Skulduggery Pleasant: the Faceless Ones

Image credit: Skulduggery Pleasant Wiki-Fandom

Quite possibly one of the most liberating and comforting feelings in the world –for me right now at least- is that hot and bubbling feeling of excitement that comes from finishing a really good book on a cliffhanger and knowing that all you need to do is journey to the bookshelf to find out what happens next. Ah the joys of becoming immersed in a series that already has a load of books out!

Set six months after Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant defeated Baron Vengous and thwarted his plans to bring back the Faceless Ones, The Faceless Ones doesn’t give our heroes a moment’s peace. Between being fugitives on the Sanctuary’s radar and conducting their own investigations into a recent string of strange murders, Valkyrie and Skulduggery have really got their work cut out for them as they attempt to find the sinister Teleporter-killer, expose the spy in the Sanctuary, and thwart yet another attempt to bring back the terrifying evil Gods and end the world. Only this time, they might be so lucky.

Argh these books are so good and so exciting! You can’t see this, but I’m actually squealing and gesturing with delight and excitement about how much I love this series! While still retaining their fun and adventurous tone, this book is the one where much more darkness comes up through the cracks and settles within the piece. Where Rowling went wrong with Harry Potter, Landy seamlessly inserts levels of the gritty, the more mature, and the macabre into a world where it’s already solidly established so rather than have the sudden, disjointing experience that Prisoner of Azkaban and the continuing books had, the series merely takes on a more exciting edge that makes you –amongst other things- read a hell of a lot faster than you usually would. It’s almost like these books turn you into some sort of crazy time wizard, magically travelling through the events of days and months in the space of a few hours.

Image credit: Skulduggery Pleasant Wiki-Fandom

Our characters both central and supporting alike continue to grow, with new mysteries and intrigues cropping up out of nowhere to keep you enthralled as to what will happen next. Will Valkyrie continue on this path, what is China hiding, and what’s the deal with Skulduggery anyway?

Amongst inciting the burning need to have these questions answered, the reading experience of The Faceless Ones is one of absolute ferocity with action, drama, gore, and comedy happening on every page, creating a momentum in slow readers, like myself, that we could never have dreamed of!

The Faceless Ones is the third book in Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series and was published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2009.