Review: Resurrection

Skulduggery Pleasant: Resurrection

Tagline: You can’t keep a dead man down

Derek Landy

Synopsis:

“Omen Darkly,” Skulduggery said. “I realise this is a lot to take in, but we have to know – will you help us save the world?

Review:

As always the cover art of the latest addition to the Skulduggery Pleasant series do not disappoint me. I learned how difficult drawing skeleton heads are from attempting to recreate some of the cover art when I was younger. I also love the neon orange on the black; in fact I love EVERYTHING about the cover. And for any of you wondering, the skeleton whom I am in incredible awe of with his kickass detective and survival skills is Skulduggery Pleasant.

One thing that keeps me hooked onto this series aside from the intriguing plotline is the sense of humour interlaced into the characters. Honestly if any book can make my muscles twitch into a smile, it’s got to be written by Derek Landy. Even when they’re facing death a time which calls for Kiya to elegantly shriek her head off puns, disses, and humour is being exchanged and throw around as if a gun or knife isn’t being head to their head or neck respectively. I mean can someone please teach me how to say something witty when inside I’m freaking the hell out. Throughout the book you can find quite philosophical quotes that I’m a sucker for that we can take some advice from even though we may lack the magic that runs through their veins. cries in sadness

This book features some diversity. There is a gender fluid character by the name Never did I mention how quirky most of the names are in these series? and we also see homosexual relationships flourish as well as characters from loads of different ethnicities and backgrounds. We observe the lives of broken people living in a broken world trying to help heal other broken souls. Along with witnessing the capabilities of evil and what begins to corrupt people from the path of compassion. I think at some point, as a reader, we will be able to identify or connect with a thought strand of some of the characters whether that be on love, fitting in, anger or hurt. For myself, that was when Valkyrie Cain wanted to escape aspects of her life by isolating herself and cutting herself off from the world that surrounded her in the moment. She was having a battle between her darker thoughts and the spark of hope and self-belief she had forgotten how to relight and hold onto. I can’t even begin to relate to Valkyrie herself or what she’s been through or the consequences of actions she had carried out thankfully I’ve never been burdened with the task of saving the world on numerous occasions or being injured in agonising ways but owing to the narration, I can begin to empathise with certain strands of her thoughts even if I can’t understand the enormity of it all.

The friendship between the two main characters Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain really warms my heart and also simultaneously tears it apart when evil forces begin manipulating minds. It’s getting quite hard to talk without giving anything away so

SPOILERS MAY OCCUR READ WITH CAUTION

Okay so firstly I’m still recovering from the shock of finding out Skulduggery Pleasant has an ex-girlfriend. LIKE WHAT? I DON’T KNOW WHY BUT I JUST LIKE IT JUST DIDN’T EVER CROSS MY MIND YOU KNOW? Also the way he told Valkyrie was quite adorably funny. And then seconds later I learn he ended up stabbing her in the back very literally nothing metaphorical going on here and throwing her out of a window. Double spoiler, she didn’t die. She returned years later and decimated battalions. In response, a group of soldiers tracked her down but unfortunately she had manipulated them into walking into a booby trap in which they all nearly died. They only got the upper hand when they held her son hostage and offered to release him in exchange for her death and she agreed. This time they wanted to make sure she actually died and her heart only stopped beating when it was ripped out of her chest. At this point I was in shock. My brain was trying to process this chain of events. By the way, his ex-girlfriend was a baddie not that it justifies the violence and the horror who practically used Skulduggery as a pawn to get close to her nemesis so she could kill him. And then a few seconds after, I was smiling at Valkyrie’s reaction to this news as “OK.OK, that’s a lot to take in,” to which Skulduggery replies “The fact that my ex-girlfriend was one of the most dangerous people I have ever encountered, or the fact that I had a girlfriend?” Within a couple of pages, my mind had gone through quite a lot of extreme emotions.

Oh and Fletcher Renn made an appearance without the need to run his hands through his hair a couple hundred times. I honestly wasn’t expecting him to feature in this book but when he teleported in and saved Valkyrie and Skulduggery from a beating I was mentally cheering him on. Sadly he got stabbed in the back by a sly teleporter as a reward. He recovered though! I was scared the writer was going to kill him off *wipes brow*

Favourite quote from book:

You think of yourself as the weak one, Omen. You think of yourself as unimportant. That’s got to change. You need to figure out your own value. You need to face up to your own worth. The first step in winning a fight for survival is understanding why you deserve to survive.

~ Skulduggery Pleasant to Omen Darkly

And that brings this book review to an end.

Have you read any of the books from the Skulduggery Pleasant series? What do you think of that quote above?

Does anyone want to fangirl/boy with me over the book? *hopeful look*