The Carnivorous Carnival (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #9)

The ninth installment in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events follows the three Baudelaire orphans as they disguise themselves as sideshow performers at a decaying carnival to hide from the villain who has pursued them since their parents' death.

The story opens with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire hiding in the trunk of Count Olaf's automobile as it drives into the hinterlands, a remote region far from the city. Olaf, who has schemed to steal the Baudelaire fortune since the children's parents died in a fire, discusses his plans with his girlfriend, Esmé Squalor, and his associates. He intends to destroy the Snicket file, a document the children believe may contain information about a survivor of the fire, and to recapture the Baudelaires. He is heading to the run-down Caligari Carnival to see Madame Lulu, a fortune-teller whose crystal ball has repeatedly revealed the children's location.

After the car stops, Violet, the eldest and a talented inventor, uses a monocle cord from Olaf's disguise collection to unlatch the trunk. Stranded without money or transportation, the children try calling Mr. Poe, the banker overseeing their affairs, but the phone line goes silent. They eavesdrop on Olaf's meeting with Lulu, learning that her crystal ball answers one question per sunrise and that Olaf plans to stay until all his questions are answered. Lulu mentions needing performers for her House of Freaks show. Violet proposes they disguise themselves using Olaf's costumes and apply for work.

Violet and Klaus, the middle child and a voracious reader, squeeze into an oversized shirt and pants, each using one arm and one leg, to pose as a two-headed person named Beverly and Elliot. Sunny, the youngest, wraps herself in a fake beard to become "Chabo the Wolf Baby," communicating only by growling. They present themselves to Lulu before Olaf and his troupe. Olaf remarks they look familiar but does not recognize them. After a humiliating interview in which Olaf forces Violet and Klaus to eat corn with their shared hands while the troupe laughs, Lulu hires them and leads them to the freaks' caravan, sharing her motto: "You must always give people what they want."

In the caravan, the children meet Hugo, a hunchback; Colette, a contortionist; and Kevin, an ambidextrous man. Each has been conditioned to view their harmless traits as shameful. That night, the children lie awake wondering whether one of their parents survived the fire. At dawn, the hook-handed man casually reveals that the crystal ball showed a Baudelaire parent is still alive, stunning the children.

The next day brings a degrading performance before a small, jeering audience. Afterward, Klaus notices the fortune-telling tent is unguarded. Before the children can investigate, Olaf returns pulling a trailer of lions and announces a new daily attraction: A randomly chosen freak will be thrown into a lion pit to be devoured. He reveals to his troupe that a Baudelaire parent is alive and hiding in the Mortmain Mountains.

The children sneak into the fortune-telling tent, where Violet discovers a mechanical device in the ceiling: mirrors, a fan belt, and gears attached to a hole facing east. At sunrise, light enters and reflects off spinning mirrors, filling the tent with flickering patterns that Olaf mistakes for magic. The crystal ball is plain glass. When Lulu tells Olaf to close his eyes, she consults her real source, hidden beneath the tablecloth: an enormous archival library of newspaper clippings, letters, and documents that explain how Lulu tracked the children's movements. The children accidentally shatter the crystal ball.

Lulu storms in, and the children confront her. She breaks down, reveals her real name is Olivia, and drops her accent. Her motto drove everything: She told Olaf the children's location, and she told volunteers of V.F.D., a secretive organization to which both she and Olaf have connections, whatever they wanted to hear. Her information came from documents, and when she lacked answers, she guessed. Her claim that a Baudelaire parent is hiding in the Mortmain Mountains was such a guess, though the mountains house one of V.F.D.'s last surviving headquarters. She describes a schism that divided the organization, making it difficult to distinguish its noble members from its corrupt ones. Klaus asks Olivia to help them instead. She agrees, and they promise to take her to the mountains.

Together they plan an escape. Violet proposes converting a roller-coaster cart into a motorized vehicle using the fan belt from the tent's device. They will leave during the next day's show. That evening, Esmé visits the freaks' caravan and offers Hugo, Colette, and Kevin positions in Olaf's troupe if they agree to push Madame Lulu into the lion pit when a freak is chosen. Motivated by jealousy, Esmé wants Lulu eliminated. Hugo, Colette, and Kevin eagerly accept. The Baudelaires refuse.

Before dawn, the children begin assembling the cart, replacing rusted parts with metal latches and ivy-stem cords. The invention still needs the fan belt, which remains in the tent. Before they can retrieve it, Olaf announces the lion show will begin immediately. As Lulu escorts the children to the pit, she secretly presses the fan belt into Violet's hand.

A massive crowd gathers. Olaf conducts a theatrical choosing ceremony, and the name drawn is Beverly and Elliot. Violet stalls, suggesting the crowd would prefer to see someone push them in rather than watch them jump. The crowd debates who should push. Olaf is pressured onto the plank but claims a cat allergy. Esmé maneuvers Lulu onto the plank, where Lulu whispers without her accent, "I'm sorry, Baudelaires," and takes the fan belt back from Violet. Hugo, Colette, Kevin, and Olaf's henchmen surge forward, competing to push someone in. The mob grows frantic. Both Olivia and Olaf's bald associate fall into the pit and are killed by the lions. The Baudelaires slip away in the chaos.

In the tent, Violet agonizes over whether their stalling made the mob more frantic; Klaus insists the tragedy is Olaf's fault. The grieving children find that Olivia had prepared for the journey: food, her disguise kit, and a map of the Mortmain Mountains marking the Valley of Four Drafts, whose initials spell V.F.D. Klaus suspects the marking is a deliberate code rather than an accidental coffee stain. Before they can search the library further, Olaf enters with Esmé. He announces he is burning the carnival and recognizes the marking as a code he learned as a child. He seizes the food, carries Sunny away, and orders Violet and Klaus to burn the tent. Needing to stay close to Sunny, they comply, and the archival library is destroyed.

The convoy departs. Hugo, Colette, and Kevin ride in Olaf's car as new troupe members, while Violet and Klaus ride in the freaks' caravan, which Violet ties to the bumper with a knot called the Devil's Tongue. As they climb into the mountains, Olaf's voice crackles over a walkie-talkie: He has learned from Lulu that the disguised freaks are the Baudelaire orphans. He needs only one orphan to steal the fortune and intends to keep Sunny. The children hear their baby sister whimpering. Hugo grips Colette's ankles as she contorts onto the trunk, holding Kevin's ankles. Kevin, using the equal strength of both arms, slashes the knot with a rusty knife. The caravan separates. Olaf's car continues upward with Sunny, while the caravan rolls backward with Violet and Klaus unable to steer. All three siblings are separated, each slipping, as the narrator describes, into "the belly of the beast."