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A review by annashiv
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
3.0
2.5 stars.
I'm surprised I didn't like this that much. I really enjoyed the first 50-100 pages, but then something just snapped and I almost didn't even want to bother finishing it. I know I'm a minority, and I can definitely see why people enjoy it, but it just didn't work for me and I think I've worked out why.
It was very repetitive, in both writing/dialogue and action. I just didn't care for the plot, which seemed overly stereotypical which may be due to me having read too much. The humor was good at first, but then it felt like it took me out of the story and killed the suspense and so it became cheesy, especially as just about every character had the same humor dynamics. It just got old for me.
I think the other major thing were the characters. I liked Skulduggery, but felt he was weighed down by the rest of the cast. I didn't really like any of the characters, including the main character after the first part. It felt like they were all stripped of personality and simply became tools of the plot. They felt like puppets to me.
The writing was, mostly unnoticeable, but I wouldn't say it's great. A lot of the time, I couldn't imagine what was happening as it felt like he was trying to block out a movie rather than use the advantages of the book. We got very little internal thinking from Stephanie despite her being the main character. It felt like we got the bare bones in that regard and inundated with boring action scenes I pretty much skimmed towards the end.
Lastly, and I know this isn't a problem for the younger audience this is geared toward, but it was super predictable. I don't know that I've ever read a book so predictable as this. I think only 2 things caught me by surprise, but I didn't care for them as a plot point/device objectively. It all just added up to me feeling the story was missing something and rather generic despite it's great premise.
I'm surprised I didn't like this that much. I really enjoyed the first 50-100 pages, but then something just snapped and I almost didn't even want to bother finishing it. I know I'm a minority, and I can definitely see why people enjoy it, but it just didn't work for me and I think I've worked out why.
It was very repetitive, in both writing/dialogue and action. I just didn't care for the plot, which seemed overly stereotypical which may be due to me having read too much. The humor was good at first, but then it felt like it took me out of the story and killed the suspense and so it became cheesy, especially as just about every character had the same humor dynamics. It just got old for me.
I think the other major thing were the characters. I liked Skulduggery, but felt he was weighed down by the rest of the cast. I didn't really like any of the characters, including the main character after the first part. It felt like they were all stripped of personality and simply became tools of the plot. They felt like puppets to me.
The writing was, mostly unnoticeable, but I wouldn't say it's great. A lot of the time, I couldn't imagine what was happening as it felt like he was trying to block out a movie rather than use the advantages of the book. We got very little internal thinking from Stephanie despite her being the main character. It felt like we got the bare bones in that regard and inundated with boring action scenes I pretty much skimmed towards the end.
Lastly, and I know this isn't a problem for the younger audience this is geared toward, but it was super predictable. I don't know that I've ever read a book so predictable as this. I think only 2 things caught me by surprise, but I didn't care for them as a plot point/device objectively. It all just added up to me feeling the story was missing something and rather generic despite it's great premise.