Chocolate fends off all kinds of nasty stuff. And if you get hungry while warding off evil, you have a snack. It’s multipurpose equipment.

Blood Rites : Dresden Files #6
Jim Butcher | 2004 | 372 Pages

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The Plot

Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only wizard for hire, so when a curse begins to threaten a high profile adult film producer he’s the man on the job. Going undercover on a porn set can’t be that bad, right? Especially once you mix in some magic, vampires, mercenaries, and a tiny adorable puppy.

Highlightsbloodrites

The last time I read a Dresden book was sometime around 2009, so I had to do quite a bit of summary reading on the various wikis to catch myself up. I just wanted to give that disclaimer because I can’t compare this one in depth to the previous books in the series because I don’t recall all of the specific nuances. I would recommend reading the first five books before getting to this one. The stories are mostly self contained, but there are larger overarching plots involving vampires, faeries, the wizard council, etc.

Anyway, the one thing that I did remember during the 7 year gap was the humor and the world building. The novels are written from Dresden’s perspective, and his sarcasm and self deprecating humor make the various plot events all the more entertaining. Combine that narration with Butcher’s magical creations and you get a Chicago that is entertaining and both mundane (non-magical people are only vaguely aware of what’s going on- there is a police task force for example) and totally bizarre.

This particular book has some really fantastic twists that go beyond many of the “monster of the week” plots of previous titles. I’m writing this review as I’m closing in on the end of book #7 so I can say confidently that it introduces several different snags that will affect our wizard friend moving forward.

Downsides

Harry can get… overly chivalrous around women, and it is some times groan inducing. Like dude, we get it. You haven’t had a ladyfriend in a while, and you think all women should be precious and valued… but you don’t need to white knight all the time. Especially when Murphy can totally kick your ass and is the best. But such are the internal thoughts of a broke and single wizard for hire caught up in a world of succubi I guess?

Should You Read This?

If you’ve been reading the series and have started to hit a burn out (which is why I stopped a while back), I would suggest moving forward with this one. It introduces so many new elements and raises a lot of the stakes for Harry moving forward. I personally plan to keep going for a while, since there are like 15 of them published thus far. If you’re looking for urban fantasy, give the files a go!