Skulduggery Pleasant: The Sunday Times bestselling dark fantasy adventure for children aged 11+

by Derek Landy

He’s dead. She’s deadly. The bad guys don’t stand a chance.

The iconic first book in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series.

There is a hidden world of magic and monsters, of secret histories and ancient gods. Stephanie was built for it. Stephanie was born for it. But can she survive it?

Her only hope lies with Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective, a wisecracking genius with a past as dark as Stephanie’s future…

‘A thoroughly satisfying blend of humour, magic and adventure’ Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series

368 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2025

About the author

Derek Landy is an Irish writer and screenwriter. In addition to the bestselling children's/YA series of Skulduggery Pleasant books, a supernatural mystery series starring Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective, and Valkyrie Cain, a young female magician, he has written two screenplays that have been made into films: the IFTA award winning "Dead Bodies" and the IFTA nominated "Boy Eats Girl". Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.

He doesn’t like to brag about all the awards he’s won, such as the Irish Book of the Decade, or the Red House in the UK, or all the other awards that he humbly displays on his mantelpiece. He is also far too modest to mention things like the first book being a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, but would like to extend an invitation to Oprah to pop around one day for tea, in thanks for selecting his book for the Oprah’s Book Club Kids Reading List.

Derek plays too many video games, reads too many comics, and watches too many movies. He lives in Ireland with too many cats. Occasionally he talks to real people, but only when he absolutely has to.

Reviews

[Andrew Mulliner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not the target audience for this book, though I found it to be a fairly enjoyable and easy read. I suspect I would have loved it as a youngster. As an adult reader, however, I felt it relied a little too heavily on deus ex machina, and the magic system seemed inconsistent and poorly defined.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the best first book of a series I’ve ever read

[courtney w]

the books you read as a kid can either roll like water off a duck's back, or inject themselves straight into your cellular DNA. this whole series was the latter. i probably read skulduggery pleasant a hundred times - it was my "backup book" for years, meaning i would take it everywhere with me just in case i finished the book i was currently reading with time left to spare. car rides, plane trips, excursions, DEAR time at school, all featured this living skeleton detective and his badass tween girl partner. stephanie edgely is like an old friend of mine, and returning to her now was a sort of homecoming i didn't know i had been craving. going back to the start and being introduced to characters whose stories i know have tragic turns is heartwrenching but rewarding all the same. i absolutely intend on revisiting the rest of this series, and hopefully finishing it this time! when i was younger, i caught up to Derek Landy and was too impatient to wait for him to publish the next book, so i moved on and never got to the end of the story. wish me luck, it's reached 18 books and i think he's still going.

[Diego Gutierrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0
I liked the humor, but I had two main problems with this book (mild spoilers ahead): 1) free, no-rule magic system. Things just happened when it was convenient, there was no cost to using magic. Skulduggery literally could flick his fingers and send enemies flying. And 2) Skulduggery was simply invincible. He could be tortured, thrown off a cliff, swallowed by a wall... he'd just shrug it off and move on. Also, he happened to have a very convenient immunity against the ultimate weapon, so there goes the tension. Too bad, I really liked to enjoy the series much better. I may read book 2 still, but we'll see.

[Gwynevere Groß · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit hard for me to rate something I have such a strong nostalgic connection to, but goddamn it is just that good. An amazing first entry into a series that - from what I’ve recently learned - apparently has about 15 mainline novels and eight spin-offs? That’s crazy, but I’m excited to get to ALL of them. Yes. I am determined.

[SummeroftheSeasons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magic, humour and a detective duo, what more could I ask for. This took a few of my favourite elements from Sherlock and Discworld but created something totally unique. No better feeling than finding a quality middlegrade/YA read that I can recommend to kids. The perfect palette cleanser. Keen to read much more from this series!

[Goldenwattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

She's only twelve; I had to continuously remind myself of that, as this twelve year old spoke with an adult voice. That niggled me, and did influence what I thought of this story. Likely children will like it though.

[Craiggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me; a jump back into something familiar and comforting. And what a pleasant rekindling it was.
This was an excellent return to where this series started, and I am reminded of just how much I enjoyed this series to begin with. A brilliant first book.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun. It has everything that makes a good story—action, humor, betrayal, magic, a living skeleton, and an evil villain that is set on world domination.

I enjoyed it and plan on reading the rest of the series!

[Alice Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's fast-paced and full of actions. The dialogue is well-written and witty, slightly different from the previous edition though.

[Holly Bale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book forever will this book took me on a whirl wind of emotions and I will be purchasing the entire series. So worth the read!!