Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil

Image credit: Skulduggery Pleasant Wiki-Fandom

Now we’re getting into the real meat of the series: friction in relationships, the growth of new ones, and juicy inner torments and raging battles. This is the fifth instalment in the Skulduggery Pleasant series…

Mortal Coil focuses on Valkyrie’s inner conflicts as she makes dangerous plans to seal her true name, thus keeping a disturbing revelation from becoming public knowledge. She has discovered that she is Darquesse, the evil sorceress who will destroy the world. Unfortunately for Valkyrie, this is not a secret she can keep for long. As her Necromancer mentor works to uncover whether or not she is the destined ‘Death-Bringer’, saviour of the world according to Necromancer lore, he unleashes a Remnant and a national state of emergency ensues as the Remnant escapes and frees its hundreds of friends who then go on to possess practically everyone in Ireland, searching for Darquesse so that they may guide her on the path to the end of the world.

While the flippant tone of the series remains complete and undisturbed, the series is now solidly within the realms of the gory and the truly macabre. A startling amount of chapters describe events that one would expect to see in a horror movie, plus (similar to Order of the Phoenix) this book is significantly larger than its predecessors, as it harbours an abundance of exposition on inner conflict, teenage angst (amongst other things), and those inner monologues of characters going through confusing times.

Image credit: Skulduggery Pleasant Wiki-Fandom

All of the characters, not just Valkyrie and Skulduggery, are going through changes and battles of their own and Landy describes this all beautifully without sacrificing any of the action and fun of the series. Plots are thickening, new rivalries are budding, and as you finish each page you are gripped with the need to read on. Never (or at lease almost never) is there a time when you can determinedly decide ‘that’s enough for today’. And, as ever, when you get to the last page, you can’t wait to jump up and grab the next instalment from the shelf (at least I can’t).

Mortal Coil is the fifth instalment in Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series. Copyright Derek Landy 2010 and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books.