Review of SP Dark Days

In Skulduggery Pleasant Dark Days by Derek Landy, Valkyrie Cain must rescue Skulduggery from the Land of the Faceless Ones (not sure what it's really called) and defeat a band of criminals trying to kill her. She keeps busy.

I expected this book to be even more exceptional than Faceless Ones, so I was probably more disappointed in it that it deserved, but I enjoyed it too.

To begin, the romance. As I said, I feared Fletcherie would make Valkyrie and Skulduggery less of a team. When Val entered the portal, though, China thought to herself that Val and Skul were meant to form this bond and everyone else must watch from the sidelines. It's true. I give bountiful credit to Landy for knowing his story so well. (Many authors don't know the first thing about their characters, and it's terribly annoying.) Landy knows Skul and Val likely will never grow apart. They're the perfect friends. That at least put my mind at peace and made me pretty much okay with Fletcherie.

Next, the plot. In this book, they got Skul back fast, which is good because he's stupendous, but it seemed too rushed, too quick to return to the same kind of plot. Save the world. The only difference was the villains weren't working for the Faceless Ones but for revenge. On the bright side, Scapegrace underwent appreciable changes (into a zombie king of sorts) and didn’t just die (he’s a likable idiot). Billy-Ray also underwent some major changes and could no longer use his powers (comfortably). Hilariously, the Revengers’ Club almost exclusively targeted Valkyrie, the fifteen-year-old girl who put them to shame. Regardless, they’re common sorcerer criminals, which is a step down from evil gods. (That was my clever reference to The Road to El Dorado. Ahem.) Aside from all that, the plot did captivate. Things went wrong. A lot. Good fun. Fun to read, not experience.

Next, Skulduggery. He was immensely lovable, but not AS. He almost seemed to resent being rescued, which seems snobbish and not like him at all. Then he almost shot Weeper (whom I actually like), seemed not to care when a friendly vampire faced danger, and seemed not to care about some poor guy who’s true name was known and abused by many. That’s not like him either. He’s supposed to be all heroic. That was my first reaction, and still is, but now I recognize another aspect of it. The author actually said he was excited to create a character who was darker than he initially seemed. I admit that's exciting. Now it doesn't disappoint me AS much that Skul acted a bit postal, because now I know that Derek knows it’s unhealthy behavior.

Furthermore, this book reveals Skulduggery let an innocent man stay in jail. I was glad to find that out, because everyone says Skul has done bad, bad things, but no one ever says WHAT. Now we know of one criminal act, but Billy-ray actually called Skul a psycho, so many more must remain.

About Valkyrie. Awesomely, she learned necromancy to rescue Skul. She even faced a Faceless One, (although, yes, it was strangely slow and stupid this time). Then, however, she lost to a powerless Billy-Ray. What's the point of her learning all these powers if she can’t even beat a powerless Billy-ray? In a way, it's realistic because, as always, Skul and Val never win easy, but still, it’s disappointing.

Though it lacked some of the oomph of the last book, Dark Days was exciting, funny (especially Finbar), and it had a gorgeous cover.

7.5/10