I don’t plan to read further so I don’t care about spoilers, but I saw a lot of people vaguely plurking about things getting much worse as the books went on and I am morbidly curious

My educated guess based on the first seven books and the vibes I got is that Harry has an inappropriate relationship with Michael’s daughter and probably some important women characters are SAed and/or fridged to give Harry more to angst about because that seems to be a real go-to for writers like Butcher

Also I am going to guess that Harry’s literal sexual predator of a brother gets worse and the work goes out of its way to excuse him for it

Harry never fucks Michael’s daughter and establishes clear boundaries, but it’s not for lack of trying on her part

At least, as far as I got

But shes revealed to be a potential wizard and she becomes his apprentice and she’s got it down bad

Harry hijacks a super powered ritual designed to kill an entire bloodline and sacrifices Susan to wipe out the entire Red Court, an action which everyone hates him for because deleting a major power like that throws the supernatural world into complete chaos

Harry becomes the Winter Knight and constantly struggles with the urge to become a monster because of it

Thomas gets captured by a monster that tortured him until he’s out of juice and then throws him in feral mode at captured women over and over again until he gives up on being a “moral” vampire

And of course all the focus is on how he feels about that and not on the dozen women he killed in the process

That’s about where I gave up

yeah for a lot of people it's the winter knight thing which comes at the same book as the thomas thing if i recall correctly

but yeah, harry does not get into an inappropriate relationship with molly, thank god. butcher draws a line there at least

(he also never gets with murphy either)

Let me guess, does Butcher focus on what a good guy Harry is for not fucking Michael’s daughter?

Anyway, still sounds like about what I expected

it's been a while and a lot of that kind of cruft slides out of my memory, but i do not recall any particular focus on that

Alright we’ll aluminum star for Butcher then, he could’ve been worse

It’s messy and ugly but like for once Butcher actually sounded like he understood that this SHOULD be messy and ugly.

lmao, aluminum star. perfect

I still plan on following the series through to the end and if he does the spinoff series about one of the newer characters intro'd in Skin Game I'd probably check that out

but out of all the stuff that either didn't bother me personally or I just let it slide..........the way he killed Murphy off in the most recent book floored me

Oh shit I didn’t expect that

like not only was she just shot in the back by what's-his-name, her one annoying mortal partner or whatever, Butcher went WAY out of his way to be like

NO SHE'S REALLY REALLY DEAD

WE CAN'T BRING HER BACK

N O P E

and it's like

....and yet if I think about it for more than two seconds it kinda makes sense

Somehow I held on until Skin Game but just sort of got bored with it/my ex really liked the books and that soured them for me/even knowing the locations in chicago wasn’t enough of a hook anymore

whatever your feelings on Murphy as a character SHE'S BEEN AROUND SINCE BOOK 1

and to do her dirty like that for what? Harry's manpain?

The one thing I did like was some of the world building and I was about to be in a Dresden Files FATE game but that fell apart

and then there's the soap opera shit where like. I think Mab made it so that Lara and Harry have to get married and Molly is supposed to make all the arrangements

it turns out Justine was secretly possessed by Nemesis this whole time so she's been Evil/brainwashed for who knows how long

some other stuff

that was that point where was like. well. I guess I'm clearing out my collection of DF paperbacks

(I do still have the short story collections on hand though)

Man OF course he fridged Murphy

cinnamonical: was it Grey? He was like the only character in skin game I was like what’s his story

Goodman Grey, yes! I believe there was a con panel somewhere where Butcher mentioned wanting to do more with him

Also unsurprised he fridges Murphy

I’m revoking the you tried Star

Anyway if you want something with a similar amount of breakneck pacing and high action but less wildly sexist and racist then check out Will Wight

seconding the Will Wight as a "like Butcher, but good" recommendation

I technically have not given up reading the Dresden Files books but I have 100% given up keeping up with the series or paying money. if I see a new one at the library I will check it out.

but the breaking point was Murphy, & also, just, like...

I'll probably be looking specifically for mystery genre in an urban fantasy setting

Changes & Ghost Story were incredible books on several levels. Skin Game is the only book since then that felt even average to me.

then the first 9 Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton are fantastic. after that the books become great erotica, shitty mystery for way too long.

Seanan McGuire's October Daye books are also pretty great urban fantasy/mystery

Holly Black's Curse Workers trilogy, likewise