Artemis Fowl, Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of the Online Book Club discussion of Artemis Fowl. I hope you were able to easily find the book on Hoopla and are reading along with us this month. 

Are you having fun reading this book so far? I am really enjoying all of the imaginative elements of the fairies. Do you enjoy reading about magical creatures, or do you find yourself having a hard time imagining them?

What did you think about Artemis in this first section? I had a hard time understanding who he was because it was hard to imagine a young boy being so ruthless. But then I read that Eoin Colfer imagined Artemis Fowl to be a Bond villain in the body of a 12-year-old boy, and for some reason, that made the character click for me. It's so interesting that he is so determined, even though he is so young. He was dedicated to decoding the Book, and used many different problem solving strategies!

The Butler is a really interesting character, don't you think? I couldn't believe that he was trained from a young age to serve and protect someone from the Fowl family. It's almost as if the Fowls are royalty or something! I liked how the Butler's training included Cordon Bleu cooking as well as martial arts and emergency medicine. He sure has a well-rounded set of skills. 

Do you think Artemis's plan to restore his family fortune is a realistic one? I find it hard to believe that he'll actually be able to steal gold from fairy folk, even with the Book as a guide. From the descriptions of them in Holly's chapter, they seem to be a lot more technologically advanced than humans. I don't think it will be easy to steal from them. I feel like Artemis would be able to find gold more easily somewhere else. Maybe he thinks he wouldn't face as many consequences stealing from fairies as opposed to stealing from a bank. 

Holly might be my favorite character so far. I like how tough she is, and I like that she doesn't back down from her supervisor. I liked that she did what she thought was right, answering the call for help from the people in the restaurant, even though her supervisor told her to stay outside. I think she's really caring. Were you curious about the ritual she kept mentioning? I was interested about why she hadn't done it in such a long time—maybe it's a ritual that's really hard and takes a lot of time? 

The troll attack was pretty crazy, wasn't it? It was almost as crazy as the whole process Holly had to go through to get to the surface. The pressure she faced was pretty intense. I know for sure that I wouldn't be able to withstand that kind of force, so I would just have to stay underground. Do you think the troll fight was worse than the journey to the surface? The troll fight definitely lasted longer. Do you think Holly made the right call to go into the restaurant? It was too bad that she caught the attention of the people in the restaurant, but I think it was better for them to have to be knocked unconscious by Holly than to be killed by the troll. 

The section ends with Holly promising to do the ritual. Do you think she'll be able to do it? I'm very curious about what happens during the ritual. What about Artemis? What do you think he'll do next? What do you think he's going to do with the fairy book he has? 

Before you go, check out this video that gives some behind the scenes information about the making of the movie. Do you think you'll try to watch the movie version? 

I hope you'll come back next week to talk about the next three chapters. I can't wait to hear from you in the comments section.