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    Skulduggery Pleasant
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    Skulduggery Pleasant
    Unavailable
    Skulduggery Pleasant
    Audiobook7 hours

    Skulduggery Pleasant

    Written by Derek Landy

    Narrated by Rupert Degas

    4.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Get ready for the biggest NEW publishing phenomena of 2007!

    “So you won't keep anything from me again?"
    He put his hand to his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
    "Okay then. Though you don't actually have a heart," she said.
    "I know."
    "And technically, you've already died."
    "I know that too."
    "Just so we're clear."

    Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction.

    Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard.

    When all hell breaks loose, it's lucky for Skulduggery that he's already dead. Though he's about to discover that being a skeleton doesn't stop you from being tortured, if the torturer is determined enough. And if there's anything Skulduggery hates, it's torture… Will evil win the day? Will Stephanie and Skulduggery stop bickering long enough to stop it? One thing's for sure: evil won't know what's hit it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2007
    ISBN9780007262458
    Unavailable
    Skulduggery Pleasant
    Author

    Derek Landy

    Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. "I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave," he says, "or she would be if she were dead."

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    Related categories

    Reviews for Skulduggery Pleasant

    4.5/5

    145 ratings58 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Witty dialogue and neat martial arts among the not so living protagonists make this novel fun to read.
    • 4/5
      That was awesome. The body count was a little high for a kids' book but not really that bad compared to TV. Or cartoons. Or Harry Potter. It totally shows that the writer teaches martial arts to kids and has a ton of experience with empowering children to defend themselves physically and verbally. I was filled with YAY!

      Wishes: that there'd been more characters of color, that description of characters besides Skulduggery had been more vivid (or extant), that Stephanie's parents had had a little more screentime, and that the whole Bliss arc had been a little better actualized.

      But! Hanging threads make for sequels, and so now I will track them down. :D

      (The disability tag is for a character grossly disfigured at birth who is beloved and a badass.)
    • 5/5
      As funny and well written as I remember it
    • 5/5
      An exciting and entertaining book. I found this to be an easy read: Sentence structure and vocabulary were simple. Sequence of events made sense and sometimes unexpected, which added to the suspense. I would recommend this for reluctant readers Grade 5+, especially boys. Girls who enjoy fantasy stories will also like this book.
    • 4/5
      Cute and fun. I like the world and the characters that Landy created.
    • 3/5
      Review from Badelynge Back when I was eleven years old, if you had handed me a book featuring a magic using, skeleton detective, I would have likely snapped your hand off and demanded to know where I could get the next twenty books. As a soon to be 44 year old it takes a little more to impress me. Although there are some gems of children's fiction about these days, this one doesn't come close to competing with the current gold standards of Rowling, Pullman and Stroud. The book, on the whole, is quite easy to read and the action is enthusiastically described like a blow by blow radio commentary for WWF. Derek Landy's world building follows his small group of characters around like a small bubble generated by their presence. There is little depth to it. It just sort of springs up as the characters progress. Skulduggery Pleasant isn't the dynamic and extraordinary figure the cover blurb promises either. He's a rather contradictory fellow who happens to be a skeleton. He doesn't do much detecting either, coming across as more of a gung-ho soldier, though perhaps in future novels he will get a chance to show off his skills rather than his kills. I had trouble sometimes, when there were extended scenes filled with dialogue, in keeping track of who was actually speaking, which considering usually featured a centuries old undead skeleton detective sorcerer conversing with a 12 year old girl hardly seems possible. Stephanie is also too shallow a character, her motivations seem mainly to be driven by avoiding boredom. There are moments when she almost comes alive, notably as she wonders how her parents will deal with the doppelganger living in her bedroom, who will continue to fool the world with a hollow smile after the real Stephanie has died in her quest for adventure but these are way too few. Back when I was eleven none of this would have mattered. My imagination would have filled in all the blanks and coloured all the characters in blazing technicolor. These days my imagination needs a bit more grist for the mill.
    • 4/5
      Despite an oddball premise, this book was thoroughly engaging, disturbing, and darkly, surprisingly witty. I had no trouble getting through it. I would say it is a bit scary for younger readers.
    • 4/5
      Skulduggery PleasantStephanie’s uncle has just died and she finds out that he has left her a very comfortable fortune due to his Mystery writing career. But she soon finds out the his real life has been the basis for all of his stories, and that his partner has been dead for years, but is still walking around, and flinging elemental magic at the bad guys….A skeleton detective who can throw fireballs.You sold yet, I was, and after reading it, I’m ready for more.Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
    • 4/5
      This is a fun fantasy not for the faint of heart. Skulduggery is a skeleton detective sent to investigate magical cases. Stephanie's uncle dies mysteriously and she is drawn into Skulduggery's sometimes scary and intense world. Some violence not suitable below 5th grade.
    • 5/5
      When her uncle dies, twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley inherits a fortune -- and discovers a whole new world. Her tour guide is Skulduggery Pleasant, an old friend of her Uncle's -- a wisecracking, fire throwing, animated skeleton detective with a penchant for doing his own thing. When Stephanie insists on tracking down her Uncle's murderer, and it appears that an ancient evil has returned and is stalking her, Skulduggery and her own determination may just be the two things that can stop the end of the world.I sure hope there's a sequel, and soon -- Stephanie's a superior sort of heroine, and Skulduggery is not to be missed.
    • 4/5
      Fast-moving fun. Love the names and the plot twists. The odd sexist comment.I enjoyed reading this book and can understand it's appeal to teenagers.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series and was a fun read, I enjoyed it. It's a blend of fantasy and horror aimed at a middle grade/YA audience. I liked the witty dialogue and the action and humor throughout. It was fun and just a bit silly, while still having an interesting dark fantasy story to it.Stephanie has inherited her uncle Gordon’s estate and also a friend of his named Skulduggery Pleasant. What Stephanie didn’t know is how deep Gordon was involved in a hidden world where sorcery and ancient artifacts are real. Now Stephanie must help find the Scepter of the Ancients to save the world.This book was full of quirky, fun dialogue and lots of action. I would call it dark fantasy rather than horror because there is a lot of magic and things get creepy at points but never really that scary. This ended up being a quick read that had me laughing out loud a number of times. I enjoyed the adventures and action a lot as well. This is an interesting world and I liked Stephanie and Skulduggery as characters.Overall I enjoyed this. I would recommend to middle grade readers who enjoy fantasy with a bit of a dark/horror edge to it. This is easy to read and a lot of fun. I am unsure whether I will continue the series or not at this point. I enjoyed it but I am already reading a lot of other series.
    • 5/5
      Love, love, love this book. It had action, adventure, magic, snappily dressed skelton detective and more dry wit than you know what to do with. Great female characters and a fun story. I hope my first novel is as amazing!
    • 5/5
      Valkyrie Cain-once known to the world as twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgely-has learned a great deal since beginning her apprenticeship to Skulduggery Pleasant, the well-dressed living-dead wizard-detective. But she hasn't learned nearly enough to defeat the horrors massing against her and her friends: An old foe of Skulduggery's, Baron Vengeous, is bent on bringing back to life the horrible Grotesquery-an unkillable monster assembled from the most fearsome beasts of legend. It's up to the ingenious, fearless, and hilarious Valkyrie and Skulduggery to stop the Grotesquery from coming fully to life. Because once it is alive, it will call to its masters, the evil Faceless Ones whose return will mean the end of the world. This book was filled with laughs and fun. Even though it is a very serious book.
    • 4/5
      I rated this book an eight because it was really good. I really liked this book. The author really is good writing books. The auther builds tension in the book. The book made me want to keep reading. I would recommend this book. In the book the main charecter is a skeleton that is magic. cody
    • 4/5
      Made me laugh out loud in some parts. Loved the different voices and enjoyed listening to the story. Very good
    • 5/5
      This book was SO MUCH FUN.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic! What great fun. I’ve only just discovered the series and this first book certainly drew me in.
    • 4/5
      Stephanie Edgeley is a 12 year old precocious girl who decides to avenge her uncle Gordon's death with the help of a very unlikely ally; a detective skeleton named Skulduggery. She renames herself Valkyrie Cain, raising Cain. Gordon leaves everything to Stephanie in his will, including the power to save or destroy the universe, but she doesn't know that when the adventure begins. She has to find the object that creatures from another realm want, before they find it! She has the help of Skulduggery, a character who does a lot to make the book interesting. I'll be certain to read book two to find out what happens.
    • 5/5
      Witty, magical, exciting, and mysterious.
    • 4/5
      Some books are sustaining, books like all of the Harry Potter books, The Lord of the Rings, and Jane Eyre. These books I can go back to again and again; they’re like going home. Skulduggery Pleasant is a lark, it’s fun, it’s witty; I read it in a day, thoroughly enjoyed it but would never read it again. I will look forward to reading the next books in the series though!
    • 3/5
      This book kept me entertained. A chuckler. Good for kids who want a fantasy novel with a touch of horror, with British language.
    • 5/5
      A childhood favourite. Addictive, captivating, amazing characters and a story worth reading.
    • 4/5
      It took 3 persistent recommendations, half a year and it being unrenewable because it had been renewed the maximum number of times from the library and due back the next day for me to finally read this - and I'm glad I did!

      Awesome book, and look forward to reading the rest of them :)
    • 4/5
      An interesting story about a girl who finds herself embroiled in magic, murder and mayhem in Dublin when her uncle dies suddenly. When she finds that his horror stories were in fact based in truth she has the choice to join forces with good to defeat evil or stay with the normal world.Interestingly complex, the characters aren't always just black and white and betrayal is a strong motif. The idea of an animated skeleton as hero is interesting too.Stephanie came across as being more 15 than 12, and maybe she should have been written as a little older.Interesting first novel and I'm looking forward to more by this author.
    • 3/5
      These took me a while to get into, but it proved worth it. It was entertaining, though Mr. Pleasant wasn't nearly as humorous as the book blurbs professed him to be.
    • 5/5
      Stephanie Edgley is a normal, if a bit antisocial, 12-year-old. She has normal parents and lives in a normal house in Ireland. Her Uncle Gordon, however, was not so normal; an author of horror novels, he lives in a large, old house and tends to keep strange company. That is, until he dies.

      To the surprise of everyone, Stephanie is named Gordon's sole heir to his estate and fortune. It is at this point that things start to get interesting. She meets one of Gordon's strange friends, a Mr. Skulduggery Pleasant, who, as it turns out, is a skeleton (long story)—and she announces that she is going to help him find her uncle's killer, since she's pretty sure he was murdered. What follows is a madcap adventure to, of course, save the world from evil forces.

      This was an exceptionally entertaining and darkly funny middle-grade/teen novel. It's the first in a series, and I will most certainly be checking out the rest of the books. This is indeed a very dark book, full of death and tragedies, but Landy keeps it age-appropriate and keeps gore to a minimum, though some not-so-likable characters meet deliciously gruesome demises.

      Landy has created a world where magical beings coexist with non-magical humans, with the latter more often than not being none the wiser. It's similar in that sense to Harry Potter, but there the similarities end. Magical folk live in a dangerous world, where a war between those who seek power and those protecting the general population has been waged for decades (probably longer, I can't remember exactly, but a really long time). At the time we join the characters in their story, both sides have agreed to a tenuous ceasefire, which of course blows up in everyone's faces, otherwise there would be no story.

      As for characters, these are all brilliant. Skulduggery is stoic but with an incredibly wry humor, and Stephanie has some excellent zingers too, along with her determination, stubbornness, and incredible courage. They are, to put it simply, awesome. Oh, and they are both great fighters, which we get to see a lot of.

      I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Rupert Degas, and it was fantastic. Degas was excellent at distinguishing voices, and paced his narration perfectly. Plus he has an accent.

      Long story short, if you like dark, humorous, action-packed fantasy, this is a great series to start.
    • 4/5
      "The author just may have invented a new genre: the screwball fantasy."—The New York Times Book Review Stephanie's rich, strange uncle has just passed away, and left his house and most of his possessions to his beloved niece. The only person outside of the family to appear at the reading of her uncle's will was someone named Skulduggery Pleasant, who turns out to be an undead detective, aiming to save the world from a nasty bit of ancient evil. Stephanie's uncle possessed a secret weapon called the Sceptre of the Ancients, and in the wrong hands (the Faceless Ones, vampires, zombies, etc) it could mean the destruction of the world. The forces of evil are after it, and they'll stop at nothing to get it... unless Stephanie and Skulduggery Pleasant can find it first! Mystery, magic, hilarious puns and undead humor, action and adventure - - you name it, it's here. A great beginning to the series! Good for 6th grade and up.
    • 4/5
      I'm sorry that I don't remember which Twitter friend recommended this book to me, because I'd like to thank them.This book was tremendous fun, particularly in audio.There are quirky characters, both in the good guys and the bad guys (and it isn't always immediately apparent which category each falls into). Stephanie is a very nice young girl with a good head on her shoulders. Thanks to her uncle, who wrote books describing some absolutely unbelievable adventures, she's able to go along with the situation when her help is needed to save the world.The book is a great adventure. It got a little more intense than I thought it needed to at points, but overall it was the fun kind of scary.I'm looking forward to the next book.
    • 3/5
      This is my second read of this book, and I am still somewhat undecided how I feel about it. Landy writes conversation very well - and there were some ultra-funny laugh out loud moments, but I do feel the plot is somewhat lacking, and it is not something that I can put into words as such. I am not fond of guns in children's books, and they do seem to be a common weapon of choice. But maybe it's the protagonist, Stephanie. I just can't really like her that much. Sure, she's gutsy, rebellious and sharp-tongued, all valuable assets in a heroine. but she's not exactly the sort of person I would like as my daughter. This book is fun, and I am curious to read what follows on - as a series often starts mediocre and builds to better, but it is not one that I shall be rushing out out buy.