Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy The Nitty Gritty: Stephanie Edgley is a girl mourning the sudden passing of a beloved uncle. She doesn't have long to mourn as he leaves a house and a fortune to her.
Sitting alone in hew newly acquired home she is rescued by Detective Skulduggery Pleasant, a war veteran, who just happens to be a living skeleton.
Thrust into the world of magic young Stephanie is loath to return to her ordinary life, especially not after she learns that her dearly departed uncle was the vicitim of a magical attack. With new threads, a spanking new name, and a fire wielding skeleton for a partner Valkyrie Cain will risk life and limb to prove she is more than just a kid.
Opening Line: "Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone-not least himself.."
The Good: I am in love with Valkyrie Cain. She is a breath of fresh air in a literary world choking under the smog of Bella Swan rip-offs. I love her name. Its not a name she comes to lightly, and not a name that instantly transform her into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her name does invoke a warrior goddess bringing her enemies to their knees. And that is what Valkyrie does. Though not in the traditional sense that we think a warrior woman should do. Her unshakable loyalty, sense of justice, and stubbornness are just as much tools of warfare as a gun, sword or fireball. She is technically a kid. Landy never lets us forget that and neither does he.
However we are teased with the budding powers of Stephanie as she begins to unlock the sleeping magic that has been buried in her family through fear and unbelief.
Landy took the trope out of a YA fantasy book. We have been bombarded with werewolves, vampires, love sick teen girls with low self esteem and daddy issues to the point where its all blurring together and the book sales are starting to level off and drop in some instances. It was a fun run while it lasted, but the YA set is demanding more and I applaud Landy for breaking that YA mold and giving it to them.
Who would have thought that in this zombie obsessed culture that we would read a book about a skeleton. With him being the good guy. Pleasant isn't sickeningly good nor is he so tortured that its hard to think of him as the good guy. He is the Batman of the YA set. He does have a tortured past that takes a lot for him to get past so that he can be effective in the present, but it shaped him into the skeleton he is today. Today he can laugh and joke with Valkyrie while pursuing his quarry to the ends of the earth. Never once did he sake Cain's faith in him. Not once did we question his motives. Others night have, but Landy's readers didn't. The revelations of his past helped us care more about him.
Landy also broke another YA trope. He gave his female lead a functioning set of parents. Especially her father. He might have been a tad forgetful, but he loved Stephanie. Even sat down to have a heart to heart with her where he showed us how deep his love went. Though if you're like me you were frustrated that he didn't want anything to do with magic thus forcing Step to lie to him.
The Bad: I would have thought that the villain would have taken a little more to take down. As much of a presence that Cain played in the rest of the book I would have liked to have seen a bit more from her in the final take down of the villain.
Don't get me wrong I'm glad that Cain wasn't written off as a ditzy little girl and pushed aside while the grownups did all the work, but as much as she did in the moments leading up to the final showdown I wanted her to be more of a part of it. Of course this could be because she is not a warrior mage like the other characters and Landy wanted to tease us a bit more.
Final Thoughts: This is an exciting series one that I look forward to delving head first into.
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