The continuing adventures of Ashley/narfna re-reading The Dresden Files in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . PARTY.
I’m not sure exactly why I thought this book was better than the first one when I read it seven (seven! gross, that’s so many) years ago, but if you care to read my initial review, which I have included in the parentheses following this sentence, you’ll see that was indeed the case. (Original review from August 2009: “Better than the first one. I’m hanging in there. (More detailed thoughts to come after I finish #3.)) You can also see that I was clearly not enjoying myself. If anything, this time around Fool Moon made me even more angry than Storm Front did. I’m not entirely sure I can articulate why, though, so bear with me.
Fool Moon picks up six months after Storm Front. Harry is hurting financially because most of his income comes from consulting for the Chicago PD, and his strained relationship with Murphy seemingly means she’s not calling him in nearly as frequently as she used to. Enter the werewolves. A series of brutal killings have been occurring on or near the full moon for the past two months or so, and Murphy is desperate to get a solve because her job is on the line. She’s been getting pressure from the higher ups, and is currently under investigation by Internal Affairs, not in small part due to her affiliation (ironically) with Harry in the first place. The FBI is also on the case, and the pressure is on. Oh, and also, there are like five million different types of werewolf, did you know???
Harry has run-ins with all types of manwolf before it’s over. There is lots of violence and blood. Harry makes some new friends (who he also refuses to trust until it’s nearly too late). Some people are violently torn asunder by monsters. There are conspiracies. Oh, and Murphy is terrible.
Harry is terrible, too, but he’s the hero, so it’s a “flaw” or something, but this early in the series Butcher really really really doesn’t know how to write their relationship to make it a satisfying kind of tension.
His decision to have Harry continue to withhold information from the people who need it most, combined with his infantilizing “chivalric” attitude towards women makes for absolutely toxic scenes between him and Murphy, especially. He makes this worse by writing Murphy like an idiot. Their entire conflict in this book could have been solved by both of these assholes trusting each other and having one simple conversation. In Murphy’s case, it’s particularly egregious, because she now TWO BOOKS IN A FUCKING ROW has decided to distrust her friend of YEARS, so far as to believe him capable of, if not murder, than conspiracy to murder. That is a joke. If it was going to be believable, we needed soooooo much more context for her actions. As is, she just comes off looking stupid and shrewish, which is a terrible way to portray a benevolent character in your ongoing book series. And Harry makes it worse in every situation. His lack of action and attempt to ameliorate the situation just makes it agony for us as readers, and NOT in the good way.
I also think that Susan needed way more fleshing out. We’re just seeing her from Harry’s limited perspective during this couple of days, and we do not feel the same level of investment about her as he does, so their “love scene” not only fell flat for me, I actually rolled my eyes while listening to it.
I still rated this three stars, though, despite loooots of complaining up there. When the above complainables aren’t occurring, I find this series so appealing. The bones of good characters and worldbuilding are here, there just isn’t enough attention paid to any of them. There’s also some minimal character arch-age going with Harry, as the second temptation of Jesus Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden occurs. This will be a running theme throughout the series: Harry being tempted by power, and turning it down, not without a struggle. We also get a glimpse of Harry’s subconscious self, who is much more put together than should be expected, and who is proof that Harry knows about his flaws (his terrible attitude toward Murphy in particular). Even though I know that nearly all of these flaws will be addressed and fixed in later books (though Harry is still gross about pretty women), it’s still really frustrating to read about them here.
Definitely the worst book in the series, but it only goes up from here!