Minor Thoughts from me to you

Review: Ghost Story [★★★★★]

Ghost Story Cover Art

Ghost Story
by Jim Butcher

My rating: ★★★★★
Read From: 21 January 2014 – 23 January 2014

After being assassinated at the end of Changes, Dresden wakes up as a ghost. Which sounds cool. But Ghost Story is here to tell you that it's anything but fun.

Dresden quickly realizes that he's more cut off and isolated than he's ever been. He doesn't know how to "live" as a ghost. He has to be taught by the other ghosts. He can't talk to any of his friends. He can't touch any of his friends. He can't touch anything at all. He can walk around Chicago. He can see what's going on. But he's completely unable to interact with anything or affect circumstances in any way.

Before dying, Dresden had completely wiped out the Red Court vampires. He's been gone for 6 months. Now that he's back, Chicago looks like a city under siege. Dresden learns that there's been some nasty fallout from the destruction of the Red Court. He created a magical power vacuum and nature abhors a vacuum. Now his friends are in even more danger than before and it looks like his apprentice may have gone completely around the bend.

This was a different type of Dresden story. It moved at a slower pace and was a lot more reflective. Dresden had to grow accustomed to being a ghost. He had to think deeply about what it meant to live, what it meant to die, and what it meant to care for people when you were neither fully alive nor fully dead.

The last book had more upheaval than any other Dresden novel. This book had more contemplation and self-reflection than any other Dresden novel. I liked it. I think it may be the strongest book yet in the series.

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