Book Review: Grave Peril

Harry Dresden – Wizard
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden has faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago-area phone book.

But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble – and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone – or something – is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself….

-Goodreads

Book Information

• Title: Grave Peril
• Series: The Dresden Files #3
• Author: Jim Butcher
• Page Count: 378
• Genre: Urban Fantasy
• Rating: 4.0/5.0
• Date Read: April 30th, 2024

Opening Thoughts

I had the chance to continue on with the Dresden Files series in April with Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. I still look at this series as quick fun reads. I don’t expect too much in the way or poetic prose or epic arcing stories. This series is like a entertaining TV series I tune in weekly to watch. Now with that being said, I’ve read that this book seemed like a turning point for many fans of the series where things only get better. I don’t know if I would go quite that far but I can see some growth for sure. I’ll try to touch on that more below.

Pacing

The pacing of all three Dresden Files books I’ve read so far are very similar. This continues to be a fun and entertaining series with Grave Peril. Jim Butcher continues to do a great job in telling a story which brings the supernatural and magic to a world we currently live in. I am still progressing through these with the audiobook versions narrated by  James Marsters who continues to do justice for Jim Butcher’s stories in my opinion.

World Building

World building is nicely done again. Jim Butcher continues to paint a picture for his story in a modern world where these creatures and abilities could easily exist amongst us. I mean there are already numerous secret societies and underbellies of cities. Why couldn’t some of them be related to magic and supernatural creatures? One aspect that I thought seemed more relevant this time around was the tension or suspense. Maybe I just connected with this story a bit more but it seemed like there was more on the line in Grave Peril. It somehow seemed a bit darker because of this as well. In my mind this isn’t a bad thing either. There just seemed there was more at stake. This might also have to do with the characters as well.

Character Development

Speaking of character development, I feel this is one of the reasons people might feel Butcher and this series improve with Grave Peril. We have had some unique and entertaining characters up to this point and some solid relationships between them. However, Grave Peril sees things take a couple of steps forward in this aspect. The ending of Grave Peril was a bit sad for Harry but these emotional connections that are put on display this time around certainly had me more connected to these characters and the story.

Roundup & Recommendation

If what I experienced with Grave Peril and what I’m hearing as far as the series only improving from this point, I’m excited to see where the future goes with the series. I will continue to sprinkle a Dresden File read into my TBR every 2-3 months at the very least. With sticking with the audiobooks it does make it easier to add these in each month as I tend to have more wiggle room with my monthly audiobooks versus my visual reads.

Scoring

World Building 4/5
Pacing 4/5
Character Development 4.5/5