Artemis Fowl, Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of Artemis Fowl.

Are you enjoying reading the book on Hoopla? My only complaint is that I feel the copy on Hoopla is missing some page breaks, so the action runs together sometimes. Have you noticed that? 

This section starts with Artemis explaining the ritual Holly needs to perform to renew her magic. He explains that Holly has to bury a seed in the ground to give her thanks for her power. If Artemis had not had this information from the magic book, he never would have known where to look for a fairy or leprechaun to kidnap. How do you feel about the fact that Artemis has the fairy book? It made me uncomfortable that he had all of that inside knowledge of the fairy world, especially since he used it to hurt Holly. I felt, throughout this section, that I wasn't sure if I liked Artemis or not. He's a hard character to get to know, and he's not overly likable. What did you think about him? 

When Artemis first mentioned that they would need sunglasses, I was really curious. I wondered why sunglasses would be so important to their surveillance. But, once I realized that Artemis was using them to protect himself from Holly's "mesmer" spell, I understood their importance. Did you feel sad when Holly was kidnapped? Were you thinking she would be harder to subdue? 

I didn't really know what to make of Root throughout this section. He has such an uncontrollable temper! It seems like he has Holly's best interest at heart, but he gets so angry all the time. I definitely didn't think it was smart that Artemis tricked Root into thinking that Holly was on that boat. Artemis made himself a mortal enemy when he pulled that stunt. What did you think of the fact that Artemis was willing to blow up that boat in order to rile Root? It was moves like that that made me question Artemis. I didn't feel like he had any redeeming qualities in this section. He just acted like a villain. 

I was really affected by the scene in which Artemis's mom stuffed the clothes to represent Artemis's dad. Wasn't that scene so heartbreaking? I could see how a family situation like that could really make someone act out like Artemis did. 

Near the end of this section, Artemis tricks Holly and makes her think that she told fairy secrets while under the influence of truth serum. Artemis felt bad about tricking her for a second, but he still stuck to his plan. He really thinks that he will be able to get the hostage fund from the fairies. Do you think he will get it? He was able to easily defeat that first coalition that came to rescue Holly. But, I think the time stop and the bio bomb are going to be harder to defeat. Artemis claims he can escape the time field, but I don't know how that could be true. 

What do you think is going to happen in the last section? How will it all come to an end? Do you think Artemis will succeed? What plan do you think Root has up his sleeve? 

Before you go, check out this cute interview Eoin Colfer did with Scholastic. In the interview, Colfer answers questions from kids. And, check out the video below and tell me what differences you see between the book and the movie. It seems to me that the movie version is going to be really different than the book. What do you think? 

I hope you're able to finish the book for next week. I can't wait to hear from you in the comments section.