Grave Peril – Audiobook Review

Synopsis:

*This review may contain spoilers for previous books in the series.*

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden has had a rough couple of weeks. As the only openly practicing professional wizard in the Chicago area, he has squared off against a multitude of supernatural bad guys. Harry has won the day against demons, poltergeists, sorcerers, trolls, vampires, werewolves, and even an evil faerie godmother. You might think nothing could spook him. You would be wrong.

Something is stirring up angry apparitions all over town. Something that can break all the laws of supernatural physics. Something that doesnt like Harry.

His closest friends are being targeted. The net is closing in. Harry must find a solution soon or find this is one Nightmare from which he will never waken.

Review:

The Dresden Files is one of those series that everyone seems to love and I feel like I should love it, too. I diligently listened to the first two books and, while I found them entertaining, they didn’t wow me. I never wanted to rush out and read the next book and I always felt like something was missing. But I kept seeing the reviews and people said that it just took a little bit of time for the series to hit its stride and then you’d be hooked. With that in mind, I decided to give the third book in The Dresden Files a chance in the hopes that it would be the book that would convince me of this series’ awesomeness.

The book starts off well enough with Harry and Michael, a new character, fighting off an angry ghost wreaking havoc in the maternity ward of the hospital. Looks like someone powerful is going around and pissing off a bunch of ghosts, causing them to act out destructively. The mastermind of these attacks is more powerful than other demon Harry has ever encountered and he has a grudge against Harry.

At this point, I am on board and it seems like this story could be pretty fun and interesting. Then a girl, Lydia, appears and Harry loses all his common sense. This is a reoccurring theme for Harry and there seems to be an endless queue of damsels in distress just waiting to take advantage of him. Then Harry gets a call that Johnnie Marcone has been attacked. Then some vampires come and threaten Harry and invite him to a ball. And then Murphy is also attacked in the same manner as Marcone. Oh and did I forget to mention that Harry’s evil fairy stepmother is after him as well?

Sounds like a lot of crazy stuff, right? Well it was too much for me. I felt like there were 3 or 4 storylines going on at once and I didn’t care about any of them. The plot just kept getting more convoluted and ridiculous. Seriously, why is everyone trying to kill Harry and how does he manage to survive? I don’t think it’s by his awesome detective skills because he missed a lot of things that were staring him right in the face. And while I normally enjoy Harry’s somewhat martyred air, he comes off as pretty whiny in this one.

The one bright spot was Michael, whom I really liked and wouldn’t mind seeing more of. I also really liked his wife Charity. She had a razor sharp tongue and wasn’t afraid to use it.

As you can see, Grave Peril was not the book to put me on the Dresden Files train. While I like most of the characters and many elements of the books, they just don’t wow me enough to continue on with the series. This last book especially was very tedious for me. Even James Marsters’s wonderful voice is not enough incentive to continue.