I think it’s safe to say I love this series.
The beginning of this book just made me love Butler more than I already did? And it made me love the Artemis and Butler dynamic all the more. In fact, the entirety of this book did. I feel like it did a very good job of showing the closeness of their relationship at the beginning of this book, and at the end too.
I did not think I needed more about Juliet Butler in my life, but I did?! I love that she can do all this cool bodyguard and kick-butt fighting stuff, but also loves make-up and being funny. Both of sides to her are part of her, and it is charming. I love when we see that you can be feminist and you can be unashamedly into make up and fashion and strong too. There is no ‘criterion’ for feminism.
I am terrible at noticing descriptions for characters, but it is only now that I am realising the level of diversity in this series. Holly was first described as black in the first book (coffee complexion, apparently). In this book it repeats that the Butlers are European-Asian. And of course, we have Artemis, our Irish main character.
I really appreciate that the book never forgets to remind us that Artemis is a child-genius, and this comes with a lot of belittling from other people. When people meet him, they treat him like a thirteen year old, or dismiss him more often than not. I found it incredibly realistic.
This book reverts back to the heist story plot we get in the first book. I felt like it did a very good job of being a high stakes, exciting story once again. There were some ‘dumb’ characters which did make the job a little easier than if they had been intelligent opponents, but there were enough smart ones too to make it a formidable task.
As usual for this series, I liked that we get some good moral messages. Even when the Butlers may be using violence to detain some of the ‘bad’ guys, their actions are paired with remarks such as, ‘there is no joy in violence.’ Mostly with the Artemis Fowl series, things are solved with mind games.
As for character development, in this book Artemis Fowl truly stole my heart. My little crime lord teenager developed and grew as a person. It was so heart-warming to see that he was forming friendships and caring about people, but then also see that he still had that ruthless edge that made him himself. And the ending… the ending was perfect. I usually hate when this trope is used at the end of a book, but I loved it in this one. I felt like it showed some interesting things about development and also about the humans to fairy relationship.
The ending was so satisfying and perfect. Just how it always is for this series. I need the sequel now!