Reviews with content warning for Death - Skulduggery Pleasant

Harry Potter but with Gothic horror, anarchic dark humour, delightfully non-age-appropriate violence and emos. Also there's skeletons and vampires and scythe guys and a dash of cosmic nightmare and fireballs and bullets and scary hands and vampires and bullets. Derek, you done good. 10/10 would recommend to everyone

Content Warnings

tobibi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Honestly, I really enjoyed this. It's got such a nice build up and the climax is a perfect mix of action, horror, dread, and success. It's hard to imagine how the author follows up on this, the stakes were already very high in the first book, but I've been told he does. There's a good amount of world building without info dumping, and there's still enough questions that I'm left curious about details.

Favorite lines:

"I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on your losing your head."
"I didn't lose it," he said defensively. "It was stolen." (p. 53)

"And am I going to be accompanying you?"
"That depends. Do you need your parents' permission?"

...
Stephanie shrugged. "No, not really." (p. 74-75)

"How come you can't do that?" Stephanie whispered to Skulduggery. "It's faster than picking a lock, and quieter than blasting the door down."
He shook his head sadly. "A living skeleton isn't enough for you, is it? What does it take to impress young people these days?" (p. 323)

"I wouldn't mind a sister either."
"Any chance of that happening?"
"I can't see what would be in it for my parents. I mean, they have the perfect daughter already -- what more could they want?"

He hesitated. "Serpine used my wife and child as a weapon against me. In order to do so, he had to kill them. He took my family's death and he made it about me. Valkyrie, when you die, it will be your death, and yours alone. Let it come to you on your own terms." (p. 362)

Bliss looked at him coolly. "Do you have a weapon for me, or do you just want me to beat her to death with a large stick?" (p. 370)

"For a guy with no internal organs, you've got quite the ego." (p. 391)

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lauren108's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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fionamatilda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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kouya's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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sophieamreacher's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Fun, full of adventure and action. Found the characters a bit unbelievable (yes even though they’re all magical), more their personalities.

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faye_jonesy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Not going to lie I read these books as a teen, and have decided to come back to them as a way to break up my current more "acceptably adult" reads. It is such a comfortable, exciting and nostalgic world to jump back into. It might mean my review is a little bias, but if you want cool characters, interesting plot and a well built world I would 100% recommend. It's magical realism with a modern twist. Sarcastic humour only found in Ireland and Northern cities like Liverpool.

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