jesus effing christ
So, I finished Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
WHAT EVEN WAS THAT? WHAT WAS THAT? THAT WAS AMAZING.
Okay. Okay. Haha, I know I am essentially talking to myself because no one else has read it yet, but still! For future reference! Like how I am giving this directly to quatredeathlady next Friday and forcing her to read the whole thing immediately.
Anyway.
I loved it from the start I love that even though Skulduggery doesn't appear in the first like, eighty pages, he's still there. The interplay between Valkyrie and Ghastly and Tanith and Fletcher was great in those first few chapters, too. Fletcher kind of annoyed me in the last book and he was still annoying me here, but his hilarity made him grow on me.
It was clear in the last book that Fletcher was set up to be Valkyrie's love interest, but I did like the way it was done in this book, even if it was a little predictable.
Mostly, though, my heart swelled when I read this observation from China:
If she bothered with casual conversation, she would have told the poor boy that this thing with Valkyrie was never going to go anywhere, not when Skulduggery got back. Valkyrie's life revolved around Skulduggery now--she was caught in his orbit, and someone like Fletcher didn't stand a chance.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie were meant for each other. China could see that now. They were meant to find each other, to form this bond and to effect each other's lives. The best the boy could hope for, the best anyone could hope for, would be to stand in the wings and look on.
Because... I don't know, guys! I am usually really, really uncomfortable with the teacher/student dynamic and I don't know that I really ship them ship them but... I kind of do. I want them to be life partners or something. I DON'T KNOW. I didn't used to ship them! But after Valkyrie spent a year doing nothing but searching for Skulduggery's head... yeah, I don't know! If nothing else, I totes agree with China--no one else in either of their lives is going to keep them from each other or get in the way of the other. Ever. Unless Skulduggery's family magically comes back, but even then I feel like he'd be afraid he's changed too much to be with them.
Um, anyway.
I'm glad that Skulduggery was "off" once he came back from the other world. The whole thing where he thought Val was a hallucination and had been working on his powers was pretty awesome, but I like that he was... incredibly unsettled about the whole thing. I liked that it slowly got better, or at least it was hidden better.
Oh god, what else? I like that he ties things from past novels back to the current storyline. I FRIGGING LOVE SCAPEGRACE. Like, insanely. How he was all, "I'm a master at killing! I make it an art!" His whole conversation with Jack where he was saying he was after Val because she beat him up... oh man, I was LOLING in a break at jury duty. And he just got more hysterical when he turned into a zombie. Oh man, I love that they keep reusing him. So hilarious. Much needed levity in the Revenger's Gang. (In that vein, I also love Finbar. I know he's supposed to be Irish, but he's totes a cliche Californian hippie stoner in my head.)
I knew that the Dublin football game was going to play into it from the second that Val's dad mentioned it. It's the sort of thing that's super obvious when you read enough of these books, but I didn't let it bother me. I did NOT see the second bomb coming, though. Wow.
WHAT ELSE? Man. Um, China. That was unexpected. With Skulduggery's family. Shit, man. I LIKE China. And I don't think that's going to go over too well with Skulduggery when he finds out.
That's one of the things I really love about this series. Aside from the humor. Which was in perfect form. But I love that these aren't... good people. None of these are good people. Skulduggery keeps reminding Valkyrie of it, but it's true. These people are killers. Most of them have lived through a war and done things they don't regret. I loved that Skulduggery KNEW that Scarab didn't kill that Pacifist dude but didn't care. I love that China used to be bad, that Bliss did too. That Grouse built the original Desolation Engine. Everyone is morally ambiguous. Everyone has their own agenda.
The humor of these books sort of half-disguises how frigging DARK they are.
I loved Hotel Midnight. The entire concept is amazing. I want a million crossovers with all my other fandoms where people stay at Hotel Midnight. You cannot convince me that's not where Jack spent the six months between the destruction of the 456 and his leaving Earth for good.
And the end... when Val's headaches kept popping up and she kept trying to remember something, I had a feeling it was going to come back. I figured it had something to do with the Faceless Ones and the world Skulduggery was trapped in.
I did NOT see the Darquesse thing coming :O
Like, seriously, that emoticon doesn't even BRUSH THE SURFACE of my shock.
I am so worried for Valkyrie, now D: D: D:
But, omfg, what an awesome book. WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK. Best one so far. Why aren't the rest of you reading this series?
More importantly, why don't I have a Skulduggery Pleasant icon?
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
OH MY FUCKING GOD.
WHAT EVEN WAS THAT? WHAT WAS THAT? THAT WAS AMAZING.
Okay. Okay. Haha, I know I am essentially talking to myself because no one else has read it yet, but still! For future reference! Like how I am giving this directly to quatredeathlady next Friday and forcing her to read the whole thing immediately.
Anyway.
I loved it from the start I love that even though Skulduggery doesn't appear in the first like, eighty pages, he's still there. The interplay between Valkyrie and Ghastly and Tanith and Fletcher was great in those first few chapters, too. Fletcher kind of annoyed me in the last book and he was still annoying me here, but his hilarity made him grow on me.
It was clear in the last book that Fletcher was set up to be Valkyrie's love interest, but I did like the way it was done in this book, even if it was a little predictable.
Mostly, though, my heart swelled when I read this observation from China:
If she bothered with casual conversation, she would have told the poor boy that this thing with Valkyrie was never going to go anywhere, not when Skulduggery got back. Valkyrie's life revolved around Skulduggery now--she was caught in his orbit, and someone like Fletcher didn't stand a chance.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie were meant for each other. China could see that now. They were meant to find each other, to form this bond and to effect each other's lives. The best the boy could hope for, the best anyone could hope for, would be to stand in the wings and look on.
Because... I don't know, guys! I am usually really, really uncomfortable with the teacher/student dynamic and I don't know that I really ship them ship them but... I kind of do. I want them to be life partners or something. I DON'T KNOW. I didn't used to ship them! But after Valkyrie spent a year doing nothing but searching for Skulduggery's head... yeah, I don't know! If nothing else, I totes agree with China--no one else in either of their lives is going to keep them from each other or get in the way of the other. Ever. Unless Skulduggery's family magically comes back, but even then I feel like he'd be afraid he's changed too much to be with them.
Um, anyway.
I'm glad that Skulduggery was "off" once he came back from the other world. The whole thing where he thought Val was a hallucination and had been working on his powers was pretty awesome, but I like that he was... incredibly unsettled about the whole thing. I liked that it slowly got better, or at least it was hidden better.
Oh god, what else? I like that he ties things from past novels back to the current storyline. I FRIGGING LOVE SCAPEGRACE. Like, insanely. How he was all, "I'm a master at killing! I make it an art!" His whole conversation with Jack where he was saying he was after Val because she beat him up... oh man, I was LOLING in a break at jury duty. And he just got more hysterical when he turned into a zombie. Oh man, I love that they keep reusing him. So hilarious. Much needed levity in the Revenger's Gang. (In that vein, I also love Finbar. I know he's supposed to be Irish, but he's totes a cliche Californian hippie stoner in my head.)
I knew that the Dublin football game was going to play into it from the second that Val's dad mentioned it. It's the sort of thing that's super obvious when you read enough of these books, but I didn't let it bother me. I did NOT see the second bomb coming, though. Wow.
WHAT ELSE? Man. Um, China. That was unexpected. With Skulduggery's family. Shit, man. I LIKE China. And I don't think that's going to go over too well with Skulduggery when he finds out.
That's one of the things I really love about this series. Aside from the humor. Which was in perfect form. But I love that these aren't... good people. None of these are good people. Skulduggery keeps reminding Valkyrie of it, but it's true. These people are killers. Most of them have lived through a war and done things they don't regret. I loved that Skulduggery KNEW that Scarab didn't kill that Pacifist dude but didn't care. I love that China used to be bad, that Bliss did too. That Grouse built the original Desolation Engine. Everyone is morally ambiguous. Everyone has their own agenda.
The humor of these books sort of half-disguises how frigging DARK they are.
I loved Hotel Midnight. The entire concept is amazing. I want a million crossovers with all my other fandoms where people stay at Hotel Midnight. You cannot convince me that's not where Jack spent the six months between the destruction of the 456 and his leaving Earth for good.
And the end... when Val's headaches kept popping up and she kept trying to remember something, I had a feeling it was going to come back. I figured it had something to do with the Faceless Ones and the world Skulduggery was trapped in.
I did NOT see the Darquesse thing coming :O
Like, seriously, that emoticon doesn't even BRUSH THE SURFACE of my shock.
I am so worried for Valkyrie, now D: D: D:
But, omfg, what an awesome book. WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK. Best one so far. Why aren't the rest of you reading this series?
More importantly, why don't I have a Skulduggery Pleasant icon?