'

Tuesday 12 May 2009

SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT


Stephanie led a pretty quiet existence until her uncle died. Not only did he leave her his mansion, he left her a new best friend—Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective (sorry, a supernatural skeleton detective)—who waltzes into her life for keeps. Now she's acquiring magical powers, endangering her life to fight evil, and trading snappy comebacks with something without a body.

So much for her quiet existence.

Stephanie's big job is to find the Scepter of the Ancients—a weapon capable of destroying anyone and anything—before the evil Faceless Ones steal it for themselves. She just has to defeat a bunch of ghouls, kick the butts of a clan of vampires, and hide her powers from the entire world (oh, and her parents).

No worries. She's got a bunch of bones on her side.

Firstly, let me just say that I absolutely love the cover for this book! It's fantastic. And secondly, wow, they sure don't make kids books like they used to. Lol. This is a children's book but with the amount of magic, danger, and death going on around the main characters, most of the time I kept forgetting it was a kid's book. Which is a great thing!

Stephanie used to be an average twelve year old, but when her uncle dies and she meets Skulduggery Pleasant, her mundane life in Haggard is thrown into a world of hidden, chaotic magic where the bad guy can kill with a wave of his horrid hand, and the good guy doesn't even have any flesh. That's right Skulduggery's a skeleton. A skeleton detective with a lot of attitude, sarcasm, and a sense of humour.

This book was intriguing, interesting, and mysterious too. I loved the worldbuilding, and the way Stephanie opens herself up to the new things she realises exist around her. I also enjoyed the cast of characters - Tanith, Ghastly, China, Mr. Bliss - but mostly, I liked Skulduggery. What a cool and unique character Derek Landy created.

I can't wait to go on more adventures with this magical, wisecracking skeleton!

No comments:

Favorites More