Review: Twelve Months (Dresden Files 18)

It’s good to have Dresden back. I prefer to practice “death of the author” when it comes to reviews or analysis. To me it doesn’t matter what they intended or what kind of person they are (mostly). But this book truly seems inseparable from Jim Butcher’s experience exorcising his personal demons. We know he had a hard time in his personal life and it’s at least part of the reason that the Dresden Files books suddenly stopped coming out so frequently.

Similarly, almost the entirety of this book is about Dresden dealing with the PTSD of the events of the previous year in Chicago. Light spoilers: there was a gigantic fantasy creatures war in Chicago. There was lots of destruction and death. Chicago residents now know that fantasy stuff is real. The rest of the US doesn’t seem to believe them. Also spoiler, but not a spoiler as it’s the back jacket copy, Dresden has to marry Lara Wraith of the White Court. I thought the book would be more about the crazy situation revolving around this insane marriage pact. Instead that was more of a side plot while Harry dealt with his emotions. While it was a good book, good enough for me to rate it 4 stars, I did feel a bit mislead given the title and what the story was leading us to think the plot would be.

On the lore front, we continued to learn more about what’s really going on and why all the chess pieces have been arranged as they are - Mab, the Outsiders, and so forth.

Overall, you don’t just pick up book 18 of a series (I know there are some chaotic folks who would, but yeah…). You either know you like The Dresden FIles or you don’t. I would just say that this book is pretty emotionally heavy, so make sure your head’s in a good place before you start reading. Alternatively, read it in small chunk and focus on other books whenever it gets to be too much.

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