Skulduggery Pleasant

                               Skulduggery Pleasant

by Derek Landy

Genre: a fiction, action, adventure and mystery.

Skulduggery Pleasant book 1 is about a girl Stephanie and her uncle, who writes horror fiction books then he sadly dies. At his funeral Stephanie sees a man standing out of the crowd, he was hiding his identity with a scarf around his neck and a hat covering his face. When Stephanie and her family return to their house for the reading of her uncle’s will, the strange man also joins them. No one knows who this stranger is, but when the will is being read, it all becomes clearer. The strange man is her uncle’s closest friend and name is Skulduggery Pleasant. Her uncle gives his house to Stephanie but can only take possession when she’s 16.

Stephanie goes to her Uncle’s house to reflect on her life with him. While she is there the weather changes and it rains heavy and floods the drive way so she has to stay the night. Someone rings the phone saying “Give it to me,” she doesn’t know who he is so she hangs up. Later that night the man breaks into the house threatening Stephanie. Skulduggery Pleasant comes in and burns the man with his magic and he reveals to her his true identity, he’s a skeleton. He introduced himself to Stephanie and tells her he thinks the evil mastermind Serpine sent his henchman hands on the powerful sceptre that he thinks is at her uncle’s house. He tells the Elders but they say its nonsense because Serpine has been helping them.

After a few clues and meeting friends along the way Skulduggery finds out Serpine is after the book of names and it has everyone’s 3 names. The name you’re given from your parents, the name you pick and your special name that you should not tell anyone.

The main Characters are: Skulduggery Pleasant, Stephanie/Valkyrie Cain, Ghastly Bepspoke, China Sorrows and Serpine.

I think it was a great book because it keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next and gives some surprising twists at the end.

I think the message is don’t give up on what you do because in the book Skulduggery doesn’t give up on finding Serpine. When the elders say he isn’t behind Stephanie’s uncle’s death he keeps going.

By Mannix Fraser