Ugh, slow start to the year. Winter is a terrible time for me.
I’m going to blame Mab. Because, why not?
From what I understand, Twelve Months was not originally part of the original ‘Dresden Files’ line up; the next planned book after Battleground, if I remember right, was meant to be titled Mirror Mirror. But after the what was a very action heavy and unrelenting previous installment for the reader—and potentially the worst weekend of their life for the protagonist—I can see how we could all benefit from some extra time to put ourselves back together.
I’ll admit, the first few chapters started off very slow. Chicago has been a left a wreck after the events of Battleground; the city is without both power and reliable transport, and amongst the wreckage, certain magical groups have started preying on people. Harry is also a wreck; he’s not talking to his friends or sleeping very well. And , as it slowly revealed in the book, indulging in some very unorthodox and counterproductive ways of dealing with his grief.
While I’d love to be able to say that his friends, his worry for his brother and even his daughter were enough to drag Harry back into the fray—and don’t get me wrong, his feelings of them helped immensely— I do find myself giving a reluctant hand to Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness for continuing to push Harry forward. Because Mab is bloody unrelentless; Harry has no time to wallow in his pain, because Harry is her investment and she has plans.
Yes, Mab is still dead-set on having Harry marry Lara Raith and secure a form of allegiance with her branch of the White Court. Harry, never the smoothest operator, was probably going to struggle to arrange his own dates with someone, at Mab’s instance or not. He hasn’t got he best track record. But with Lara? His half-brother’s half-sister and someone who he dismissively refers as Heroin Barbie? He was never going to take the initiative and do it himself. So Mab takes it upon herself to set up little dates for them.
And while these meetings are not terribly cute, they do allow us to spend more time with Lara. For those of us less blind than Harry, it comes as no surprise that there is more to Lara than we have been shown, and I’m grateful that that little curtain starts to get pushed aside. But again, everything here still circles back to Mab; why does she, in Harry’s words have him “agree to boink her [Lara] instead of signing a treaty?”* The Queen of Air and Darkness has her reasons.
(Harry’s blurted “You can’t do it yourself?” and Mab’s retort of “Obviously, or it would already be done” also had me snorting. )
But Mab’s machinations and Harry’s personal life are not the only moving parts here. As I mentioned above, the wreckage of Chicago has attracted a lot of opportunistic individuals with ill intentions. Quite a number of bad actors that Harry has crossed paths with before pop up here again. And to make matters worse, some of the vulnerable people left to fend for themselves, out of desperation, start using some very poorly chosen methods to do so. And Harry has to try and deal with it all.
But due to these many moving parts, and the twelve-month stretch in who the novel is set, there isn’t really much of a buildup to a single climax. One thread gets partially tied off; so many others are left hanging. This is not a bad thing per se, and perhaps quite fitting for the scenario the story is unfolding in. But it does emphasize the fact that like the two novels preceding it, Twelve Months is a very atypical entry. On the other hand though, I’d still say it more cohesive and better edited than either Peace Talks or Battleground. And, probably due to its subject matter (grief and the pain associated with it), I think Twelve Months is also one of the more maturely-written books in the series. It is much slower, and more thoughtful than most other entries. While I’m sure some readers would prefer if the next few books revert to a more typical form, I hope the character growth here remains.
But I do have a one major gripe though; at the end of Battleground, there was a reveal made about a certain character that left me reeling. I was really hoping to see how that choice was going to play out for them. So I was staggered to find that, while mentioned a handful of times, we never interact with this individual throughout the entire book. I am quite disappointed. What have they been doing in the last twelve months?
Butcher, why? Why are they not in this book? You torment me.
* Harry still going to Harry of course. But he is *generally* doing better regarding women here than in the last few books. Generally.
