The Maleficent Seven

Skulduggery Pleasant is now a phenomenon in the world of children’s paranormal books.  This book is a stand alone novel but centred around characters from the main series.  The ‘heroine’ is Tanith Low, once on the side of good, but since her infection by a ‘Remnant’, now working against her former colleagues.  The plot of the books is centred around her search for the for weapons known as ‘God-killers’, which are held by a variety of owners, none of whom wish to hand them over.  Tanith put together a team of  seven, featuring a range of talents from vampirism to cannibalism in order to outwit the owners and also a team from the ‘good’ side.

This will find a very faithful readership from the main series, and although it is difficult to maintain empathy with a character when they change sides, the author does achieve this.  However with the introduction of the character Moribund, Derek Landy leaves us with the possibility of fighting the Remnant and not giving in to the dark side. It would help to have  read the other books, but because of the nature of this story it is possible to come to the characters without prior knowledge and enjoy the book.  This is full of action, as well as blood and gore, so not for the faint hearted; however it will be thoroughly enjoyed by large numbers of young people, ideally from the age of 12 upwards.