Ok I’ll definitely on me for reading a book  with a 15 yr protag and not realizing until a third of the way through this book is for the male 11-15 demographic. That makes sense, cause that’s what Colfer’s known for. So I really cannot be mad at this book for just being what it is and me not being the target audience.

That being said, this book was not bad. It was just, again, incredibly juvenile. There’s a lot of blood and gore and penis jokes,

WHY do I have to read about dragon dick so many times.

and Hooke was a very… simple villian. Again, not that that’s a thing against the book; Hooke’s job in the story is just to be the one-dimensional bad guy and I honestly thought it was fun to have a villain that was there purely to be hated with no nuance, but there were certain lines where I was like, ok, we get it, you’re pure evil, chill. Idk I think it was just a fine line that Colfer mostly managed to handle pretty well.

Also there were lines where it was painfully obvious that Colfer is from Ireland and not the states (he calles a flashlight a torch). It’s even more apparent when he tries to use Southern colloquialisms. Like oh hen you do not go here.

I did like Squib and Vern’s friendship. That was sweet. 

I kind of hate sequels. I think they’re usually unnecessary sales techniques concocted up by publishing companies to popularize one specific author. There usually is never any further character development and the plot is almost always nearly identical to the first book. This is why I generally try to avoid picking up a series. So imagine my surprise when my first thought when finishing this book was “goddamn I hope there is a sequel in the works.” 

I loved the Artemis fowl books as a kid and so I reached for this book for 2 reasons: 1. It’s an Eoin Colfer book that isn’t written with kids in mind, and 2. Dragons. It’s the same reason I picked up Game of Thrones but that series has very little dragon content, so this book was great. The characters were written with such original personalities and real words and actions. The setting was fun and worked perfectly with the magical realism of the book. And the fight scenes were never played down.

That fight between Hook and Waxman was described as so brutal, I actually had to take a seat for a minute.

I really love this kind of magical realism and fantasy, it makes me want to read more. 

And that’s where I find myself now.

I want a sequel years in the future with a Dr.Everett Moreau, PhD trekking through rainforests and deserts and mountain ranges, searching for dragons with Vern. I want to see who Squib becomes and who Vern becomes and who else they meet along the way. Colfer left so much space available for future character development without the current characters feeling lacking, and now I can’t help but want more.

Leave it to Colfer to make me feel like a little kid again, eagerly waiting for another one of his books to be released.  

I very much identify myself as a intersectional feminist and as such, this title almost feels like a guilty pleasure of sorts
It's humour can be considered both problematic and tired, even if it's already labeled as dark and crude beforehand. Still, I laughed out loud several times and as there's no better way yet to display favorites than to rate them as 5 stars, I'm doing that. The true rating would probably land near 4 stars.