Reviews - Skulduggery Pleasant

1.95k reviews for:

Skulduggery Pleasant

Derek Landy

4.07 AVERAGE

msmurrayt's review against another edition

4.0

Kids loved it so I loved it.

wtb2612's review

4.0

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense 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: No

jayenkay's review

4.0

Skulduggery is a skeleton detective who shoots fire out of his hands! Stephanie is a 12 year old girl who inexplicably (not really) inherits her uncle's estate and is thrust into the magical world, but she's not afraid of anything (because she is 12). Together they make a delightful team. This is like the popcorn movie equivalent of a book. You're not reading it for a cerebral exercise, but it's just so damn fun!

hartstrings's review

2.0

Stephanie inherits an estate from her weird uncle and must join forces with a living skeleton to save the world from the Faceless Ones. I have to admit I was disappointed with this story. It is a cool idea, but I was not impressed by the choppy dialog or the 'coincidences' that further the plot.

jrand96's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

An absolutely fantastic piece of Young Adult/Middle Grade fantasy. Derek Landry writes the book masterfully: it’s full of wit, charm, excitement, and suspense. Readers will plow through this book quickly. The characters are loveable, the plot is exciting, the mystery is captivating, and every page sizzles. Revisiting this book as an adult, I can say that it holds up completely and I would recommend it to anyone.

stem_kristina's review

5.0

Such a GREAT read! Seriously good characters, wit, snark, mystery, good-v-bad, story - it has it all! It's like Roald Dahl for more mature readers.

kinglarry84's review

5.0

This is a fantastic book and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. It's about a magical skeleton detective; how can it be bad?

Well, it's a standard kid's book about magic for starters. That means there's a young protagonist (a little girl called Stephanie) and a world of magic and good wizards and bad wizards that we never knew about. And the bad wizards want to do bad things and the good wizards want to stop the bad things from happening. The protagonist is also unexpectedly special in some magical way.

But that doesn't matter because it's so much fun! The writing is funny and so is the dialogue, an art that seems so rare these days. There's also a healthy dose of sarcasm and cynicism that enables you to ignore the tropes and accept the magic and fantasy all the more.

Skulduggery Pleasant won't change your life but it will make you laugh and take you on a fun journey for a short while. You can't ask for much more from a book.