The insane popularity of the Harry Potter novels ensured that their eventual adaptation to movie mega-franchise was inevitable. But for some reason, the story of the Boy Who Lived didn’t pave the way for another well-crafted series of young adult fiction.

Percy Jackson was severely mishandled, Alex Rider was forgettable, and The Golden Compass was just … dreadful (though that’s being remedied with a new BBC series, so fingers crossed). Of course, Harry Potter led the way for Fantastic Beasts, which, now that we’re two movies in, is starting to look like a complete waste of time.

But Artemis Fowl might just be the anti-hero we can all embrace right now. We’ve followed Harry Potter as he stumbled his way into glory, everyone around him telling him how wonderful he is, handing him victories and telling him what to do and where to go. The character is a bit of a Mary Sue, in retrospect, and perhaps the kids nowadays might be ready for someone with agency, a bit of edge.

Enter Artemis Fowl, criminal mastermind who decides to plunder the riches of the supernatural world. Eoin Colfer, the author of the book series, succinctly describes his story as “Die Hard with fairies.”

It’s an accurate assessment; the book was unrelentingly insane, the adventures far more twisted and surreal than the shenanigans that the innocent little souls at Hogwarts got up to, sipping Butterbeer and chortling at Fred and George’s lame pranks.