Skulduggery Pleasant ~ Derek Landy

Skulduggery Pleasant is a series that I adored as a kid. There was something about the skeleton detective that I really enjoyed. However, I don’t remember much about it. Whilst doing a bit of sorting out, I found Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil and I realised I couldn’t remember a thing about it, nor could I remember how many books into the series it was. Obviously, I enjoyed it enough to get the hardcover release, but it’s not like Alex Rider or Percy Jackson, where I remember them vividly, I barely know anything about these books. So, when I came across the first book on Libby, I thought I would reread it. 

My first thought when getting introduced to the protagonist, Stephanie, was that she was written as older than twelve. There was something about her that felt like she belonged in the younger YA books more than a middle-grade book. It didn’t affect the story too much, just some of her comments about where she saw her life going were far too mature for a preteen.

For once when rereading a novel, I didn’t really have a clue where it was going and so I was caught up by all the drama. Sometimes, it felt a little slow because there wasn’t really enough of a reason why Skulduggery was pushing Stephanie away. The rules of magic in the world, to my fantasy-loving self, weren’t well enough defined, but that could be something that improves over the series or was kept simple for kids. I did love, however, that Derek Landy had an answer to the why don’t the parents notice question. 

Overall, it was a fun trip down memory lane, and I give it four stars. However, I don’t think this is a series that I’m going to reread in its entirety. 

C🌙