Skulduggery Pleasant

Skulduggery Pleasant

My fiancée’s little brother offered me to borrow this book and to be quite honest I was a bit worried for a kids book that it might be a waste of time especially reading the likes of Michael Connolly for the last 2months (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal, The Black Echo) which in all honesty were some of the best books that I have ever read, captivating to say the least.

However, I proceeded to trust my future little brother in law, (as his judgement is extremely good for that of a 13 year old) and for it, I was rewarded with an excellent tale of magic and other wondrous things.

Although Derek Landy is not a literal genius, he is an absolutely fantastic writer and knows exactly how to bring things to life in your mind; he sets a vivid image on a blank canvas bringing it to life with bright colours with a dark background underneath.

Magic is a wonderful thing in stories and Derek Landy explains it excellently, almost as if he has experienced it first hand.

So I found myself deeply enjoying this book, and then it struck me as to how this could possibly be read by a 10 – 13 year old, as quite simply some of the words seem far to advanced for this age group, however it dawned on me that Derek Landy was probably trying to appeal to both age groups (Adult and Child), so for this I must commend him.

The story is basically about Stephanie and her Uncle Gordon dying. Gordon dies in the first few pages of the book and it is explained that he is a horror writer with a twist of fantasy but by the looks of things his stories are more than works of fiction, so Young Stephanie decides to go on a rather large adventure with Gordon’s best friend Skulduggery Pleasant, who also turns out to be a living skeleton (SURPRISE!!!). On their adventures they come across a range of monsters in which they have to fight and try and save the day by finding the Sceptre of the Ancients.

It all may sound slightly childish but it will certainly make you want to be a child again.

Skulduggery Pleasant & Stephanie Edgley

The characters are very well written with Skulduggery being very sarcastic, Stephanie being a very stubborn 13 year old, China being a beautiful ice queen, Tanith being the big ‘magical’ big sister, Ghastly being a man by the book, Mr Bliss being weird and wonderful and finally Serpine being the all knowing villain of the story.

It is definitely worth a read, and I am definitely going to buy the other 5 books in the series, just to see how far their adventures go. I would like to thank my future brother in law for introducing me to it and allowing me to borrow the book.

An Excellent Read!

Characters: 9/10

Storyline: 8/10

Overall: 8.5/10