The Maleficent Seven, a reivew

This is a short story based around Tanith Low, one of the most bad-ass characters from the Skulduggery Pleasant series, by Derek Landy. I read this in line with the Skulduggery series, which I’ve been rereading from the start with the Dead Famous Readalong.

The main books in the Skulduggery Pleasant series focus, of course, on Valkyrie and Skulduggery. But it was really fun to focus on the background characters for once. And not only that, we’re focusing on the villains.

This is such a fun story, with so many links in to the main series as well as giving us more world building to carry into the rest of the series. As this series is a reread it was also interesting to see the hidden plot points. One being the actual magic that Saracan Rue has. He’s refused to tell anyone what this is for centuries (and of course we find out in the later books) but there are hints that you can see here if you know what you’re looking for. Such a fun easter egg!

On CAWPILE I rated this book: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 7, Writing: 7, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 7, Logic: 7, Enjoyment: 8 which gives a score of 7.43 which is a 4 star read.

No surprises here that I enjoyed a Skulduggery book! This was a very fun one to reread.

Kingdom of the Wicked, a review

We’re back with another Skulduggery Pleasant review! This time it’s book 7 in the series, Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy.

The main plot point of this book (which I won’t be mentioning cause I don’t wanna spoil anything for those who aren’t this far into the series!) is quite different to the other books and gives quite a different vibe. It was really interesting to hear the reactions from the rest of the Dead Famous Readalong crew.

This is most definitely a YA book. There is a lot of violence and deeper discussions on morality which are so interesting from a teen an above view but I wouldn’t recommend this to a 10 year old, which is probably why it has an age rating on the back (11+)

For my CAWPILE rating I gave this: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 9, Writing: 9, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 9, Logic: 9, Enjoyment: 9. Which gave an overall rating of 8.86 which is a 4 star rating.

As is no surprise to anyone, I’ve been loving this reread!

The End of the World, a review

Continuing on with my reread of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, which I’m doing in chronological order, I’ve got the World Book Day 2012 short story!

These World Book Day novellas, whether from the Skulduggery Universe or elsewhere, are intended to encourage people to pick up the related books and read more. This means that this can totally be read separately from the rest of the series and is designed to stnad alone.

Don’t get me wrong though, this is from Landy, so there are enough references to the main series, and a few to other franchises, that series readers will enjoy the novella too.

I adore the character that the bring in for this novella. It’s a really unique subplot that actually develops the world further as well as being super interesting! It tugs at the heartstrings a little too!

For my CAWPILE rating I gave this book 8 across the board for Character, Atmosphere, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic, and Enjoyment. Which of course gives a score of 8. Which is a solid 4 star read.

I definitely recommend picking this up if either you’re already reading the series or if you’re interested in it. At a little over 100 pages it’ll give you a good feel for what the series is like, and it adds to the world too. A great little book!

Death Bringer, a review

We’re up to the 6th book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series! I was reading these along with the Dead Famous Readalong hosted by Hannah from Ladette M, and they’re all rereads for me which were so much fun as I got to see everyone else’s first time reactions!

Without giving any spoilers, book 6 is where the… alter ego of the SP world starts coming out to play. We get fantastic villain fights, in depth reveals about main characters pasts and their previous lives, and of course the oh so witty banter that the series embodies.

We see so much character growth from Valkyrie, she’s getting older and her viewpoint on this magical world is developing along with her. It’s so interesting to see her change as she ages and Landy does this brilliantly. Especially so considering he was never a teenage girl!

This is the end of the second trilogy, which is how this series spluts down inside of it’s respective seasons, and because of that we do get lot of closure. But we also get a massive cliff-hanger that leaves you desperate for the next book! I remember when I first read this book I had to wait a whole year for book 7. I’m very glad that in this reread the next book is only a month away!

In CAWPILE I gave this book: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 9, Logic: 8, and Enjoyment: 8. Which gives an overall rating of 8.29 which is a solid 4 star read!

I’ve really been enjoying this whole series reread and I can’t believe that, many months after I read this (which was back in July 2021 – I’m still catching up on those reviews) we’re so close to the end!

Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire – a review

It’s time for book two in the Skulduggery Pleasant series!! As I mentioned in my review of book one, I’m re-reading these as part of the Dead Famous Readalong with the wonderful LadetteM, BookSanctum, ChaoticReader, and occasionally Emma!

It’s hard for me to review these impartially as the entire series is one that I love so much, so please do take my review with a wee pinch of salt. But of course I gave this 5 stars!

In this book we face a new enemy, with a new goal, and new bad guys along with him. We get idiotic zombies, stupid banter, and a lot of near misses with death. All of the usual!

As per this was such a fun romp through the magic filled streets of Ireland. I loved the breadcrumb clues that Landy was already dropping this early on in the series about what is to come in some pretty big reveals later on!

Despite this being a series aimed at kids (with a Middle Grade/ 8-12 intended audience, although this book is marked 9+ on the back of my edition) this is still so much fun to read as an adult. Yes it’s childish, but in such a fun way, and it’s also surprisingly dark and gruesome at the same time. Imagine a PG Deadpool and you’d be pretty spot on.

For my CAWPILE ratings I gave:

Characters: 9

Atmosphere: 9

Writing: 9

Plot: 9

Intrigue: 9

Logic: 9

Enjoyment: 9

for a grand total oooffffffffff, 9. Obviously. Which is of course a five star rating!!

Highlight here if you need trigger warnings: trauma, ptsd, spiders, gaslighting, violence, death, gore, murder, gun violence, religious fanaticism

I am ridiculously glad that I’m reading through this series again. I’m spotting so much that I forgot about or missed when I was younger that’s relating to the new books coming out (there’s one left to go!!!) and being able to chat on the live shows with the others about the plot is so much fun! Only me and Bekka have read the books before (up to the end of series 1) so we know everything that’s going on and it’s so much fun to watch the others try to figure it out!!

Have you read this series? If not? WHY NOT?! Seriously if you’re into dark humour you can’t do much better than this!

Apocalypse Kings – a Skulduggery Pleasant Review!

If you really want to know how far behind on reviews I am? I’ve re-read this before the review will be posted. Ffs why am I like this? Well, either way, let’s get into the review!

Apocalypse Kings by Derek Landy is a World Book Day Novella within the world of Skulduggery Pleasant, it slots into place after Mortal Coil, the fifth book in the series, and doesn’t have any spoilers for books afterwards so you can read it without worrying!

I read this after reading some of the second series, where Val is in her mid twenties, so it was so much fun to go back to the roots of the series and see something childish again! It’s actually what prompted me to take part in the Dead Famous Readalong to reread the entire series! (hence why I’ll have read it a second time by the point this is published, cause I’m reading the books chronologically)

I really enjoy the diversity that Landy added in here. He’s been developing over the span of the series but of course that means that the diversity is most present in the later, more serious books. It was really nice to see that diversity brought back into the more childish and fun parts of the series and that’s probably why Landy wrote the novella!

Highlight for trigger warnings: loss of a loved one, violence

This is around 100 pages long, so I read it in one short sitting and it was so much fun. Val and Skul-man undercover in a school is their worst possible environment and the evil they have to defeat is done so well! Such a fun read as always and writing this has made me even more excited to reread it!