WoWwA ~ Ghost Story

This review contains spoilers if you have not read Changes, Book 12!! Ye have been warned.

*Book source ~ Library

Title ~ Ghost Story

Series ~ The Dresden Files, #13

Author ~ Jim Butcher

Narrator ~ John Glover

Publisher ~ Penguin Audio

Published ~ 26 July 2011

Genre ~ Fantasy | Paranormal | Mystery

Length ~ 17 hrs 56 minutes

Our Rating ~ 5 bites

Narration ~ 1 bite

Harry Dresden, wizard extraordinaire, private investigator, defender of Chicago and…ghost. After being shot and falling into icy Lake Michigan Harry wakes up to find himself back in Chicago. Only it’s not Chicago. Not exactly. And he has a mission should he choose to accept it. He must find out who murdered him and restore the balance. With his friends’ lives on the line, of course Harry rushes in where angels fear to tread. Ok, they don’t fear to tread in the spirit world, but it sounded good. Go with it.

Guest Reviewers:

A ~ my 17-yr-old daughter

T ~ my 15-yr-old son

K ~ my 14-yr-old son

First off, the title sort of gives this book away. After the ending to Changes it’s fairly obvious where this one is heading. We enjoyed the book quite a lot, but have to admit it’s not a favorite. There is a lot of blah, blah, blah going on amongst all the good stuff, but instead of a 4 we gave it a 5 because it was kinda cool to have a story involving Harry as a ghost.

The plot is a bit murky, but we went with it. Old favorite characters are back and some new ones are introduced. Mortimer is a bit of a dweeb in the beginning, but we really like how he grows and steps up toward the end. Butters is a bit of a surprise. Who knew the little guy was so damn smart? I mean, we love him and he’s proven he’s got balls, but he really shines in this book. Sir Stuart is awesome.

T loved how we got to see many of Harry’s memories and K thought seeing inside Bob’s skull was pretty cool. We were all surprised at the effect destroying the Red Court had. A perfect example of not thinking something all the way through. Everyone loved the whole Star Trek scene, Uriel’s seven words, Harry’s speech at the end and the ending itself.

Now I must address the narration. We were not happy with the change in narrator. At all. Period. *emphatic nodding* While we agree that John Glover has a pleasant voice and we would be happy to listen to other books he reads, after 12 books in the Dresden universe narrated by James Marsters, we  just couldn’t wrap our heads around a totally different take on the characters and off-sounding secondary characters by a new narrator. The entire book grated on our nerves. We feel bad for Mr. Glover, walking into the middle of an established beloved series, but we like what we like and we did not like his version. End of story.

Favorite quotes:

“Star Trek?” I asked her. “Really?” 

“What?” she demanded, bending unnaturally black eyebrows together.

 
“There are two kinds of people in the universe, Molly,” I said. “Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. This is shocking.” 

She sniffed. “This is the post-nerd-closet world, Harry. It’s okay to like both.”

 
“Blasphemy and lies,” I said.

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“My gast was pretty well flabbered.”  (hehe I use this one once in awhile.)

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“Jump into an open grave? What kind of idiot are you?" Butters replied. "I might as well put on a red shirt and volunteer for the away team. There's snow and ice and slippery mud down there. That's like asking for an ironically broken neck.” 

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Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at you to fight or flee - and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.