Skulduggery Pleasant
Author Derek Landy
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Story
12 year old Stephanie unexpectedly inherits a villa from her uncle. While exploring her new property, she's attacked by mysterious forces - only to be rescued by Skulduggery Pleasant, a centuries-old skeleton wizard with impeccable style. Together they dive into a magical underworld filled with sinister plots and ancient artifacts, where dark forces threaten both mortal and magical realms.
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Why we chose it
A dark fantasy book for children that blends supernatural elements, detection, horror and comedy. The humour is witty and unique and Stephanie/Valkyrie is a brilliant female role model in an action novel.
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What a young reviewer said
Like many of the books in this franchise, there is a fair amount of violence, mild threat and general creepiness, but if that’s your cup of tea, I would definitely recommend this. (Henry, age 14)
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First published
2007, Harper Collins
Story Reviews
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This series follows the young girl Stephanie Edgily who is one of the two main characters. She is the apprentice of Skulduggery Pleasant who is a living skeleton. They go on a bunch of adventures and it is honestly the least child friendly child friendly book that exists. There is a 7ish month gap between the events of each book so as the series goes on you kind of see her and everyone growing up with near-death experiences along the way. The twists and turns, lore drops and so much more make the book a great adventure not just for the characters but for you the reader.
Skulduggery Pleasant is about a skeleton called Skulduggery Pleasant, surprise, surprise, and a girl called Valkyrie Cain. Her real name is Stephanie Edgley but in the world where the book is set you need to have a second name to protect your given one. (it’s like our world but there is a hidden world of magic within, like e.g. there is a small town devoted entirely to sorcerers and mages , people who do magic) Skulduggery Pleasant is compelling and it has me really involved, as if I am in the book. For example if someone in the book is hurt, I feel I or one of my very close friends has been hurt. But, Valkyrie and Skulduggery always end up saving the world with practically no time to spare.
Skulduggery Pleasant: Seasons of War is book 13 in the series. It is a thrilling and great book with an amazing plot line. The plot twist really caught me of guard (in a good way). Honestly one of the best in the series it’s one of those books that have a completely different plot to all of the other books in the series at the beginning and then the gears start turning in your head and you realise the major plot twist one chapter before it happens. It’s such an amazing read would 100 percent recommend.