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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-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:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
I like the idea of this book, but lost interest halfway through and put it away for a few months. I finished it only because I don't like leaving books unfinished. It was okay.
Main turn off for me are the fight scenes, in which everything is described like we're watching an animated film: "and then Skulduggery did a 360 backflip", stuff like that. I just zone out during those scenes and forget to pay attention to the story.
Skulduggery and Stephanie have great chemistry, in a non-romantic, sidekick kind of way. China is my fave character; most of the others (like Tanith and Ghastly) I didn't care about at all.
Main turn off for me are the fight scenes, in which everything is described like we're watching an animated film: "and then Skulduggery did a 360 backflip", stuff like that. I just zone out during those scenes and forget to pay attention to the story.
Skulduggery and Stephanie have great chemistry, in a non-romantic, sidekick kind of way. China is my fave character; most of the others (like Tanith and Ghastly) I didn't care about at all.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an unexpected pleasure!
A book of surprising depths tied together in a perfect balance of mature and immature.
As an Irishman myself, it was absolutely mind boggling reading a book set in the city I was born and raised in.
We read all sorts of books and they're usually set in places such as the US or the UK, cities and road names are dropped and we've not visited these places in person and have no idea what they're like, this, for the first time, was not the case for my own experience.
The author, Derek Landy, drops the names of famous Dublin places, such as the Christ Church Cathedral and even having a secret door to a magical vault under the Wax Museum in the City Centre.
I could very vividly picture them in my head, unlike most places I read of.
This book filled me with so much Irish pride, to have a book series well-known and beloved globally that's written by an Irishman and set in Ireland.
Now, as for the book, it was hilarious!
Not as funny as Dungeon Crawler Carl, but a bit funnier than Fred The Vampire Accountant.
It was rich with the sarcastic Irish humor we're infamous for, and there was this hilarious scene at the beginning during a will reading where the dead uncle gives his brother his own wife in his will and says he thinks he'd like her, and oh he'd probably wanna visit his villa with her so what the hell he'll throw the villa in too, all while the snobby sibling and his insufferable wife got his boat and a car (he's afraid of water and they already have a car) and everything else was left to a 12 year old girl 🤣🤣🤣
Sculduggery himself as a character is subtly interesting and there is depth below the surface. He comes across as a one-dimensional straight forward character, but I found sometimes it's not about what he does but what he doesn't do that says more about him. His friend dies, he investigates, the friend had a 12 year old girl who really only felt understood and seen by the uncle. Bad guys come along to hurt her to acquire some key to lead them to some evil magic thingy her uncle hid away, she hasn't a fucking clue what's going on. So after Sculduggery kicks his way through the front door and drives the attacker off, he gave little Stephanie a warning about joining this world of magic and chaos, she wanted in regardless, and he respected that.
His relationship with Stephanie was somewhat complex, wholesome, and super fucking heartbreaking, and how he doesn't treat her says a huge amount about his character and really adds depth to him.
You see, he doesn't really treat her like a child. He himself is like a big kid, and she's almost like a little adult woman following him around and asking questions and rolling her eyes at him and his shenanigans, but there is an unspoken understanding that he is the adult and she is the inexperienced child, and they accept it. She respects his authority, and he respects her choices.
He doesn't treat her like a baby to be coddled and shielded, but instead accompanies her through it and let's her grow with his aid.
Also his tragic past is quite heartbreaking and adds a whole other layer to his relationship with Stephanie, I believe in one aspect he is honoring some unspoken wish of his friend Gordon, Stephanie's uncle, but she is also the closest thing Scul has to feeling like being a father again. Whether he likes it or knows it or not, Stephanie and Skulduggery have become quite close and very quickly and it makes perfect sense.
Her uncle was the only person that truly understood her and didn't treat her like a weak little girl, and Sculduggery does the same, and Stephanie challenges him and I suspect heals his pain in some little ways.
The character work in this book is impressive, and I'm hooked on this series so far from that alone. As for the world building and the rest, it's quite decent. Landy has took vampires for example and not made them the traditional vampire and added his own flavor to it, which I enjoyed, and there was a very surprising amount of people killed in this book. I swear, more people died in this than the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book "This Inevitable Ruin". And this is a children's/ YA book?
This book, all in all, was surprisingly brilliant with unexpected depths, brilliant character growth and chemistries all tied together in a book well balanced in the mature and immature.
I think I might have a new series to consume me 🥳
A book of surprising depths tied together in a perfect balance of mature and immature.
As an Irishman myself, it was absolutely mind boggling reading a book set in the city I was born and raised in.
We read all sorts of books and they're usually set in places such as the US or the UK, cities and road names are dropped and we've not visited these places in person and have no idea what they're like, this, for the first time, was not the case for my own experience.
The author, Derek Landy, drops the names of famous Dublin places, such as the Christ Church Cathedral and even having a secret door to a magical vault under the Wax Museum in the City Centre.
I could very vividly picture them in my head, unlike most places I read of.
This book filled me with so much Irish pride, to have a book series well-known and beloved globally that's written by an Irishman and set in Ireland.
Now, as for the book, it was hilarious!
Not as funny as Dungeon Crawler Carl, but a bit funnier than Fred The Vampire Accountant.
It was rich with the sarcastic Irish humor we're infamous for, and there was this hilarious scene at the beginning during a will reading where the dead uncle gives his brother his own wife in his will and says he thinks he'd like her, and oh he'd probably wanna visit his villa with her so what the hell he'll throw the villa in too, all while the snobby sibling and his insufferable wife got his boat and a car (he's afraid of water and they already have a car) and everything else was left to a 12 year old girl 🤣🤣🤣
Sculduggery himself as a character is subtly interesting and there is depth below the surface. He comes across as a one-dimensional straight forward character, but I found sometimes it's not about what he does but what he doesn't do that says more about him. His friend dies, he investigates, the friend had a 12 year old girl who really only felt understood and seen by the uncle. Bad guys come along to hurt her to acquire some key to lead them to some evil magic thingy her uncle hid away, she hasn't a fucking clue what's going on. So after Sculduggery kicks his way through the front door and drives the attacker off, he gave little Stephanie a warning about joining this world of magic and chaos, she wanted in regardless, and he respected that.
His relationship with Stephanie was somewhat complex, wholesome, and super fucking heartbreaking, and how he doesn't treat her says a huge amount about his character and really adds depth to him.
You see, he doesn't really treat her like a child. He himself is like a big kid, and she's almost like a little adult woman following him around and asking questions and rolling her eyes at him and his shenanigans, but there is an unspoken understanding that he is the adult and she is the inexperienced child, and they accept it. She respects his authority, and he respects her choices.
He doesn't treat her like a baby to be coddled and shielded, but instead accompanies her through it and let's her grow with his aid.
Also his tragic past is quite heartbreaking and adds a whole other layer to his relationship with Stephanie, I believe in one aspect he is honoring some unspoken wish of his friend Gordon, Stephanie's uncle, but she is also the closest thing Scul has to feeling like being a father again. Whether he likes it or knows it or not, Stephanie and Skulduggery have become quite close and very quickly and it makes perfect sense.
Her uncle was the only person that truly understood her and didn't treat her like a weak little girl, and Sculduggery does the same, and Stephanie challenges him and I suspect heals his pain in some little ways.
The character work in this book is impressive, and I'm hooked on this series so far from that alone. As for the world building and the rest, it's quite decent. Landy has took vampires for example and not made them the traditional vampire and added his own flavor to it, which I enjoyed, and there was a very surprising amount of people killed in this book. I swear, more people died in this than the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book "This Inevitable Ruin". And this is a children's/ YA book?
This book, all in all, was surprisingly brilliant with unexpected depths, brilliant character growth and chemistries all tied together in a book well balanced in the mature and immature.
I think I might have a new series to consume me 🥳