#learned the 8th book existed and then was too impatient to wait for the library hold to come in so I ended up buying my own copy anyway

[scribefindegil]

My beloved tattered copies of my Artemis Fowl books that I got from library sales are the love of my life. I’m 90% sure I’m so snarky in my writing because of these books. Artemis and his relationships with everyone are so well done. The eye swap thing still gets me. What a duo. What a series. God do the last three really….. do things. I am still mad about Artemis losing his magic immediately yes. And for them making a character so powerful they have to keep making excuses why he’s not around. And… well. You know. But goddamn if I didn’t consume them like 800 times as a kid and goddamn if I’m not so sorely tempted to reread them now that you’ve reminded me (and maybe finally actually read fowl twins)

Listen, the last few books sure made . . . . Choices. AND YET. Even when they were bad (and sometimes they were very bad!), they never did it in a way that made me want to stop reading, which is honestly very impressive! The characters remain recognizable and entertaining and their relationships are compelling even as the situations they're in become increasing Like That, and the characters are what I'm here for.

They're not books that I would necessarily recommend to people who didn't grow up with them but man. I love them so much. Artemis' character development is so good. Every single thing about Holly Short is so good. The whole weird messy found family of it all is so good. The way the later books veer from heist narratives into fairy-tale structure is . . . like, objectively bad, but man does it manage to hit me where it hurts thematically.

Don't even get me started on the eye swap; I'm obsessed with the ongoing progression of how these characters look at each other, because with the magic of control so closely tied to eye contact at the beginning there's always something in the way--mirrors and shields and helmet visors--and it's a huge display of trust to actually meet eyes without any sort of intervention, and the swap ties into this and takes it to the next level and! UGH! (Was literally ANY of this intentional? Knowing Colfer, probably not! Doesn't stop me from losing my mind about it though!)

(I have not read Fowl Twins. I have not even read their cover blurbs despite staring at the audiobook versions every day when I worked at the bookstore. Has anyone read Fowl Twins? And can you tell me if Holly's in them? If not I do not care.)