Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius—and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren't the fairies of bedtime stories—they're dangerous! Full of unexpected twists and turns, Artemis Fowl is a riveting, magical adventure.
It's been a while since I could finish a book, let alone review it, but I recently finished this one so I thought I would give it a go.
Artemis Fowl is a book series that I remember seeing a lot when I was a kid and I always meant to read it but never got around to it. When I recently found it for free on Amazon Kindle I decided to finally see what all the fuss was about. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out the big deal about this book. It was ok at best and the points of view kept changing which made me very confused. Once I got all the characters' names straight it was ok, but up until then I had no clue what was happening. A one-word description of this book for me would be 'meh'.
Artemis Fowl is a genius kid who is both a lovable and extremely annoying character (in my opinion). His IQ is off the charts and his home life is horrible so he decides to kidnap a fairy. Apparently this poses a great challenge to him and his butler...maybe it's because I was a normal kid with a normal IQ but this doesn't sound like the best option to me. For some reason or another Artemis wants to earn his family's good name back which leads him to want to kidnap a fairy.
I see all kinds of holes in this plan. First, the fairies are meticulous about not letting humans see them or even really believe in them so they would just try to cover the whole thing up even if Artemis's plan succeeded. Second, wouldn't he just sound crazy and boyish saying he captured a fairy and got all this gold from them? People would continue to tarnish his family's name and add to it that the youngest Fowl is schizophrenic. Lastly, who is he trying to impress? In the whole book no one person or group of people is specifically mentioned as being the enemy. For all we know some random hobo could have said Artemis's father was a meanie and this could have sent Artemis into a sudden plot for revenge.
But this is a kids/young adult book so none of that really matters. If I was reading this when I was 12, I wouldn't have noticed any of that stuff.
Anyway, Artemis kidnaps a fairy, holds her ransom and some intense battling of the wits goes down. He comes out on top, but it is inferred that in future adventures this will not be the case. But since it was the first book in the series the kid genius had to win.
Almost everything is summed up in this book. His home life is fixed, his good name is back (apparently) and everyone lives.
The only thing left unfinished is the fact that the fairies get mad they were played so they retreat and I'm assuming come back in later books for revenge.
I mentioned that Artemis is lovable but annoying. Half the time he is a super cute kid who just needs a parent. His dad is dead and his mom is suffering from a broken heart. She doesn't leave her bed, so poor Artemis is pretty much on his own. The scenes with him and his mom are heartbreaking because sometimes she is so delirious she doesn't even know who he is. This is his resolve for everything he does. He hopes that somehow his actions will bring his mom back to him and they can have that loving mother and son relationship again.
The other half of Artemis is extremely annoying. He is a classic know-it-all. I mean he has reason to be, he does know most everything and hasn't met a problem he couldn't solve. But sometimes hearing everything from his point of view made me root for the fairies to win...and I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to. But every character has to have a flaw so I can live with that.
As I mentioned earlier, had I read this book when I was 12 I would probably have continued on to read the whole series. The book wasn't bad, it just lacked a certain entertainment factor for me. Everything was predictable and there was no twist in the plot. Artemis planned to capture and battle the fairies, which he did. He planned to win the battle and he did. I was waiting for something spectacular to happen, but I was disappointed.
So overall, I would recommend this book to any 12 year old kid that would be interested. It was written for a certain age group and I believe that's why I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would.
3 stars
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