Review: Skulduggery Pleasant

Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant #1) by Derek Landy

 

Title: Skulduggery Pleasant

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant, #1

Author: Derek Landy

 

Published: HarperCollins Publishers; 2007

371 pages, paperback

 

Source: Borrowed from the library

 

 Description (from Goodreads):

 Meet Skulduggery Pleasant. Sure, he may lose his head now and again (in fact, he won his current skull in a poker match), but he is much more than he appears to be—which is good, considering that he is, basically, a skeleton. Skulduggery may be long dead, but he is also a mage who dodged the grave so that he could save the world from an ancient evil. But to defeat it, he'll need the help of a new partner: a not so innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie. That's right, they're the heroes.

Stephanie and Skulduggery are quickly caught up in a battle to stop evil forces from acquiring her recently deceased uncle's most prized possession—the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Ancients were the good guys, an extinct race of uber-magicians from the early days of the earth, and the scepter is their most dangerous weapon, one capable of killing anyone and destroying anything. Back in the day, they used it to banish the bad guys, the evil Faceless Ones. Unfortunately, in the way of bad guys everywhere, the Faceless Ones are staging a comeback and no one besides our two heroes believes in the Faceless Ones, or even that the Sceptre is real.

So Stephanie and Skulduggery set off to find the Sceptre, fend off the minions of the bad guys, beat down vampires and the undead, prove the existence of the Ancients and the Faceless Ones, all while trading snappy, snippy banter worthy of the best screwball comedies.

 

My Thoughts:

Reading this book was kind of a dare. My friend (love you, Alisha!) and a guy at school struck a deal: they had to read each other’s favourite book. The guy told my friend to read Skulduggery Pleasant, as it was his favourite series. Not too enthused, because let’s face it, a skeleton detective that can use magic sounds lame and childish, she began it a little grudgingly. But she enjoyed it. Surprised? I was too, so I decided that I had to give it a go. Boy was I shocked when I was unable to put...more Reading this book was kind of a dare. My friend (love you, Alisha!) and a guy at school struck a deal: they had to read each other’s favourite book. The guy told my friend to read Skulduggery Pleasant, as it was his favourite series. Not too enthused, because let’s face it, a skeleton detective that can use magic sounds lame and childish, she began it a little grudgingly. But she enjoyed it. Surprised? I was too, so I decided that I had to give it a go. Boy was I shocked when I was unable to put it down! I was captivated, utterly enthralled and enraptured. I was up to one in the morning pouring over its orange-tinted pages, incapable of stopping for even a second. The story of Skulduggery Pleasant follows the young Stephanie as she meets Skulduggery himself at her Uncle Gordon’s funeral and from there the real adventure begins, as she is thrown into a supernatural and magical world she never knew existed. She and Skulduggery band together to investigate her uncle’s death and along the way battle evil sorcerers, trolls and vampires, fight for revenge and, of course to save the world from a horrible end. They learn quickly the importance of friendship, who they can trust… and who will betray them all. Dramatic, right? You bet! Witty, charming and flat-out hilarious, Skulduggery is the first character that has actually made me chuckle, giggle and really, truly and literally fall off me bed with a bellyache from laughing so hard. Where to even begin expressing how funny this guy actually is… I have never, ever laughed so hard for a character, not ever! And when Skulduggery did have me chuckling like a lunatic, he had me on the very edge of my seat, nervously biting my nails, wondering, waiting, anticipating, screaming with the suspense of it… what is going to happen? In the rest of the book , I was absorbed with the new magical system introduced by Derek Landy , the new creatures and fresh versions of your typical clichéd ones, epic and totally kick-ass battles and the beautiful quotes that kept popping up… “The world is bigger than you know, and scarier than you might imagine. The only currency worth anything is being true to yourself, and the only goal worth seeking is finding out who you truly are.” “Every solution to every problem is simple. It's the distance between the two where the mystery lies.” Any negatives? Well, of course, no book is perfect… but this was close! There were two things that bugged me was a) Stephanie could have been more badass and she was a too little wise beyond her years, and b) the names having magical properties and not knowing your “true” name has been done plenty of times, so many it’s become rather clichéd. But, let’s not dwell on the negatives…. In case, you haven’t understood a single thing I have written I’ll end by saying that I loved this book. I didn’t expect to, but I did. If you’re looking for a light-hearted but suspenseful, quirky and gripping supernatural mystery that will leave you with a stomach-ache from all the laughing, what are you doing reading this review? Go out and get a copy now! You won’t regret it, I promise!