Skullduggery Pleasant Book 1 Review

This book (well, the whole series really!) has been on my TBR for so long and I finally got to find and read the first book!

Book 1 of the Skullduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy follows Stephanie, a twelve year old whose rich fantasy author Uncle Gordon recently died and left her (just her, not even her parents!) a giant house. A little after Gordon's funeral, she becomes acquainted with Skullduggery Pleasant, a magical detective (who is really a talking skeleton) who was good friends with Gordon. As it turns out, a lot of the fantasy stories Gordon wrote about are mostly true. Stephanie is blown away over the fact that there is magic in the mundane. There is a looming threat of an ancient enemy named Serpine that is trying to acquire a magical scepter to resurrect the Faceless Ones, and bring doom to the world. Despite his inital protests, Stephanie decides to join Skullduggery to stop Serpine and his evil plan. 

I loved the magic system, the lore, and especially the characters in this book. It's not a whimsical kind of fantasy, it's more of a dark fantasy. But it wasn't super grimdark either. I can't wait to read the rest of the series, if I can get my hands on them. 

I gave it 4.5 stars, but that was because of a lot of discussions on fighting to the death. Well, what did I expect from a darker fantasy book?

Do you like any dark fantasy books?