Read Declan Finn’s review here.
Harry Dresden’s had it rough. No, rougher than that, and far rougher than usual. He has had it too rough to want to do anything but – well, dying directly isn’t an option. Maybe slowly killing himself would work, except he can’t do that either. There are too many people relying on him.
So he gets up and works on his routine to get back into shape for the next fight. Whether he wants it or not, the next fight is coming, and he needs to be ready for it. He cannot afford to lose anyone else.
As Declan said in his review, Mr. Butcher is so well known that he would normally not be the subject of an Upstream Review. However, given the circumstances behind the writing and publication of Twelve Months, an exception has been made. I have not been keeping up with Dresden’s adventures lately, so I went into this book relatively cold, with no certainty of anything beyond a few crumbs of spoilers, fan discussions, and theories. This review is the result of that reading.
The Story
Grief hurts. Harry has experienced more grief than most in his life, but this time it has hit him like a hundred aircraft carrier pileup in a Chicago that wishes it got wrecked by giant alien robots hiding in plain sight as vehicles. At least Transformers don’t eat people. Ghouls and other monsters are suddenly very, very real to the shell-shocked populace of the city, and they do eat people.
Harry is too broken to directly handle cleanup of the monsters this time and he knows it. He has a castle to take care of, refugee neighbors sheltering under his roof, friends to mourn, and a body to get back into shape. Oh, and he has an arranged marriage with the de facto queen of the White Court vampires to look forward to as well. Right after losing the second love of his life to a panic artist with a gun. Joy.
Then there is his vampire half-brother slowly going mad as his own Hunger tries to eat him. Harry’s sort-of sister-in-law and her baby are still missing, too, since she is being possessed. The king of the svartalves also wants blood for the bodyguard who Thomas killed under duress. Add in the visible sight of Chicago’s wounded soul, and it is a wonder that Harry is still functional.
Functional, however, isn’t good enough. But when life’s fires have burned you this badly, getting up takes work. Will Harry make it back to his feet in time? Or will he end up on his knees again?
The Characters
Harry Dresden has always been a great character, even if sometimes a reader wants to take him and shake him occasionally. Now he has been knocked flat on his back and must work up the will to stand; he does not mince words on how much it hurts. Even if a reader only has academic interest in learning how to work through trauma, the early chapters of Twelve Months have an impact and leave an ache in one’s stomach. The Battle of Chicago took darn near everything from Harry with compound interest. At this point, the only thing keeping him going is the will to get up. That is a thin line to hold, especially when part of him just wants the pain to stop.
Lara Raith returns and grows into a very nuanced, interesting character here. It is subtle, and if you have read a spoiler or two, you can almost catch the moment when the growth happens. Butcher’s work on Lara here is a masterstroke of writing and worth reading for its own sake.
Mab is back and in fine fettle. So are the Carpenters, the Wardens, Carlos Ramirez, Will, and most of Harry’s retinue. By now he has a castle, so they do indeed count as a retinue, something many need to remember. New cast members appear and are drawn well, such as the gargoyles that pay homage to the Disney series, though they are very different from that concept. The new cast includes Bear who, as Declan and others have said, is a total charmer. Her perspective is unique, nuanced, and yet uncompromising. Butcher has a treasure on his hands with Bear and I look forward to what follows for her in the coming adventures.
The World
Butcher deepens a world already so complex that it is difficult to keep everything straight even with a wiki constantly updated by fans. Chicago feels like it has been through the wars, the governments are behaving predictably, and everyone is hurting as the usual suspects play See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. Meanwhile the world of the Sidhe is on the brink, moving faster than the eye can follow and promising a lot more action in the coming books. Twelve Months might be slower by comparison to previous entries in the series, but that is because it is the calm before the storm. A storm which has teeth is on the horizon and readers can feel it building even if Harry struggles to see it clearly.
Politics
Protestors and Counter-protestors arrive, as Declan noted, and the government is predictably refusing to admit that the supernatural is real. Also, the bishop of Chicago is mentioned reproachfully in the book, a detail that is greatly appreciated. This is as political as the book gets and it is easily more pertinent to Dresden’s world than to the real one.
Content Warning
Mab is here. Lara is here. The two women come with warning labels tailored specifically for them due to their respective Sidhe and vampiric natures. Even at his least explicit, Butcher minces no words about how alluring these two predators can be when they want to draw Harry in. Nor does he stint on how Harry’s wounds leave him open to their potential exploitation, to the point of having nightmares about it.
If you don’t want kids exposed to that kind of heat, hold the book for when they are older. If you like things explicit, please shop somewhere else. Twelve Months is spicy but it isn’t for anyone ten and under. The violence is, as usual for Butcher, PG-13 even when the subject of cannibalism is broached.
Who is it for?
The book is for Harry Dresden fans, of course. Life hurts – Harry’s life more than most. The book is as much for fans who were hurt by prior events in the series as it is about the next stage of Harry’s adventure. Any fans who do not read it are missing out. Urban fantasy readers will enjoy this book, of course, and anyone who is dealing with depression would benefit from it as well. Those interested in learning how to write someone working through Post-Traumatic Stress would be wise to read Twelve Months even if they don’t know Harry Dresden. Actually, anyone who wants to work with people dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress or even those who feel overwhelmed by their own anxiety issues would benefit from reading this book. You don’t need to be a fan to keep up – and in some ways, it might be better if you are not a die-hard Harry Dresden aficionado. If you want a book that heals, you need to pick up Twelve Months.
Why buy it?
It is good, it is healing, it pulls no punches and it shows a man putting himself back together one determined centimeter at a time. Not enough writers are willing to do this with their characters, and such work deserves to be rewarded. Pick up Twelve Months now. You won’t regret it!
"The book is as much for fans who were hurt by prior events in the series as it is about the next stage of Harry’s adventure."
Yes. It is. I went into Twelve Months still angry with Jim over the events in Battle Ground. (Yes, it's been over 5 years. No, I wasn't over it.) This was the book I needed. I'm still unhappy about Murphy, but I can accept it. The idea of Harry and Lara made me livid, but somehow Jim managed to grow Lara's character in a way that remains consistent with previous books and yet makes it so I no longer hate the idea of their marriage.
What a perfect review. Thank you.