarding school while Mr Poe searches for another guardian.
The orphans love to learn, so this would seem to be an excellent solution. But it is not to be. They are forced to live in a hut with crabs on the floor and dripping fungus on the roof. As Sunny is too young to go to school, she is employed as the administrator's secretary!! It's a tough gig for a toddler. When the staples run out she has to make her own!
On the upside they make new friends - fellow orphans in similar circumstances (tragic fire, large inheritance etc). Duncan and Isadora Quagmire are triplets (the third perished in the aforementioned fire) and offer to help the Baudelaires when they realise that Count Olaf has again shown up to try to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune.
I don't want to give too much away - but let's just say that the Quagmires run foul of Count Olaf. The story ends on a real cliffhanger and for once there is more at stake than just the lives of the Baudelaires...
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