Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire
By Derek Landy Book two in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. It’s still an awesome and unique read. It’s just not quite as amazing as the first book, which is generally to be expected in any series.
Stephanie is now living primarily as Valkyrie, Skulduggery is still fired. They’re still working together to solve mysteries and save the world. This time their main enemy is Baron Vengeous who is determined to raise the Grotesquery from the dead . The Grotesquery is a very very very bad monster who might even be a bit much for Skulduggery to take on, especially give he no longer has the resources that he once had — you know since he was fired.
Oh, and if that is not enough everyone seems to be after Valkyrie and as Stephanie she has a family reunion to attend – and nope, the mirror image can’t get her out of that.
And then there’s Stephanie’s uncle… Yes, the dead one.
Overall, an enjoyable followup. Perhaps a little too much going on. Not enough of the Valkyrie and Skulduggery interactions which make the series so enjoyable. Still a series worth continuing on with. A little bit of everything from the bully family members at the reunion to vampires to living skeletons to rocker wax figures come to life. Original and witty. Good for all ages.
And because I really don't have enough to say to require a separate review for the 3rd book (Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones
) -- Short version - this is pretty decent for a third book. Pretty formulaic by now, but with an emotional cliffhanger for Valkyrie. Still witty but a bit darker this time around so less room for those kinds of interactions.