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A review by carlyxdeexx
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
4.0
This is one of those books that really impacted me as a kid—I was nervous coming back to it, hoping against hope that I would still enjoy adventures with a 12-year-old boy genius and his best-friend-slash-surrogate-dad. I’ve grown as a person and I feared it would prove to be a bit of an outdated or too problematic read for me to fully appreciate its old magic.
I’m happy to say my worries weren’t warranted. ARTEMIS FOWL holds up. It’s serious yet silly, it sounds sophisticated at times but it’s still so simple and easy to consume, it’s such a well-written book for a young audience. I likely have this book to thank, in part, for the enduring impression upon me that smart people are really really cool (even if our genius in this book is a bit of an emotionally repressed jerk), and also that science and magic aren’t mutually exclusive.
There are some things in this that did definitely rub me the wrong way a little, like the two-dimensional portrayal of Angeline’s illness and the blatant push against sexism while still clinging to some Sexism Lite™️ in portrayals of Angeline and Juliet. Holly Short is a damn boss of a character but this book is largely dominated my male movers and shakers. Commander Root’s glorification is a bit Much™️.
But jeez, I love this version of the People and the creative way Colfer set up their world and their rules! I love Mulch Diggums and the details on dwarf physiology and function. There is not enough love in this universe for Butler—Artemis may have been one of my first ever fictional crushes (what can I say, emo sad boiis with buried hearts of gold on a slow redemption trajectory were v in vogue), but Butler was by far my favorite character, being the subservient yet powerful protector with a strong sense of honor trying to subtly cultivate such a principle in his young charge.
Sidenote: I was curious to see how Artemis would come off to me as a character now that I’m an adult and not reading this book as his peer. Would he seem bratty? Pretentious? Annoying? Immature? The answer is surprisingly, no? I can honestly say I can’t picture Artemis as a young boy reading this book—it is so hard to hear his dialogue in the pitched-up voice of a 12-year-old. This in tandem with Butler treating him largely as a superior (occasionally an equal) makes it just so challenging to actually imagine him as he is. My mental picture of Artemis is always teenaged, haughty, tinged with angst. It’ll be interesting seeing him as the age he is on the big screen, and hearing that dialogue from the mouth of an indisputably too-young child.
Ultimately, I still love the ride. I told Colfer when I met him that this series made its mark on me and definitely kept me voraciously reading as a kid, which is true, and I’m happy to say there is still plenty of fun to be had with book one, though I recall that the next two were my favorites of the lot, bar none. I’m looking forward to the movie, and only hope I’ll have the same praise for it when it hits theaters!
I’m happy to say my worries weren’t warranted. ARTEMIS FOWL holds up. It’s serious yet silly, it sounds sophisticated at times but it’s still so simple and easy to consume, it’s such a well-written book for a young audience. I likely have this book to thank, in part, for the enduring impression upon me that smart people are really really cool (even if our genius in this book is a bit of an emotionally repressed jerk), and also that science and magic aren’t mutually exclusive.
There are some things in this that did definitely rub me the wrong way a little, like the two-dimensional portrayal of Angeline’s illness and the blatant push against sexism while still clinging to some Sexism Lite™️ in portrayals of Angeline and Juliet. Holly Short is a damn boss of a character but this book is largely dominated my male movers and shakers. Commander Root’s glorification is a bit Much™️.
But jeez, I love this version of the People and the creative way Colfer set up their world and their rules! I love Mulch Diggums and the details on dwarf physiology and function. There is not enough love in this universe for Butler—Artemis may have been one of my first ever fictional crushes (what can I say, emo sad boiis with buried hearts of gold on a slow redemption trajectory were v in vogue), but Butler was by far my favorite character, being the subservient yet powerful protector with a strong sense of honor trying to subtly cultivate such a principle in his young charge.
Sidenote: I was curious to see how Artemis would come off to me as a character now that I’m an adult and not reading this book as his peer. Would he seem bratty? Pretentious? Annoying? Immature? The answer is surprisingly, no? I can honestly say I can’t picture Artemis as a young boy reading this book—it is so hard to hear his dialogue in the pitched-up voice of a 12-year-old. This in tandem with Butler treating him largely as a superior (occasionally an equal) makes it just so challenging to actually imagine him as he is. My mental picture of Artemis is always teenaged, haughty, tinged with angst. It’ll be interesting seeing him as the age he is on the big screen, and hearing that dialogue from the mouth of an indisputably too-young child.
Ultimately, I still love the ride. I told Colfer when I met him that this series made its mark on me and definitely kept me voraciously reading as a kid, which is true, and I’m happy to say there is still plenty of fun to be had with book one, though I recall that the next two were my favorites of the lot, bar none. I’m looking forward to the movie, and only hope I’ll have the same praise for it when it hits theaters!