— • 4.5 • —

My 100th finished book and how pleased I am that it’s a Skulduggery one! The series that really got me into reading as a child and here we are 13 years later with Derek still going strong and continuing to amuse me. It’s also good to be back after reading the Demon Road Trilogy, which as I mentioned plenty of times in those reviews, missed out a lot on what makes Skullduggery so special. The 10+ years of character development, the depth to conversations and the details of the world Derek has created. One of his best traits in this series is making even the scenes that don’t amount to much equally as engaging, immersive and fun as the rest. You’re either smirking or gasping throughout.

While we haven’t quite yet reached the level of fantasticness of the final books pre Resurrection, Bedlam is certainly still a step up compared to the previous two books in the series which weren’t as memorable. But rightly so, they were just the introduction and build up to where we are now. We’re deep in this second phase and this book really locks you in for the ride. About mid way through I prepared myself and bravely told it that I was ready for it to fuck me up... It did.

‘Spoilers ahead’ is an understatement, I’ll be discussing everything.

I was so invested in Valkyrie’s development in this book and in fact in many instances it pained me to see the struggles that she was going through. Being unable to help her or give her the guidance that she needed. She’s had a tough life all throughout this series but this book was probably one of the hardest on her mentally, as we see how everything she is trying to juggle is starting to take it’s toll. I didn’t realise beforehand that Bedlam would also be a decent description of her troubled mind. Seeing her go through the terrible hallucinations in Greymire and subsequently be haunted by the Nemesis through bad visions, being consumed by her thoughts and losing control over herself. It is almost as though she is becoming someone else... Plus she continues to use the music box, and the suit and sometimes even ‘magic drugs’ to give her strength and sooth her struggles, even though we know it will be no good for her in the long run. Then there’s the part where we see her, a character that we love so much, get beaten up the way that she did so defencelessly and unjustly... Sure she gets beaten up in fights all the time, but that part was much harder to read than the usual. Whether intentionally or not Derek manages to create a great juxtaposition in this book. While Valkyrie continues to grow more powerful she is also both mentally and at times physically weaker than we’ve probably ever seen her before.

The discovery of her new powers throughout the story was extremely exciting and badass, her new suit especially. She’s basically a superhero now plus she gets to look like Skulduggery with the skeleton mask, I mean what a duo they are going to be now! However it turns out that I was right to be wary... Of course a normal sorcerer shouldn’t have these abilities and from her past we know she is far from normal. Not only her links to Darquesse but also her presumed blood of the ancients. But of course everything cool has its price.

I’ll be discussing even bigger spoilers from this point. Firstly Valkyrie being able to see into the future and communicate with an older Alice. W T F. I mean there was so much to analyse and break down from this moment I felt like I was watching an episode of Flash. Not only do we find out that Alice can use magic, since it’s in their bloodline, of course, but also that she is known as the Child of the Ancients. And that she is going up against the Child of the Faceless Ones. Then before she leaves she says she misses Valkyrie, so Val is clearly no longer around in some way or form. The ending shock tells us why...

Valkyrie has the blood of the Faceless Ones. Double W T F. I mean ok let’s be honest it wasn’t a massive shock, we kinda saw it coming since it brings all the pieces together. Her past with Darqusse, her new powers... but then Derek’s added an extra bonus twist with the fact that as I said Alice will be facing the Child of the Faceless Ones... which has to be Valkyrie. That’s why Alice misses her, because she’s no longer with her, she’s... she’s turned to the dark side!? *Insert Darth Vader Theme Tune* So we’ll be getting a evil Valkyrie *cough Darquesse???* Vs Alice, or whatever her chosen name will be in the future (good luck Derek making the name as badass as Valkyrie.) But how long are we going to have to wait for this!? Must be at least 3 books away. Valkyrie will probably have a lot more of those time visions and then I guess she will become consumed by her powers and the destiny of her bloodline. Would Alice also have the blood of the Faceless ones though? For now I can’t wait for the book that’s 50/50 jumping between Alice & Val but i presume at some point Alice may even surpass Val and become the main character. I wouldn’t be surprised, after all she has been through Val deserves a rest however that may be. Plus it would be an easy way of rebooting the series with a fresh new leading character to keep it engaging. But will Alice kill Valkyrie and end her troubles? Or save her and let her live a normal life? Idkkk if she ever could. Either way the thought of it is giving me mad Last of Us 2 vibes.

Now it wouldn’t be a true review by ya boy if it didn’t have me ranting about the book for half an hour. So dont you worry, I’ll even find something to talk about from my most favourite books. Here goes!

Firstly I feel like there was a lot of characters and a lot going on in this book... maybe too much. I mean let’s go through it all, we’ve got Valkyrie & Skulduggery trying to save the world as per but then you’ve got Vals side quest to fix her sister Alice, then we’ve got Omen, Auger and Never, then we’ve got Abyssinia, Razzia, Nero & their gang, then we’ve got Cassion & Solace, then China and Serefina, Tanith Low and her stuff, Temper Frey and his stuff, President Flanery and Crepuscular Vies, oh and let’s not forget Sebastian and his search for Darquese. Honourable mentions also include Kes, Fletcher, Militsa, Dexter Vex, Oberon, a little bit of Ghastly, Dr Nye, Ghost Pirates, Mermaids, The Sea Hag and then Abyssinia’s father at the end to wrap it all up. Did I miss any? Most probably! I feel like Derek must have a room in his house dedicated to putting everyone’s names on a wall with pins and threads of string linking them all together like Sherlock, just so he can keep track.

The problem with all these characters is you begin to feel a bit swamped. It’s not that certain moments might lose their impact, but rather you don’t have the time to process it all before the next thing has happened. For example the fact that we were hit with 3 big deaths near the end. Each of which would have been good enough on their own to supply a book ending. We lose Razzia who I really loved, we lost Cassion just when we were getting some really good character development from him and then Abyssinia goes and gets herself killed too! ‘A good climactic ending to the series’ you may think but wrong because there’s even more! Abyssinia’s dad comes back to life through Cassion’s body to wreck even more havoc in the next book, we have absolutely no clue who or what killed Cassion, we find out that Solace is China’s daughter (wtf), then we’ve got the possible return of Darquesse and then, the Omen brothers getting their asses kicked and then finally the whole ending with Valkyrie and Alice that we mentioned and her finding out her true bloodline! All the while I’m still sitting here thinking ‘Damn poor Razzia died I’m actually so sad.’

Also there were plenty of parts where I would make a mental note like ‘aha this will probably be useful later on in the book’ and then normally it would happen and i’d feel extra smart for figuring it out so soon. Well that didn’t really happen at all. We had the place they visited at the beginning of the book where you could trade a secret for a secret, which was so interesting and I mean how badass of a location is that. But they never revisit it. There was the whole part with the Sea Hag where she gives Valkyrie a bell to ring if she ever needs her help. Never happened. Even things like seeing Omens ‘not girlfriend’ from the other dimension once at the beginning of the book but never again after (granted he was a little busy throughout to go see her). But talking about dimensions, we still haven’t explored this other one again, God knows what could be going on over there! There’s even stupid things like the fact that during the final battle Never fell asleep of exhaustion from teleporting and we never saw her after that. She must have slept thought the whole ending and missed everything! Of course I don’t expect Derek to cover every little detail, but it’s worth noting the price you pay for having such a jam packed book.

By the end I also would have liked to have seen a bit more of Valkyrie and Skulduggery together. I know what you’re thinking, Jesus really? Like 11 books of them bantering together isn’t enough? Plus they did actually have plenty of good moments together in this one... yes... But apart from the first few chapters, they were often off doing their own separate things. I loved when they were together but I just don’t think we had as much depth to their relationship this time round, either because they had so much stuff going on or because Val was so closed off whenever they did meet up and have a chance to talk. I presume that talk it will be coming in the next book because Val has to open up to him at some point about her struggles and the music box, and I expect he will give her the help and guidance she needs. I mean Abyssinia legit said it at the end that they need each other to keep each other in check.

Moving on to Abyssinia who had been a decent main villain in this phase 2 but despite all her powers and charm she never really compared to the levels Darquesse set at the end of phase 1. I also found it difficult to follow whether we should be liking or disliking her. One minute she’s super evil, next she seems to have a soft spot, then she’s beating everyone up again, then it’s back to feeling sorry for her... then she does one last massive oopsies before she dies. Like I wish she could have chosen a side and stick to it cause it would have made it much easier for me to know whether to love or hate her.

And while we’re discussing villains is Darquesse seriously going to be back in the next book? I know I literally just praised the levels she set but I’m really not sure how I feel about her possibly returning because it would just complicate things. I think I was content with leaving her in the past since we’re in a new phase and Valkyrie is in the process for moving on and figuring things out. But I guess Derek feels like he still has more to tell with her, which is also why he created Kes as a little connection between them. I’m not really sure where things are going to go from here. Is she going to return and cause chaos? Will she possibly consume Valkyrie? Or is she actually going to be good and help them all out? That would kinda be like Thanos returning from the dead and saying ‘Uno what, you guys are alright, let’s hang out!’

Side note before I finish this banging essay of a ‘review’. (I mean I’m barely reviewing at this stage I’m just waffling) I should add that I absolutely hate always having wait a year between books, even more so since I wait till they’re out in paperback, so I’m already a year behind everyone else. It’s awful compared to reading all the books in a series back to back so you become extra immersed in the world and everyone in it. The problem for me here with Skulduggery is I often forget parts from previous books, plus there are so many side characters that some I don’t even remember who they are. For example when starting this book and without looking back at the plot summaries, I completely forgot what happened in Resurrection and the first half of Midnight. Such as how we were introduced to Abyssinia and Razzia, even though Razzia was super fun, how could I have forgotten all about her!? I get mixed up with the people who are with Abyssinia and the people who are in the Sebastian/The Plague Doctor gang. Gosh I even completely forgot all about Kes. Massive facepalm. This isn’t even the fault of the series, I think the consensus is that I just desperately need to reread all these books again, but together in one swift go. They are all still worthy, I just need the time!

Oh btw Ghost Pirates is officially peak Derek Landy.