Fool Moon

I just finished listening to the second book in the Dresden Files series, Fool Moon. I have to admit it, I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first. I think that was due primarily to two different problems. The first, involved the plot as a whole. This book was based on the premise of werewolves, nothing something I'm inherently apposed to. What I was disturbed by was the sheer graphic quality of this book over the last. Every bloody scene and battle was described in great detail. It made it very difficult to listen to, and made me nauseous during the climax of the book. I had to frequently pause the book just because it was disturbing me so much. It wasn't that it was scary, it was that it was, well gross. The plot, as a whole was intersting, and there is a definite twist at the end that really surprised me (although I could have just been distracted by all the gore). I particularly enjoyed the background and detail the author gave to the different types of werewolves. It really added believability to his world.

The other aspect of this book that I disliked was that the author's clearly chauvinistic views toward women ran rampant during this book. While in the first book, the author made little jokes about what a "chauvinist" Harry Dresden is, you're not hit over the head, beaten down, and covered with the derogatory views toward women. In this book, you are. Every since female character is described with sexualized details. Women aren't allowed to be powerful and defend themselves capably, instead they blunder about and have to be "saved". This wouldn't have been a problem if all of the characters were treated like this, but instead, it's only the women.

I just wanted to shake the author. It's not "cute" to be a sexist pig, which is the general feeling I got from this book. It's incredibly insulting and alienating to your female readers. While I do think he redeemed himself a bit in the end with Murphy's successful takedown of a baddie, he negates even THAT by having Dresden "allow" Murphy to take the credit.

Oh, gee thanks.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with this book. While I think the plot was better as a whole (with the exception of Dresden's conversations with himself, that was just a waste of space), the sexism left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm still confident that I'll like later books in the series, but I'm hoping it doesn't get any worse before it gets better.


(3/5 stars)