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A review by clevermird
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Harry Dresden is dead, but he's not about to let that stop him.
After sacrificing nearly everything to save his daughter, Chicago's only professional wizard found himself shot and killed by parties unknown. But instead of eternal reward, unending punishment, or oblivion, he instead wakes up in. . . Chicago? Turns out, his job isn't done yet and he has a choice: move into the hearafter and take what comes, or return as a ghost to pick up the pieces he left behind and save his friends from one last mortal danger. And of course he takes the latter.
Ghost Story is a necessary book, but not necessarily a good one. Well, that isn't entirely fair. This is Dresden Files, after all, and there hasn't been a truly bad book yet. But this is definitely one of the weaker ones. The story is forced to spend a lot of time on the mechanics of ghosts in the Dresden-verse and on catching us up with what the supporting cast has been doing since Harry's death, which interferes with the level of attention that can be spent on the plot itself, to the point that I didn't realize that there was a "big bad" with a specific plan (as opposed to a collection of smaller plotlines and character dramas) until they actually appeared in the story.
Worse still, the ostenisble goal for Harry's return - to find his killer - gets heavily sidelined throughout the book until it is suddenly returned to focus in the last few chapters. While there is an in-universe explanation for this, it contributes to an overall sense that the book is unfocused.
On the bright side, the character development and subplots in the book are quite good. Harry's ghostly status gives him an outside view of how his friends (many of whom are basically family at this point) are dealing with things - both his death and the repercussions of his actions against the Red Court, and his existance as memories brings out some previously-unknown details about his life before the start of Storm Front. Butcher has built a cast of characters that I genuinely care about here. It's messy, it's moving, at times it's heartbreaking, and it's always far more intriguing that the actual plot of the book. When I say that Ghost Stories was necessary, this is what I meant - the story benefits greatly from the chance to have a metaphorical reaction shot to everything that went down in Changes.
While Ghost Story is far from the strongest book in the series, the emotional payoffs make it well worth the time all the same.
After sacrificing nearly everything to save his daughter, Chicago's only professional wizard found himself shot and killed by parties unknown. But instead of eternal reward, unending punishment, or oblivion, he instead wakes up in. . . Chicago? Turns out, his job isn't done yet and he has a choice: move into the hearafter and take what comes, or return as a ghost to pick up the pieces he left behind and save his friends from one last mortal danger. And of course he takes the latter.
Ghost Story is a necessary book, but not necessarily a good one. Well, that isn't entirely fair. This is Dresden Files, after all, and there hasn't been a truly bad book yet. But this is definitely one of the weaker ones. The story is forced to spend a lot of time on the mechanics of ghosts in the Dresden-verse and on catching us up with what the supporting cast has been doing since Harry's death, which interferes with the level of attention that can be spent on the plot itself, to the point that I didn't realize that there was a "big bad" with a specific plan (as opposed to a collection of smaller plotlines and character dramas) until they actually appeared in the story.
Worse still, the ostenisble goal for Harry's return - to find his killer - gets heavily sidelined throughout the book until it is suddenly returned to focus in the last few chapters. While there is an in-universe explanation for this, it contributes to an overall sense that the book is unfocused.
On the bright side, the character development and subplots in the book are quite good. Harry's ghostly status gives him an outside view of how his friends (many of whom are basically family at this point) are dealing with things - both his death and the repercussions of his actions against the Red Court, and his existance as memories brings out some previously-unknown details about his life before the start of Storm Front. Butcher has built a cast of characters that I genuinely care about here. It's messy, it's moving, at times it's heartbreaking, and it's always far more intriguing that the actual plot of the book. When I say that Ghost Stories was necessary, this is what I meant - the story benefits greatly from the chance to have a metaphorical reaction shot to everything that went down in Changes.
While Ghost Story is far from the strongest book in the series, the emotional payoffs make it well worth the time all the same.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, and Kidnapping