Dead Beat by Jim Butcher: Book Review

Dead Beat Book Review

My Rating: 5/5

Spoiler Free Dead Beat Book Review

If it hadn’t been for the positive reviews for Dead Beat and the later books in Jim Butcher‘s The Dresden Files series, I probably wouldn’t have read another book in the series after Blood Rites. I am so glad that I did!

Dead Beat feels like The Prisoner of Azkaban of The Dresden Files: things are getting darker; the stakes are higher; and there are several threads that are yet to be rounded off so it feels like it will only get worse before it gets better for Harry Dresden.

You have to like Butters!

I loved the new characters in this fantasy book. Butters is fantastic and it was great to see a character other than Harry have a character arc within the plot.

His job description was a corny addition to the story which was brilliant. It wouldn’t be The Dresden Files without Jim Butcher making jokes like that.

Polka will never die!

The removal of Murphy from the book was a surprisingly good idea

We saw a new side of Harry as he worked alongside Butters – he became the closest to a hero figure in his own mind than he has ever done, and that’s a great step forward.

He is shedding his younger, brasher, hot-headed self and is becoming so much more. I am so excited to see him grow even more in the coming books considering some of the changes that occurred in this entry.

The main villains of the book were really good!

There were several of them and they all had their own motivations – however subtly different – and those nuances made Harry’s fight against them less monotonous than it could have been.

Harry is also fighting a part of himself which I found to be the most fascinating and page-turning aspect of the book, so I hope to see more of that.

There was only one negative

We knew that a certain villain was going to rear their heads again, and their threat was unique as it didn’t threaten Harry’s life but someone else’s – but that thread got lost in the rest of the book and it felt a little underwhelming at the end.

I am sure we will come back to that villain at some point, and I know that if there had been more it would have made the book a lot longer and would have felt a little much after everything that happened, but it still ended a little awkwardly.

Overall, though, Dead Beat is my favourite book of the series so far, and I can’t wait to catch up and read the newest entries soon!