Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

13 reviews

mossgoblins's review against another edition

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

5.0

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breamfish1138's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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 
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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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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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grrrlbrarian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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emlo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed the banter between the main characters, it took the edge off what was quite a dark plot. The characters are all interesting and unique. There are some tongue in cheek nods to other books in the genre. There is a lot of violence in this book especially towards the end so even though it's middle grade may be a bit much for the kids at the younger end of this age bracket. 
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necroplasm's review against another edition

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

4.25

was super interested in this series after reading most of the artemis fowl books in 6th grade, i am now a high school graduate and only just now got around to reading this bad boy. fun little YA romp, full of spellcasters using cheesy aliases and irish-isms that took me a second to understand, really grew on me the further in i got. i didn't like stephanie a lot but like,, she's a rude little shit 12 year old, i can't act like it's unrealistic yknow? all in all probably would have been a little better to me were i still a 6th grader but still a worthwhile read, i'll probably keep reading this series once i've worked through more of my backlog
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nonidude's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book was simply a delight to read!

The characters are so well done and unique, but the dialogue is the thing that makes it stand out to me. It's so witty and smart. I found myself laughing aloud many times!

The action is fast-paced, and the plot is intriguing with some twists without getting too complex. It kept me entertained from start to finish, and I can't wait to read the next in the series!
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kkamarin's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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