Skullduggery Pleasant Book 1: Review

Yesterday night I finished re-reading the first book in the Skullduggery Pleasant series. I had initially read it when I was about 13 or 14, though I could not remember anything that happened in the book for the life of me. Though most of that is due to the fact I didn't enjoy it very much at the time. A few months ago I went to one of my local second hand stores and saw that they had the entire Skullduggery Pleasant series. I can't recall the exact cost but the whole set cost less than ten dollars. Had it cost more than that I wouldn't have bothered purchasing it. They were all from the exact same set as well, which is a plus. Having a series of books that are very clearly from different with completely different book covers is a huge pet peeve of mine. Anyway, I wanted to give the series another chance and while doing that I thought I'd make a blog for each blog reviewing it.

The book is about a girl named Stephanie Edgley, whose uncle passes away at the beginning of the book. Her uncle was a wrote several fiction novels which seemed to have done tremendously well, since the book makes it very clear that he is extremely wealthy. Stephanie and her Uncle had a very close relationship and because of that she wounds up inheriting her entire uncles estate, much to the dismay of some of her family members. One night while she was at the estate a man suddenly broke in and began to threaten her own life, only for someone else to suddenly intervene. That someone being Skullduggery Pleasant, a free-lance detective who is also a skeleton as well as close friends with Stephanie's uncle. Or at least used to be. He of course saves Stephanie and while at first she's unsure and afraid, before she knows it she's already appointed herself as Skullduggery's sidekick. (This is a very condensed summery of the book. I may have mixed up some of the details by mistake, my memory isn't the best unfortunately.) 

Upon re-reading it, it was more enjoyable than I remember it being. Though I didn't remember much to begin with. My main gripe is some of the writing in the book as well as Stephanie Edgley as a character. I should quickly state this before I continue but the series is intended to be targeted to pre-teens/younger teens. So, I do acknowledge that. Even so, I can't help but feel as though I'm reading a fanfiction sometimes. Some of the dialogue, specifically Stephanie's, is extremely edgy. Not in a corny but still endearing sort of way, just edgy. It can make it hard to keep that motivation to continue reading. Example:

"We need the Elders to take action, so we need proof that Serpine has broken the Truce. We need to find the Sceptre and we also need to find out how to destroy the Sceptre."

"Ok, so how do we do the first one?"

"We'll get the proof once we find the Sceptre."

"And how do we find the Sceptre?"

"We find the key."

"And how do we destroy the Sceptre?"

"Ah," he said. "That'll be the the little bit of crime we'll have to embark on."

"Crime," Stephanie said with a smile. "Finally."

There were a few other specific moments where the writing felt awkward, but this one stuck out to me the most. A big reason why I found the writing to be so hard to read through at times was due to how Stephanie was characterized. Stephanie is intended to be a 13 year old girl, yet she hardly feels like a 13 year old girl. She has a very strong sense of independency and hates being perceived as nothing more than a child. She rarely feels the need to depend on others, even on Skullduggery, and is ready to take danger head on without hesitation. However, this is an issue. Stephanie is written to be a flawless character. Someone that the reader can project themselves onto rather than root for and cheer on, making Stephanie feel like some kind of "self-insert" rather than a human being in a world that's scary and new but still desperately wants to be a part of it. On occasions Stephanie will have moments where she is unsure or at a loss, though that was more so in the second half of the book. Personally, I think it would've worked much better if Stephanie started off as someone whose overwhelmed and afraid and solely dependent on the others around her, but through experience develops her own sense of self and becomes the fighter she wants to be. 

I know this is a really short review. My back hurts and I want to take a shower. I doubt this blog will gain any traction, but if anyone does come across it I'd love to hear your thoughts.