Such a great book to start off the year with! Totally justified my decision to not see the movie before reading the book. The series has 8 books and I hope to finish them in January itself. Let’s see how far I will be successful.
Artemis Fowl is a 12-year-old criminal mastermind. After his father’s disappearance, he vows to bring back the glory and money to his family by any means possible. He discovers the fairy race who live below the ground and plans to kidnap and hold one for ransom. Holly is the only female fairy officer in her division. Is Fowl about to trigger a cross-species war when he kidnaps Holly?
When I started the book, I felt like the writing and book were childish. But this feeling did not last long. I suspect it’s because the plot was so good that it didn’t really matter later on. The book is a very easy read. Even though I’m still on vacation and working remotely, I still managed to finish it in 2-3 days. I’m sure I could’ve finished it in a day if I wanted to.
The character building and world-building were really good. Initially, I felt a bit lost with all the terms used for the fairy world. But as the book progressed everything started to make sense. The fairy world is still vivid in my mind.
Artemis Fowl is one of the main protagonists and the antihero. I’m still not sure whether I hate him or maybe ‘like’ him! Every time I think I could sympathize with him, he does something which brought me right back to hating him! The almost death of one of the characters was quite unexpected and it shook me. I didn’t expect to be affected so badly by it either. Guess I was more invested in the book than I thought I was.
I do wish we got more background into both Artemis and Holly. I’m hoping these will be explored in the coming books.
The book is complete in itself and can be read as a standalone. There is no huge cliff-hanger at the end. This can be seen as a good or a bad thing depending on how you want to look at it. I personally didn’t mind the absence of a cliff-hanger since it was a decent ending while still building a good prelude for the next book. I’m eagerly looking forward to reading it.
My Rating: 4.5⭐/5
