Why is This a Wrong Question? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Where does Kit live?

The series takes place in Stain'd-by-the-Sea, a town with a declining population. It was once underwater, but the sea was removed to improve octopus ink farming methods; this ended up backfiring, and the town is now a shadow of what it once was.

Snicket's apprenticeship, as part of his V.F.D. training, takes place in this town: he stays in the Lost Arms. The Clusterous Forest which surrounds the town is very eerie.

Answer: What does Prosper buy from Moxie?

The Bombinating Beast is an important but mysterious object in the book. Lemony Snicket and his chaperone, S. Theodora Markson, are hired by "Mrs. Murphy Sallis" to steal this from the Mallahans, who Mrs. Sallis claims took it from her.

Answer: Who tells Snicket about Black Cat Coffee?

Moxie Mallahan lives in the Stain'd Lighthouse with her father. Her mother left Stain'd-by-the-Sea to try to find a job in the city, after Moxie's parents both became unemployed when the local newspaper folded.

Answer: Who works as a scientist?

Snicket meets Ellington Feint after falling off a hawser; she is searching for her father, who was supposedly kidnapped by a mysterious villain named Hangfire. She gets the Bombinating Beast from Snicket after tricking him by using a fake package which he thinks is the statue, and the first novel in the series ends shortly after she runs off with it.

Answer: Where is Ellington hiding?

Dashiell Qwerty is a sub-librarian who works at the library. At one point in the story, Snicket hides the Bombinating Beast behind a book called "An Analysis of Black, Brown and Beige", thinking it sounds extremely boring. Ellington later tells him it was the first book she would have looked for in the library; the book is a reference to a jazz symphony composed by Duke Ellington.

Answer: Who has a sister named Kit?

Theodora stops Snicket from drinking laudanum on their first meeting, as the people he is with are trying to stop him meeting her. Snicket selected the worst V.F.D. chaperone (52nd out of 52) in an attempt to be able to sneak around and carry out something he had planned with Kit, his sister.

Theodora and Snicket stay in the Far East Suite (another reference to Duke Ellington) in the Lost Arms.

Answer: What is Hector's surname?

Harvey and Mimi Mitchum are Stain'd-by-the-Sea's slightly incompetent police officers; they have an annoying son named Stew who makes a police siren noise when his parents are driving around town.

Answer: Is Prosper a taxi driver?

Black Cat Coffee is recommended to Snicket by Ellington; it's where he finds the Bombinating Beast which she had tried to trick him out of. It ends up in her hands anyway when she tricks him again.

Dashiell Qwerty, the town's sub-librarian, is described as wearing a leather jacket and having messy hair.

Snicket sends a request for a book at the city where Kit is: the book is supposedly called "But I Cannot Meet You at the Fountain". Qwerty receives a reservation from that library for a book called "I'll Measure It Myself" by Don T. Worry.

Pip and Squeak are taxi drivers; they are substituting for their father, who is ill. As they are children, they are both needed to drive: Pip steers while Squeak operates the brakes.

Prosper Lost is the owner of the Lost Arms.

Answer: Does Hector appear in this novel?

Hangfire, not Pip or Squeak, can imitate voices perfectly.

Theodora, despite Snicket asking several times, does not reveal her first initial in this book.

Snicket is "nearly thirteen" in this book.

Hector appears in the 13th chapter of the novel; a character from "A Series of Unfortunate Events" appearing is a recurring theme in the final chapter of "All the Wrong Questions".

Answer: What should Moxie have asked when the doorbell rang?

The titular wrong question is asked by Ellington and Snicket; the narrator describes it as "the question that is printed on the cover of this book". When Ellington asks it, the answer is "Harvey and Mimi Mitchum", and when Snicket asks it, the answer is "Hangfire pretending to be Ellington".