In the Dead Famous Readalong we’re finally onto the second season of the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy with Resurrection! Val is back, and shit is still weird.
As with all the Skulduggery books so far, this is a reread for me. When I read this the first time around I gave it 5 stars. I mean Val and Skul-man were back! What else was I supposed to give this?! But second time around? Well I’m a little older and able to be a little bit more critical.
I adored the character development that we got in this book. Valkyrie has been through a lot in the previous 9 books, and now we get to see her struggling with PTSD. In my (limited) viewpoint it’s handled pretty well. i.e. she’s damn struggling.
There has been a lot, however, that felt like it needed to be shoehorned in. This series wasn’t supposed to continue past book 9 and Landy needed to build enough in this book to span us onwards. Whilst sometimes it was done cleverly, there were also some points where it jolted. And it felt that there were a lot of Valdugery ship moments. Which I am 100% NOT here for, just to be clear.
But I adore Omen, he’s such a cute bean. And there is a lot better representation in these books (which I’ve learnt after scouring reviews is because of some backlash again one of the books in his Demon Road series: Desolation). We have a lot more in the way of characters of colour and various sexualities and genders. It’s not done perfectly, but I have the privilege of hindsight to know that it gets better, so please do stick with it!
On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 8, Atmosphere: 7, Writing: 8, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 7, Logic: 7, and Enjoyment: 8, which gives an average of 7.43 and a 4* rating.
I’m still really looking forward to continuing on with this series and I am SUPER excited to read the final book!
Abi of Pellinor 