Skulduggery Pleasant
Written by Derek Landy
Reviewed by Jimmy M. (age 9)
In the book Skullduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy creatively grabs your attention right from chapter 1. In Skullduggery Pleasant, there is a mix of magic, humans, and friendship. Every one has a real name, a given name, and a taken name. A given name is the name your parents give you. A taken name is the name that you take (like Skullduggery Pleasant). In addition, a real name is the name given to you before you were born in the magical world. If someone uses your real name, you do whatever he or she says no matter what. During this book, you will follow Stephanie (the main character) and Skullduggery on their adventure. The magical world is divided in two, Adepts (evil or good) and Elementals (more likely good). Skullduggery Pleasant is Stephanie's friend. Throughout the book Stephanie and Skullduggery face many dangers. Skullduggery is only a talking skeleton! In addition, Stephanie is only nine and her grandfather has just died. Will Stephanie take a name and survive?
I thought the book was very entertaining! Even though at some parts I thought I was nearly fainting! Also in one part, I thought I was under water with Stephanie. My favorite part is when Skullduggery Pleasant did some thing that I cannot tell you about because it would give away the story. However, Derek Landy sure put in description. “The world was turning gray,” was one of them. I never wanted to put the book down! When my favorite scene ended, the adventure went back to Stephanie's house where she learns something HUGE. I can tell you this though my favorite scene involves Serpine and the book of names. I found Skullduggery interesting because he is only bones no skin and he can talk. This was shocking to me when I found out. Tanith Low reminded me of myself because she never gave up and did her best. As I read the book, I felt scared and a little bit confused. The book made me wonder will Stephanie and Skullduggery survive? I kept thinking that the author would take me to a different place and then unexpectedly he would! I hope Derek Landy makes a sequel to Skullduggery Pleasant!
I would recommend this book to fantasy lovers ages 10 and up. This is because there is some gory details I will not name.