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nicosta_music's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
For a book coming off of my Anti-TBR list, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Storm Front. To get this book's glaring issue out of the way -- yes, main character Harry Dresden spends the first few chapters randomly mentioning how much he "respects" women while also being incredibly misogynistic. But honestly, some of his takes were so ridiculous that I thought it was hilarious. Like, come on:
“Women are better at hating than men. They can focus it better, let it go better. Hell, witches are just plain meaner than wizards. This feels like feminine vengeance of some kind to me.”
Comedic gold. No person grounded in reality says things like this. It's also extremely telling how the minute Harry
Despite the weird misogyny and perviness that occasionally spewed from Harry's mouth, I thought he was a bit of an endearing character. He reminded me of a lot of my IRL guy friends -- sort of like the quiet, loser-type nerds who are actually chill when you get to know them (except my IRL guy friends grew out of the weird chauvinist attitudes).
The plot was fine. Nothing special, but I appreciate a mystery with magical elements. The way things always seemed to conveniently work out for Harry was also funny to me and kept me entertained. I'd recommend this book to anybody who think's they'd enjoy reading about an incel who lacks self-awareness bumbling his way through magic and crime scenes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Animal death, and Child death
necroplasm's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
normally i quite enjoy grizzled sarcastic messy bitch detectives like harry dresden, but good LORD is this man constantly in need of a cold shower, it feels like for at least half the book every time a female character is in the scene he's using like,, the horniest descriptors he can use in a non-erotica novel, i nearly tapped out during his visit to that vampire woman's house because this guy is just TOO down bad. thankfully that stuff kinda slows down near the halfway point- at least it seemed like it did, maybe i was just getting used to it- and it wasn't as annoying to finish as i was afraid it would be. i'll check out the second book because i'm juuuuust interested enough in the setting to see where this could go, but GOD do i hope dresden starts being less of a horndog because i don't know if i can handle looking through his Womanizer Goggles for another book lmfao
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Murder, and Drug abuse
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
jaedia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Medical content, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug abuse
randanopterix's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I definitely wouldn’t call this a “good” book, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. It feels like something I’d watch on TV in 2005. Junk food type media. There are lots of women characters in this book, but they’re all pretty flat and Butcher spends most of the text about them talking about how cool and sexy they are.
Dresden is smug and the one liners are mostly cringey but somehow he still comes across as lovable in human-disaster sort of way. The plot was a pulpy, one episode mystery that was enjoyable enough. I definitely felt like the mystery solving was 10% detective work and 90% tripping on an important clue by accident.
This gets extra points for the audiobook performance. I’m convinced I might’ve hated this book if not for James Marsters reading as Harry Dresden. He comes across as the perfect amount of jaded and tired wizard detective hiding a heart of (silver if not) gold.
An Okay Book. Would definitely recommend to my dad.
Dresden is smug and the one liners are mostly cringey but somehow he still comes across as lovable in human-disaster sort of way. The plot was a pulpy, one episode mystery that was enjoyable enough. I definitely felt like the mystery solving was 10% detective work and 90% tripping on an important clue by accident.
This gets extra points for the audiobook performance. I’m convinced I might’ve hated this book if not for James Marsters reading as Harry Dresden. He comes across as the perfect amount of jaded and tired wizard detective hiding a heart of (silver if not) gold.
An Okay Book. Would definitely recommend to my dad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Animal death, Physical abuse, Incest, and Child abuse
valereads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I initially binge-read the entire series back in sixth form five(?!) years ago. With the next book in the series expected for next year I wanted to attempt to re-read the series before I read Peace Talks.
I remember thinking the first time I read Storm Front that it had a slow start in the first couple of chapters. I found this to be accurate upon re-reading but once it gets going it really gets going. This book is fast-paced and action packed with a compelling mystery and (mostly) likable protagonist.
One thing that bothered me that didn't affect me so much on my initial read through was the level of blatant misogyny from our protagonist. Female characters are constantly over-sexualised and Dresden frequently makes sexist (and exorsexist) comments in both narration and dialogue. I do remember there being less of this in later books in the series but I'll have to see as I continue this series re-read.
Overall I very much enjoyed re-reading this book despite it's flaws. If you can handle the misogyny I'd definitely recommend this series.
Content Warnings: misogyny, exorsexism, domestic abuse
I remember thinking the first time I read Storm Front that it had a slow start in the first couple of chapters. I found this to be accurate upon re-reading but once it gets going it really gets going. This book is fast-paced and action packed with a compelling mystery and (mostly) likable protagonist.
One thing that bothered me that didn't affect me so much on my initial read through was the level of blatant misogyny from our protagonist. Female characters are constantly over-sexualised and Dresden frequently makes sexist (and exorsexist) comments in both narration and dialogue. I do remember there being less of this in later books in the series but I'll have to see as I continue this series re-read.
Overall I very much enjoyed re-reading this book despite it's flaws. If you can handle the misogyny I'd definitely recommend this series.
Content Warnings: misogyny, exorsexism, domestic abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Animal death
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