The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy (Skulduggery Series, Book 3)

Valkyrie screamed, sprinting toward Skulduggery.

He looked up and reached out to her, but it was too late. . . .

If you've read the other Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy (and you really should have read them by now), you've seen it all before: Some bad guy wants to bring about the end of the world, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie fight valiantly to stop it from happening. A few people get hurt, sure, but everything's all right in the end.

Well, not this time.

The third book in the Skulduggery series by Derek Landy. It actually came out last year, but I get wrapped up in library due dates and get slack at reading my own books. I really like this series. It's a lot of fun! Skulduggery is currently one of my favourite characters in fiction at the moment. You take a walking, talking skeleton and make him a detective and you apparently have a hit on your hands. It helps that Skulduggery's personality is interesting at times.

The books do tend to be a bit predicable, but not in a bad way. While you know that something bad is going to happen and that Skulduggery and Valkyrie will be mixed up in it, you don't always know exactly what surprises that Landy has waiting for you. It is also nice that there are stories started back in the very first book that are still being told in the newest. I hate when an author starts something and then seems to forget all about it, because I remember and I want to know what happens.

Something different about this book was that the ending was a bit of a cliffhanger. Normally everything is mostly wrapped up by the end of the book, but in this one you really are going to want to have book four handy so you can find out what happens! I have to admit that Valkyrie can annoy me at times. She's only a kid, when you think about it, and it comes across sometimes in ways that bother me. I think it would be worse if the story didn't move to other people once in a while. If it was just her I would probably not like this series at all! As it is, I really only love it because I really like Skulduggery. The books are original, too. They might be a bit predictable at times, but they still present original ideas and have original characters. That is something that is hard to do in fantasy nowadays.

Overall, this was another fun book in the series. I would say more, but I don't want to spoil the previous two books. All I will say is give this series a try!

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada for sending me this book!