Skulduggery Pleasant (Books 1-6) by Derek Landy

*edited July 13th, 2013

THIS IS A REVIEW OF BOOKS 1-6 IN THE 9-BOOK SERIES.

GOODREADS SUMMARY OF BOOK #1:

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant. Sure, he may lose his head now and again (in fact, he won his current skull in a poker match), but he is much more than he appears to be—which is good, considering that he is, basically, a skeleton. Skulduggery may be long dead, but he is also a mage who dodged the grave so that he could save the world from an ancient evil. But to defeat it, he'll need the help of a new partner: a not so innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie. That's right, they're the heroes.

Stephanie and Skulduggery are quickly caught up in a battle to stop evil forces from acquiring her recently deceased uncle's most prized possession—the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Ancients were the good guys, an extinct race of uber-magicians from the early days of the earth, and the scepter is their most dangerous weapon, one capable of killing anyone and destroying anything. Back in the day, they used it to banish the bad guys, the evil Faceless Ones. Unfortunately, in the way of bad guys everywhere, the Faceless Ones are staging a comeback and no one besides our two heroes believes in the Faceless Ones, or even that the Sceptre is real.

So Stephanie and Skulduggery set off to find the Sceptre, fend off the minions of the bad guys, beat down vampires and the undead, prove the existence of the Ancients and the Faceless Ones, all while trading snappy, snippy banter worthy of the best screwball comedies.

I began reading this series in about 2010 (age 11-ish), and I instantly loved it. The summary may seem a little cheesy, but each book is full of wit and charm and humor, making them fun to read.  The first three (Skulduggery Pleasant, Playing With Fire, The Faceless Ones) are geared toward middle-grade, but the next three (Dark Days, Mortal Coil, Death Bringer) are all YA.

I always look forward to August/September each year to get the next installment of the Skulduggery Pleasant series.  Each book is progressively longer than the past (i.e. Book 1 is 368 pages and Book 6 is 607 pages). 

The characters are amazing in this series.  I feel like I have grown up with Valkyrie and Skulduggery and so it makes it so fun to keep reading their story (I don't know what I'm going to do when the final installment hits shelves in 2014).  Each character (including the small ones) each have individual personalities and backstories. 

The plot is so fun.  It's extremely fast-paced, there's action every other chapter, and there's humor and wit that'll keep you laughing to yourself the entire time.  Each book is a ride and I'm always sad whenever I finish one of these.

All in all, if you haven't read this series yet, I strongly suggest you do.  But I may be biased because I just love it so much.

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THE SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT SERIES
BOOK ONE: Skulduggery Pleasant (UK); Scepter of the Ancients (US)
BOOK TWO: Playing With Fire
BOOK THREE: The Faceless Ones
BOOK FOUR: Dark Days
BOOK FIVE: Mortal Coil
BOOK SIX: Death Bringer
BOOK SEVEN: Kingdom of the Wicked
BOOK EIGHT: Last Stand of Dead Men RELEASING AUGUST 29, 2013
BOOK NINE: NO NAME YET RELEASING AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014

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