Skulduggery Pleasant - Playing with Fire

*points at title* That's a children's book (9+) by Derek Landy, a sequel of one I liked a lot, so I picked it up when I spotted it on the shelf in a local bookshop.

The backcover blurb reads, "You know how it is - you think you've saved the world, and then ANOTHER evil villain turns up with an unbeatable monster and starts breaking things. Oh, yes, and you've got a skull for a head. A thirteen-year-old girl for a sidekick. And no clue what to do..."

Now, while the weird prevalence of very nearly every damn book dealing with saving the world is getting on my nerves a bit, the first book's writing style made up for that. That blurb also suggests that Skulduggery Pleasant is the protagonist, which would have been nice. Unfortunately, he wasn't.

Playing with Fire takes place about one year after its prequel, and Stephanie is a mage in training and the skeleton detective's junior partner. She is the protagonist, and the title character of the series is a supporting character only.

As to the plot, some evil mage was sprung from prison and now tries to revive some kind of Frankenstein Monster which in turn will call Lovecraft-style elder gods back to our world.

In short, this book lacks everything that made the first one interesting.

The great dialogue that was the reason why I liked the prequel was nearly entirely absent, being genuinely funny in maybe two or three places, and otherwise coming across like annoying bickering rather than amusing banter. Unless dialogue was outright dropped and replaced by action scenes with far, far too many "and"s in them. Top it off with over-the-top gore I thought I didn't have to endure in children's books.

Neither was there a mystery, or any surprising plot twists. It was pretty clear what was going on from the start, and when information was needed, it was only a question of going to a particular person who had it, all very linear.

On top of that the more interesting plot threads (I'm thinking particularly of Stephanie's reflection, a double summoned out of a mirror to take her place at home and school while she's off adventuring, possibly growing into more than a mere reflection) are left dangling for the sequel(s?). I do not like books that cannot stand on their own, and I really dislike obviously deliberate sequel hooks.

Well, that was money wasted, and I definitely won't buy the next part.