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babewiththepower.bsky.social · @babewiththepower.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Dead Beat 10/10

I said in my review of "Death Masks" (5) that was where the character of Harry really started to take shape and said about "Blood Rites" (6) that was where the stakes really took a personal turn. This book is where all the groundwork laid by those two books fell into place. Harry is always a good guy, the lone hero galloping in. Or is he? Instead of everything being so black and white, there's much more of a grey area going deeper into the psychology of who is Harry Dresden, how others view his personality and how he acts all leading to a concluding question you must've known was coming.<br/><br/>While Harry is of course the main character, the series really does have a whole cavalcade of interesting smaller characters playing sidekick at one time or another. I have to say that I've noticed what a good job Butcher does of introducing new characters in parts here and there and then leaving them off to breathe in one book while giving another character a whack at the forefront. I bemoaned that Butters was introduced in "Death Masks" but was hardly in it and then didn't appear at all in "Blood Rites." The same was the case with Murphy, my favorite character, with whom he did the same thing before she came in full guns blazing in "Blood Rites." This time it was Butters's turn and he came in with full trembling, rabbitty resolve. I loved that.<br/><br/>One last thing, as more of a personal sidenote, is I loved that a large portion of the book took place in the Chicago Field Museum. I'd been to Chicago often many years ago, but it wasn't until March 2020 that I took the time to visit and being able to see the actual place in my minds eye as it was described because I'd been there and also could bring up photos on my phone was very cool. Extra cool was the always impressive dinosaur skeleton they have of T. rex "Sue" with which I, of course, had a photo as though it was chasing me. :D The only difference was that this book was written some 15 years ago and since then "Sue" has been moved to her own gallery on an upper floor to make room for a titanosaur, "Máximo," now the biggest dinosaur ever discovered. I can only imagine the trouble it would've been moving "Sue" on those stairs!

#book

Published 2026-08-18 17:59 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere