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A review by wulvaen
The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Slight deviation from formula, but still the same premise
Okay, it's still "Stop thees bad guys from bringing back the Faceless Ones from the other dimension and killing everyone", as it has been in the previous 2 books, but at least the plot structure and characters weren't identical like book 2 was to book 1.
We have some returning characters, such as Sanguine, White Cleaver and Ghastly, it was nice that we got to see what happened to White Cleaver as he seemed interesting but he sorta just disappeared. We've really seen Valkyrie grow, people are even commenting how she's getting more and more like Sculduggery, but we're also seeing some development with Valkyrie's magical reflection, which is clearly foreshadowing for possibly a darker outcome of an evil twin twist? 🤔
The book definitely felt more fleshed out than book 2, most characters had a bit more depth and the dialogue is as good as ever and the jokes might not have been as present as in previous books but it was still of the same quality.
My issue at the moment is the series is about Sculduggery Pleasant, he's literally the namesake of the series, and yet, it feels like every character except him is getting more attention and more growth than he, which would be perfectly fine if instead Landy developed him as a character by revealing more of his history and backstory, if more details were being revealed about him and his past then it would still feel like character growth as we'd be able to compare and contrast who he was to who he is now, and there have been glimpses of that, such as people alluding to some big secret to do with his past and how who he is now is not who he was during the wars and he's not the hero Valkyrie believes him to be. That's some really intriguing fruit left hanging.
But I wish there was more, because he just feels left out of the story in terms of character development and growth, he's sorta just there to save the day and add comedic relief, whereas Valkyrie is getting all the attention.
Overall, not as good as the first book's story, better than book 2, so it's sorta in the middle.
The action was brilliant, the twist at the end was predictable if you paid attention and it became obvious, which isn't the way to do twists, wasn't executed as well as it could have.
Onto book 4!
Okay, it's still "Stop thees bad guys from bringing back the Faceless Ones from the other dimension and killing everyone", as it has been in the previous 2 books, but at least the plot structure and characters weren't identical like book 2 was to book 1.
We have some returning characters, such as Sanguine, White Cleaver and Ghastly, it was nice that we got to see what happened to White Cleaver as he seemed interesting but he sorta just disappeared. We've really seen Valkyrie grow, people are even commenting how she's getting more and more like Sculduggery, but we're also seeing some development with Valkyrie's magical reflection, which is clearly foreshadowing for possibly a darker outcome of an evil twin twist? 🤔
The book definitely felt more fleshed out than book 2, most characters had a bit more depth and the dialogue is as good as ever and the jokes might not have been as present as in previous books but it was still of the same quality.
My issue at the moment is the series is about Sculduggery Pleasant, he's literally the namesake of the series, and yet, it feels like every character except him is getting more attention and more growth than he, which would be perfectly fine if instead Landy developed him as a character by revealing more of his history and backstory, if more details were being revealed about him and his past then it would still feel like character growth as we'd be able to compare and contrast who he was to who he is now, and there have been glimpses of that, such as people alluding to some big secret to do with his past and how who he is now is not who he was during the wars and he's not the hero Valkyrie believes him to be. That's some really intriguing fruit left hanging.
But I wish there was more, because he just feels left out of the story in terms of character development and growth, he's sorta just there to save the day and add comedic relief, whereas Valkyrie is getting all the attention.
Overall, not as good as the first book's story, better than book 2, so it's sorta in the middle.
The action was brilliant, the twist at the end was predictable if you paid attention and it became obvious, which isn't the way to do twists, wasn't executed as well as it could have.
Onto book 4!