Skulduggery Pleasant discussion

Imagine a world with magic fireballs, a living skeleton, and people that can turn to stone; Skullduggery Pleasant is the first book in a ten book series. This novel was written by Derek Landy who was born 23 October 1974, he is an Irish author and screenwriter, he is best known for the Skulduggery Pleasant series. Derek Landy has been trying to adapt the series into a movie after he signed a deal with 20th century fox US$1 mill. This novel is the first out of the ten and is the origin for the whole series. The series if a fantasy fiction story with adventure and mystery spread throughout it. It is set in Derek Landy’s home Dublin, Ireland and is set when it was published, 2007.

The novel is about a teenage girl named Stephanie who is the main character, she finds out about this magical world when she meets a living skeleton named Skulduggery Pleasant at her Uncle’s funeral. She follows him for most of the beginning of the book and learns about the magic world and the people in this world. She wants to solve the mystery of her Uncle’s death and how to do magic. She learns about Skulduggery and his detective skills and how he became a living skeleton. Stephanie then meets Ghastly Bespoke who is a tailor and can measure you with only his eyes, China is a collector of books and knows Stephanie’s uncle and Skulduggery, Nerfarian Serpine is the villain of this book, he is up to no good plotting something evil.

Skulduggery was my favourite character because he could hurl fireballs, he is a living skeleton that can talk, and could make the air move however he wanted it too! I related to Stephanie because we both have annoying cousins, and want their parents approval. Stephanie was the character that seemed the most real because she was the only one that couldn't do magic and she had the most realistic goals and reasons for doing investigative work with Skulduggery. There was a scene in the book where Skulduggery and Stephanie have to break into a building to get information, the building is guarded by vampires and Skulduggery and Stephanie have to be quiet, cautious and not get caught so that they can escape with the information. There was a scene that was really intense, suspenseful and frightening. It was scary due to the short sentence. The short sentences made it scary because it made me read it quicker and due to this my heart raced and I felt scared. This scene also made me scared due to the way I felt I was there due to the characters dialogue. The book itself was very interesting and had some very well written fight scenes.

There were some bits of the book that were boring like the character China that slowed the book down with her backstory and when she would show up and talk to Stephanie, also when they have to do investigative work and figure out where to go and what to do. The way that Skulduggery figures out a plan to stop Serpine it feels very forced because there was no reason for him to think that except so that the plot and story worked. There were some problems with the books pace but the exciting parts made me want to finish it. The themes in this book was that you should always try put trust in other people and never give up on them or yourself, and do whatever it takes to become the best version of yourself and be who you want to be.

I would recommend this book to anyone who like the fantasy fiction, or mystery genre and someone who likes reading novels, this book is appropriate for anyone in the age of 12-18 as it doesn't take too much time to read, and it is fun and interesting to think about. If you interested in this genre I would recommend that you read any of the Harry Potter series, The Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings books.

Skulduggery Pleasant