Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days by Derek Landy

The Blurb On The Back:

”Valkyrie turned to the portal. The wind whipped her hair. She ran, straight into the yellow ...”

Skulduggery Pleasant is gone, sucked into a parallel dimension. There is no official, Sanctuary-approved plan to save him.

But Valkyrie’s never had much time for plans ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

A dark and stunning read from start to finish, this 4th instalment in Derek Landy’s MG fantasy series is a delight from start to finish. I’m not convinced that some of the content is suitable for younger readers as there’s a lot of death and violence, but older readers should thoroughly enjoy it.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil by Derek Landy

The Blurb On The Back:

“The blonde girl with the black lips turned to Valkyrie. ‘We know,’ she said. ‘We’ve seen the future. We know you’re going to kill the world ...’”

Valkyrie has discovered that she is Darquesse, the evil sorceress. The problem is, she doesn’t feel she can tell Skulduggery, and so she must try to change her terrible destiny alone.

But the price of changing your destiny is high, and if she fails, she’ll die alone too ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 5th in Derek Landy’s MG fantasy series is easily the goriest and scariest yet. Landy’s finally starting to pull together some of the outstanding storylines from the earlier books, which is good, and there’s also some character death and gut-wrenching scenes that promise much for book 6. However, there is also a certain amount of padding in this book and some of the storylines didn’t gel as well as in the earlier stories – this isn’t fatal but it is noticeable because the earlier books have been so tightly written.

The D.U.F.F.: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

The Blurb On The Back:

“You, darling, are the Duff. Designated. Ugly. Fat. Friend,” Wesley clarified. “No offense, it’s not like you’re an ogre or anything, but in comparison ...” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “You have hot friends ... Really hot friends.” He paused, watching the action on the dance floor for a moment, before facing me again. “The point is, scientists have proven that every group of friends has a weak link, a Duff.”

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’d the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff”, she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This competent debut teen romance manages to tap into the insecurity that many teenage girls have about their appearance and the way in which many girls compare themselves to their friends to good effect. However there is an equal amount of soap opera cliché in terms of the main character’s background and personal problems, which ultimately dragged the story down for me. I’m interested in seeing Keplinger’s next novel, but hopefully she’ll go in a more original direction.