Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant, #1) (Collins Readers)

by Derek Landy

Rupert Degas (Narrator)

Get ready for the biggest NEW publishing phenomena of 2007!

“So you won't keep anything from me again?"
He put his hand to his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Okay then. Though you don't actually have a heart," she said.
"I know."
"And technically, you've already died."
"I know that too."
"Just so we're clear."

Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction.

Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.

When all hell breaks loose, it's lucky for Skulduggery that he's already dead. Though he's about to discover that being a skeleton doesn't stop you from being tortured, if the torturer is determined enough. And if there's anything Skulduggery hates, it's torture… Will evil win the day? Will Stephanie and Skulduggery stop bickering long enough to stop it? One thing's for sure: evil won't know what's hit it.

• ISBN13: 9780007299911
• Publish Date: 1 August 2008 (first published 2 April 2007)
• Publish Status: Permanently Withdrawn
• Out of Print: 25 April 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (WAV)
• Duration: 8 hours and 45 minutes
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars (look, this rating will never change, in all of my re-reads, so. Here it stands, for all the world the world to see, in all it's smart, snarky, & magical glory)

RE-READS !
-Mar 15, 2021: This book/series just never, ever gets old! SO GOOD! Everyone, read this, now. You'll thank me later!

[bookperson]

If I read it as a kid I would've been all over this series, but now I just find it good, but not spectacular.
Plot is really interesting, characters well developed and it's enjoyable. Perfectly good book for kids!

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog coming soon!

A friend of mine is a huge fan of these books and she convinced me to pick them up as well.
I always like a good mystery and these books had been on my radar for a while now, so I was pretty excited to get started with Skulduggery Pleasant. Long story short, I basically burned through the first installment and can't to read the next one.
Why did I like it?
First of all, it's such a cool idea to have an undead skeleton detective. The worldbuilding that basically adds another layer to our world is great and I'm curious to find out more on that front.
The book is well-written and the mystery part of the story comes across nicely. There are several twists and turns, so you'll be continuously surprised but still encouraged to keep guessing along.
Furthermore, Skulduggery's new friend Stephanie - or Valkyrie Cain as she calls herself - is an amazing character. I can't wait to find out more about that feisty girl who never backs down!

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Before I go into details, I do want to say that I think Skulduggery Pleasant is one of those books I’m going to have to re-read in hard copy. While the audiobook narration wasn’t strictly bad on this one, the voices didn’t really fit the characters in my head, and it wasn’t working for me the way I thought it could.

I really enjoy this obscure little subgenre of “humorous fantasy books written by western European authors”. Derek Landy’s style falls comfortably in with Jonathan Stroud, Douglas Addams, Eoin Colfer, and Terry Pratchett. Also Christopher Moore (American). Skulduggery Pleasant was a fun book with fantastic, witty humor. It’s also one I’m struggling to classify, because Stephanie is a middle grader but this is certainly a book that can be enjoyed by adults. In fact, this is one of the few books that looks like it’s for younger readers, but I’ve witnessed adult strangers reading in real life. That said, the themes are not too mature for younger readers and while there is a great deal of discussion about death… well there’s plenty of that in Harry Potter and that’s “childrens”, so there were are.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed here. I liked Skulduggery a lot. His character at first may seem flat, but I felt like it was more that he was guarded. He is awkward and funny without meaning to be, and those characters are always great. I also appreciated that Stephanie felt like a kid – it’s far too common in YA that ‘tweens and teens are aged up. There was some fun characterization here that I, personally, had to push through the narration to reach. I feel like I didn’t really appreciate the minor characters enough, and that’s something I’ll be looking for in the re-read. It’s not that they weren’t memorable – I felt like it was more that they didn’t click with me.

As far as plot is concerned, there’s a lot going on here. The reader is introduced a conspiracy and a world and a magic system all at once, and we aren’t really given time to absorb it before the story plows forward. It’s fast enough that you aren’t really thinking “but why?” while you’re reading… but it hits you later. The story seems simple and straightforward, but the magic system is complicated and not well explained (yet?). The names made perfect sense, however, but the reader is asked to accept a lot unquestioningly.

The writing is simple, no unnecessary flourishes. I think that’s good in an urban fantasy book – flowery writing throws me off when the setting is museums and businesses. As I mentioned, I did find the overall pacing a bit quick, but it’s a book I’m willing to re-read. There were underlying jokes and comments in the dialogue that hit me unexpectedly, and I found myself chuckling a couple sentences later. That’s always a fun surprise.

Generally speaking, I think I would recommend Skulduggery Pleasant to readers of various ages, particularly if these readers are fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. The story is light and fun, with good characters, and a lot of promise as the series continues forward.

[paperbackjedi]

Written with a healthy dose of humor and heart, this was a fun ride start to finish. If you like books about adventure and people coming into their own with no focus on romance or love triangles, just straight up magic, mayhem, and snark, this one’s for you. Plus, one of the main characters is literally an animated skeleton with magic powers so how freaking cool is that?