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Holly's Reviews > Grave Peril
Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)
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2.5 stars
Is there a single un-sexy woman in this book other than the baby-mudering ghost at the very beginning? If there was, Jim Butcher must have accidentally missed it because the main character, Harry Dresden, seemed to remark on the breasts of basically every female/vampire/fae/whatever he came across in this book and it honestly annoyed me. Objectify women much?
Originally I read and quit this book back in 2014. Fast forward four years and for some reason I decided to give it another try, this time via audiobook. The narrator was basically the only thing I really liked about this book. The fast paced action of the beginning soon gave way to a convoluted plot that, even now after having read/listened this whole thing, I still don't understand exactly what was going on and I honestly don't think I care. Oh and apparently Michael is not Harry's brother, which for some reason I thought I read the first time around but that was definitely not the case, he's just some super-powered religious dude with a sword that Harry knows.
So in summary, less objectifying of women, less use of the annoying phrase 'hell's bells', and a plot that doesn't revolve around a character the reader never even got to meet would have improved this book. Basically it needed to be a different book. I'm passing on this series.
Original 'DNF' review:
Maybe I'll come back to this later - my library loan ran out and honestly I wasn't invested enough to renew.
Is there a single un-sexy woman in this book other than the baby-mudering ghost at the very beginning? If there was, Jim Butcher must have accidentally missed it because the main character, Harry Dresden, seemed to remark on the breasts of basically every female/vampire/fae/whatever he came across in this book and it honestly annoyed me. Objectify women much?
Originally I read and quit this book back in 2014. Fast forward four years and for some reason I decided to give it another try, this time via audiobook. The narrator was basically the only thing I really liked about this book. The fast paced action of the beginning soon gave way to a convoluted plot that, even now after having read/listened this whole thing, I still don't understand exactly what was going on and I honestly don't think I care. Oh and apparently Michael is not Harry's brother, which for some reason I thought I read the first time around but that was definitely not the case, he's just some super-powered religious dude with a sword that Harry knows.
So in summary, less objectifying of women, less use of the annoying phrase 'hell's bells', and a plot that doesn't revolve around a character the reader never even got to meet would have improved this book. Basically it needed to be a different book. I'm passing on this series.
Original 'DNF' review:
Maybe I'll come back to this later - my library loan ran out and honestly I wasn't invested enough to renew.
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Reading Progress
October 23, 2014
– Shelved
October 29, 2014
– Shelved as:
dnf
November 27, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 6, 2018
–
Started Reading
September 6, 2018
– Shelved as:
audiobook
September 6, 2018
– Shelved as:
paranormal-romance-or-urban-fiction
September 17, 2018
– Shelved as:
2018-read
September 17, 2018
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-16 of 16 (16 new)
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by
Glen
(last edited Jul 08, 2017 01:12PM)
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 08, 2017 01:11PM
I'm crazy about this series. I want to tell you, "Keep reading, they get better!" But, if you didn't like the slow-speed car chase with the "do you love her?" discussion in the opening scene, or the embarassingly-geeky-Renaissance-fair moment that follows, then this series is probably not going to be to your taste. Now I don't know why I'm writing this.
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I actually don't remember any of this book other than the fact that a brother appeared out of nowhere and I was completely confused and thought I somehow missed a book in the series. I'll have to give this another try because I've since heard a lot of great reviews for this series and I did enjoy the first two books. Maybe I was just in a grumpy mood that week 2.5 years ago haha!
I think you may have skipped a book or three. There is no talk of brothers in this book. Maybe in "Blood Rights" #6 that might be talked about. I get in grumpy moods too, but I usually use one or two stars to express my displeasure instead of 3. :-) My review may help you decide if this is something you want to try again: /review/show...
Oops! Sorry about that. I was going to say that although I liked this book, that is so true about the comments in the appearances of the women and the hells bells thing! At least you gave it another try. Hopefully your next read is great!
There were a few hits and misses in this series but the audio narration made me come back each time and the series does get better
Melissa wrote: "Great and honest review, Holly!"Thanks!
Diana wrote: "Oops! Sorry about that. I was going to say that although I liked this book, that is so true about the comments in the appearances of the women and the hells bells thing! At least you gave it anothe..."Yeah I just couldn't get past it, no matter how much I enjoyed Bob the talking skull and the audiobook narrator. I did try though!
Sonja wrote: "There were a few hits and misses in this series but the audio narration made me come back each time and the series does get better"Well, maybe in another 4 years I will give the next book a try haha! I have heard this series does get better, but then again people also told me that about Kim Harrison's Hollows series too and so I kept reading it and it never got better for me personally (stopped at book 5 I think?) :P Basically I am a pain.
Something to maybe try instead is The Wee Free Men. Tiffany Aching is a great series. Well, the last book "The Shepherd's Crown" is weak due to the author's dementia and impending death, but the series ends well without it.Instead of sexism, there's girl-power. The writing is good enough that I would read the words, not listen to it (there's a reason the author was knighted). I know it's Discworld, but it's better than most of Discworld. There is almost no romance, so that may be a limiting factor for you. Actually, I may need to go read it a third time after writing this.
Glen wrote: "Something to maybe try instead is The Wee Free Men. Tiffany Aching is a great series. Well, the last book "The Shepherd's Crown" is weak due to the author's dementia and impending deat..."Thanks for the rec!! I am fine with no romance. :)
Oh NO!!! I picked up the audiobook of book 14 at the library, not realizing that it wasn't book 1, and loved it. So I never went back again. If you love audiobooks, maybe give it a try. :D
Corina☞BookTwinsReviews wrote: "Oh NO!!! I picked up the audiobook of book 14 at the library, not realizing that it wasn't book 1, and loved it. So I never went back again. If you love audiobooks, maybe give it a try. :D"Hm, so maybe I should just skip 10 books or so and see how I like it? I could do that....the audiobook narrator is nice to listen to ;)
I bumped into this review and you nail exactly why the Dresden Files can never be amazing for me. Don't get me wrong, I've read all of them, but the women... gah! I read it for the pace and the world-building and close my eyes every time there's a woman in Harry's sight.
Fanderay wrote: "I bumped into this review and you nail exactly why the Dresden Files can never be amazing for me. Don't get me wrong, I've read all of them, but the women... gah! I read it for the pace and the wor..."Yeah I think this author just decided that ugly and/or normal looking women cannot exist in his fantasy world. I'm sure the plot and world building improved as the series goes along, since the series is pretty long, but man, enough with the boobs already. If your godmother is some terrifying being who is trying to enslave you or something, you would think that alone would be enough for you to NOT care about how sexy she looks. But nope, we still get a detailed description of her breasts every time she shows up in the story. That's a bit disturbing.
