Kingdom of the Wicked

Skulduggery Pleasant is back, with his not-so-sidekick-sidekick Valkyrie Cain. Magic has become a disease. Every day, mortals are starting to have powers that no sorcerer has reached before. Old friends return to backstab, a Grand Mage doesn’t bother to read the manual, headless zombies search for new bodies, true names are found and enemies believed dead make reappearances. Why can’t the dead just stay dead anymore?

Valkyrie and Skulduggery are on yet another race against the clock. Valkyrie still has to figure out the puzzle that is Darquesse. But does she want to? And does she need to find a way of sealing away Darquesse for good, even if it means harming herself?
In the seventh in the Skulduggery Pleasant series Landy blurs the difference between friends and foe, timelines are running parallel and the fights get even more gory. This book is a real thriller and there are so many teasers that have you on edge, but there are also plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as well as tears, for both characters and readers.

There are racy scenes and dialogue that is great, but very occasionally some scenes feel a bit unnecessary and misleading. On the whole, though, I loved it, it’s getting much more mature and gory, just how I like it and I might die when the series is over!