Review: Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days by Derek Landy

Synopsis: From Amazon
It's the fourth Skulduggery Pleasant adventure! only Skulduggery Pleasant himself is lost on the other side of a portal, with only some evil gods for company. Can he possible survive? (Yes, all right, he's already dead. But still.) What can we say, without giving too much away? Not much, is the answer. But what we CAN say is that this book is hilarious, it's tense, and it's packed with all the eye-popping action, crackling one liners and imaginative set pieces you've come to expect. There's a new threat to our plucky heroine, of course. But that's not all. There's also the little fact of the Big Bad, the uber-baddy who's going to come along and really, really destroy the world. (Really.) And what we learn about that villain in this book will literally make your jaw fall off and your hair go white with shock. (Not really.) Will Skulduggery make it out of the Faceless Ones' dimension? Who knows. The problem is, he may not have much to come back to!

Review:
Ohhh, How I adore Derek Landy. His books are a pure piece of escapism with wit sarcasm and irony thrown in for good measure. I find his writing absolutely hysterical (sarcasm is kind of my thing *grins*)
You should always read his dedications as they are pure genius, they have never disappointed in making me laugh like a hyena, lol. J and I have come to the conclusion the Skulduggery Pleasant is the fictional manifestation of Derek Landy himself, enabling him to say and do exactly what he chooses within his imagination.
I must warn you that the Skulduggery Pleasant books are not stand alone, you have to read the previous books in order to fully appreciate the characters and their interactions. All the characters are extremely well developed and have the most marvellous personality flaws you will ever come across.
As the central female character, Stephanie/Valkyrie, matures the storyline develops to accommodate the stages of life that would accompany aging. An example of this would include the development of the love triangle between Stephanie/Valkyrie, Caelon and Fletcher. The depth of the relationship between Stephanie/Valkyrie and Skulduggery is still unfathomable, adding an extra dimension to the storyline.
There is an HUGE plot twist within this book, so thank goodness I only have to wait until September for the next installment, I think I would go mad if I had to wait until next year :)