Proven Guilty

We get to know a lot more about Molly, Charity, and Murphy, who are all strong and bad-ass female characters and are given more space in this book. I thought this one was a little bit more self-contained with less overwhelming magic battles, and more character development, which was good. And Dresden apparently gets an apprentice, cool!??

I had a little difficulty getting into this, but once it caught hold I really enjoyed it. Dresden is a solid character with flaws and all. I was afraid that the series would start getting stale, but Butcher is able to keep the story engaging and keep the reader caring about what happens to Dresden and his entourage.

Executive Summary: While not as good as the previous book, [b:Dead Beat 17683 Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, #7) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345667776s/17683.jpg 6614452], it's still another enjoyable entry to the series.Audio book: Nothing of particular note in this novel. There weren't any stand out voices/characters worth mentioning. James Marsters does a great job with the audio, and seems really comfortable with the series now.Full ReviewNOTE: This review contains some (mostly minor) spoilers from previous novels, as it's hard to talk about the later books in the series without proper context.——————————————————————————–Things have been escalating with the war between the White Council and the Red Court. Harry's responsibilities have increased with his new job as regional commander for the Wardens. The number of incidents of young warlocks violating the laws of magic is on the rise.Harry is tasked secretly and separately by two members of the senior council. First his old mentor Ebeneezer wants him to use his contacts among the Fae to determine why despite violations of the Seelie Accord by the Red Court, why the Fae have abstained from entering the war.Secondly the mysterious Gatekeeper has warned Harry that there is Dark Magic about in Chicago once again.And then because Harry's life wasn't complicated enough, Harry receives a call from Molly Carpenter, daughter of his friend, and Fist of God, Micheal. She's in jail, and needs his help.What's Harry to do? He grabs his staff, blasting rod, and his dog Mouse and head off to do battle with the forces of evil and anyone else who gets in his way.While not quite as entertaining as [b:Dead Beat 17683 Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, #7) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345667776s/17683.jpg 6614452], there are some significant events in this novel that have a significant impact on the books that follow. Full of the usual combination of laugh out loud and eye-rolling one-liners, nasty bad guys and magic battles, makes this another quick and enjoyable read.

Goddamn, I am a believer. Dresden is a great series.

“I don't care whose DNA is recombined with whose, when everything goes to Hell, the people who stand beside you without flinching, they are your family. And they were my heroes. “

We have reached the crux where Butcher's prose has noticeably leveled up- there were multiple beautiful or introspective passages that I appreciated for the first time- and also having the world and characters fleshed out enough that this entire book is just superb character development and growth for half a dozen or more characters. This was the first Dresden book where the entire second half I just wanted to not be doing the other stuff I had to do, and instead wanted to be reading Dresden. I will be reading White Night immediately, after usually waiting ~a month to continue the series between books. I finally understand where people are coming from when they call this one of, if not their favorite series. I do think the plot of Dead Beat was better, but the character development and character moments in this book, and world development was way more gripping and emotional for me in Proven Guilty.

Alas, Butcher couldn't help himself. “Let's constantly sexualize a 17 year old and make Harry seem so damn MATURE for not succumbing” because he needs a gold star for being able to not act with his penis when around teenagers. Honestly, the second half of the book made me almost forget how often Harry thought about a teenager's chest in the first half, but then there's a scene I hated near the end and I cannot give five stars to a book that has that scene in it. Maybe book 9 can refrain from shooting itself in the foot with this kinda thing.

8.5/10