Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

2 reviews

sexualedward's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75


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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

TRIGER WARNING: Sexual Assault, Objetification of female characters, Mental illness, Violence, Blood 

There are two Dresden files: without female characters in the scene, and with female characters in the scene. That, as a woman, breaks my heart. 

Grave peril is the worst example of this yet. In the scenes that there were no female characters Gravel Peril reminded me what I like about Dresden files: Really interesting worldbuilding, interesting creatures and characters, mystery…even better supernatural mystery. Those are some of the reasons that keep me reading this series. I love these elements.
 Then there are the scenes with female characters….and everything goes to shit. Butcher’s objectification of the female characters is nauseating. Every female character but Murphy is described as a thing, as fap material. Personality, goals, their feelings, all of these are secondary to descriptions of the character’s lips, boobs, legs, hips. Harry is SUPPOSED to be “the good guy” and we are in his head the whole book, but every time he sees a female character, he becomes Creepy Harry, few steps away from sex offender. His descriptions of the women he comes across are so disgusting I just want to punch Dresden in the face and get all those women restraining orders against creepy Harry. It was bad in Fool moon but Dresden’s creepiness goes to new lows in Grave peril. It’s one thing to objectify adult women in Fantasy, I don’t like it but, since female authors also write Erotica is fair game for Butcher to write his boobs descriptions. However, it is NOT ok for Harry Dresden, a full grown male character, with years of experience under his belt, to ogle female characters who are implied to be teenagers. And he does that BIG TIME. Dresden calls them “kid” and proceeds to ogle their boobs, legs and hips in his mind. NO, just NO. This alone makes me want to kill Dresden with fire….but it gets worst. In one scene the girl, who is implied to be a teen, is possessed by a demon and the way Dresden and his ally deal with it is by sexually assaulting her as a “distraction”. Really Butcher, really? The way to “distract” the demon is sexually assaulting a teen girl who is already suffering trapped in her own mind. Dresden isn’t the one assaulting her, but basically “nice guy” Dresden lets it happen and after, comments on it and then brushes it off, with no consequences, and proceeds with his mission. There was nothing about that scene that was ok and I just want to punch the “I’m a good guy” speech out of Dresden’s mouth. Writing the sexual assault of a teen girl as been a “valid” strategy for the “good guy” protagonist to win was a conscious writing choice Butcher made, and that is f*cked up. By the end “Harry Dresden, the creep and pig” is “given” the other teen girl character as a “gift” for him to enjoy. This teen girl had been shown to be mentally unstable, but Creepy Harry does not refuse her because she is too young or because she is not mentally well enough to consent to this situation, no, no, no. Creepy Harry refuses the “gift” because he doesn’t like the idea of sharing a woman (reduced to a toy here) with the man that sent her to him. This Harry Dresden, the one that is borderline predatory toward young girls and allows his allies to sexually assault them “for the cause” can go f*ck himself with a cactus.   

Now, to other matters, even without the major issue I pointed out Grave peril is still the weakest of the 3 Dresden books I read. It presumes you have a bunch of information that you don’t, unless you had access to Butcher’s other Dresden side projects, I assume. The book kept making references to events that did not take place in the novels. That was confusing. Just as confusing was the plot which was all over the place. Storm front and Fool moon felt coherent, but Grave peril felt disconnected, like it was written without any sort of outline…like Butcher was winging it as he went. I have to mention Harry’s ogling women one more time because there is another problem with it. Often times Dresden is put in these “life or death situations” but in his head, he is still giving female boobs/legs/hips descriptions. How am I supposed to feel that Harry is fearing for his life and the lives of his friends when he still has the mind to pay attention to boobs/hips/etc.? These awfully placed boobs descriptions completely take down the stakes of the situation. I mean, it basically goes: life or death situation presents itself, Dresden’s head “her clothes cling to the curves of her breasts”…and I am like, “it’s all fine, he is thinking about boobs”. It’s just a tension killer, ruining scenes that should be tense.

Overall, I cannot give this book a high rating even if I love the world and some of the characters. All of the things I mentioned made the reading experience frustrating and mostly not enjoyable. I will continue with the series since people keep saying it gets better. I hope so. For now, I give this third installment of The Dresden files 2 stars. 


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