Skulduggery Pleasant: Book Review and Fandom Love

Skulduggery Pleasant - ace detective and fireball throwing mage of epic proportions. Protector, friend, and ally of one twelve year old Stephanie Edgely. He's also a skeleton. A walking, talking, living skeleton.

Fuckin' awesome.

So I picked up the first book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series at the library the other day and read it in one go. It was that good. Rated for 9+, it's technically considered a middle-grader book series but there's enough wit, sarcasm, and plot intrigue to keep anyone interested. Mr. Pleasant himself is an absolute treat as a character - he's smart, cocky, and rather endearing. He's also great taste in fashion - yes to anyone who appreciates a good pinstripe suit. He's like the undead version of Frank Sinatra.

I thought I was going to be rather annoyed that a twelve year old girl was the main protagonist, but she surprised me greatly. She's obviously no normal girl and that becomes clear later in the book, but I loved how she was able to totally keep up with Skulduggery and all the other interesting folk they meet on their adventure.

I'm actually really looking forward to grabbing the next few novels in the series. Hats off to Derek Landy for concocting this amazing storyline and Skulduggery Pleasant himself. If you haven't read these books yet, I really do recommend it!

★★★★☆

That being said, I then decided to go and see what the fandom was like and if anyone happened to ship Skulduggery/Valkyrie (Steph) in her later years. Oh. My. God. I don't know about the rest of you, but the romantic liaisons between these two are SO CUTE! I'm kind of a fangirl now - I totally ship Valduggery! ^_^