Skulduggery Pleasant

Book Title: Skulduggery Pleasant

Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #1

Date Started: June 6th 2016

Date Completed: June 7th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Action, Thriller, Horror, Adventure
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

Let me start with a little ramble about me before I start a longer ramble about this book. When I was about eight my mum won a book for me and that book went on to become my Harry Potter - don't get me wrong, Harry Potter  was a huge part of my childhood too, but Skulduggery Pleasant grew up with me. Val was only a few years older than me and these books ended the year I had to start thinking like an adult; about university, and jobs, and money. Skulduggery ending was like me kissing my childhood goodbye, and yes I sobbed when it finished. So when I decided to reread the series during my final A Level exams I was kind of terrified it wasn't going to be what I remembered through those rose-tinted glasses before debt and uni because a thing. I needn't have worried. It was everything I remember and more.

Derek's writing is very vibrant and vivid without needing to be overly descriptive. I think it's mainly because he knows his characters inside out, so he can immediately show their mannerisms and relationships to others and the world without needing to explain too much. It's also some of the only writing that genuinely makes me laugh out loud - as someone who's been rereading parts of this book for about a decade, there are jokes I'm so used to that still actually make me laugh.

The world building in the series is also very solid, despite the fact that it ends up as the most basic foundations for what the universe becomes. We have thought-out magic systems, believable politics, and classic hidden rooms, sacred artefacts and mysterious books and keys and weapons floating about the place.

I've never been able to quite put a genre on Skulduggery and its story without stringing together adventure-action-mystery-fantasy-film-noir-and-horror into one terribly named hybrid. It's got a little bit of everything and somehow it'll make you love every part of it, regardless how you get on with each individual genre. I'm not a horror-lover, but I appreciate the creativity of a right hand without skin that can literally kill people just by pointing it at them; I'm also not so attached to classic adventure, but there's something indulgent about the reckless freedom Stephanie has in the book. There isn't really a way to explain these books without saying they're a combination of so many different things weaved so seamlessly into one another.

Like I've said already, this series grows into a much more complicated and dark tone as the story goes on, but you know I often don't give enough credit to how mature and well-crafted the first book is itself. I know things get more brutal, but Skulduggery Pleasant isn't a walk in the park either. It treats serious subjects with respect but also allows it to be understandable and accessible for younger readers. When you throw in its unpredictable nature with brilliant twists, a genuine tension and threat, and an awesome climactic battle, there isn't really much more you can ask from a book about skeleton detective and his magical world, and the little girl caught in the middle of it.

Skulduggery Pleasant's characters are really the high points of his books. Each one has their own personality, and each one is as phenomenally developed and executed as the next. He doesn't hesitate at including genuinely unpleasant people, or painfully normal ones, or absolutely exceptional individuals: he's writing a world, and in a world there is this brilliant diversity that instantly lifts everything up as more believable and engaging.

I forgot how normal Stephanie was to start with. That feels weird to type out even as I write this, but she really is just a girl who gets caught up in a huge world because she got on well with her uncle, but happens to have enough determination to make a difference in it (and it's not brute stubbornness or recklessness, it's actually intelligent determination - I'm getting rather bored of the stubborn and reckless but frankly stupid protagonist who saves the world mainly through luck lets be honest).

There isn't too much to say about Skulduggery past that he's just as much of a mystery at the start as he is at the end, but you love him anyway. He might be a little more subtle with his arrogance here though. Smooth bastard.

And though she doesn't come into her stride until later in the series, I did want to mention Tanith. I don't think I appreciated her position as an outsider who has to make tough decisions when I read the book years ago. But having come through the series with her being one of my favourite characters, and looking back in detail at her here has given me a real appreciation for how Derek writes women. Not just Tanith of course, but I've always connected with her especially, and the way that I've seen her be developed so much farther than I'm used to, and in ways that you don't often see from female characters in long series like this just reminded me how much I admire Skulduggery for its quality, as well as enjoyment.

The pacing was really good the whole way through. We start off quite calmly but with a clear sense of atmosphere heading towards the gothic suspense genre, and almost immediately tension and mystery starts building pretty consistently. There's never a useless of boring chapter, there's always something important or interesting happening; a good balance between action and dialogue, drama and humour, light-hearted and darker moments. Derek's very good at structuring his stories so whenever you break off or jump back into the story, you're pulled right back into the middle of the chaos, but you're still in a good position to understand what's happening.

There's something for everyone in this series: action, mystery, humour, fantasy, the list goes on. It's one of those books I skim read all the time whenever I'm bored or need a pick-me-up and it's so easy to fall into. As the first book in the series, it's inevitably a little lighter, quicker and simpler than what the series becomes, but it's still so, so, so good.

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