Review: Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher

Rating:

🧥🧥🧥🧥🧥

First Response:

I need them to figure out this Black Council thing, like, YESTERDAY.

One Sentence Summary:

Warden Morgan (yes, that Morgan) has been framed for the murder of a member of the High Council, and needs Harry to prove he didn't do it.

Tell Me More:

This book was fun, but something about it felt like filler. Like I was watching a couple of chess grandmasters play through the opening moves of a game by rote, before the first few captures that send the game into the uncharted space where the real action happens. Harry makes a some meaningful connections (not the least of witch involves an elemental spirit-of-the-land who gives him a heavily nerfed but still incredibly useful version of limited omniscience) that I expect will play a major part in future books, and we get to see several key locations that indicate the stakes are about to rise. The world is widening again, and honestly... I'm a little scared.

<spoilers> from here on out.

Morgan gets sidelined in this book; permanently, by the end. Michael was effectively taken out at the end of the last book. The events of this book throw the confidence of the entire White Council into question; and there's no telling how long it will take to undo Peabody's mind work. Thomas has been viciously relapsed-by-force into his old White Court Vampire ways. It seems like Harry's entire support system has been gutted, and it's about to be him and (maybe?) Molly versus whatever's going to happen next. I don't like it.

However, I take solace in the fact that my narratological instincts are still intact. This is to be expected, if my theory about the structure of the series is correct. I don't think I've explained it on my blog yet, though I've mentioned it in a couple of my tiktok reviews. Allow me to explain:

This is a basic plot diagram; the one I was taught in high school. Yes, in today's market where everybody has a side hustle there are a million critics and writing teachers trying to sell anyone who wants to be a writer their own brand of the plot diagram, but this one works for our purposes here.

In the first 6-7 books of the series, we're getting acquainted with Harry's world: his life as a PI; the balance of power in the magical world; a lot of the major characters we'll need to know as the story progresses. This is our exposition.

I'm pretty sure it's in book 7 that the idea of the black council is first introduced. (I could double check myself to be sure, but I try to keep these reviews stream-of-consciousness... also, I just don't feel like it. Laziness ftw!) A tonal shift occurs. We're not just following Harry through Monster-of-the-Week mysteries anymore. The war is heating up. Harry's responsibilities are amping up (he's a warden now, he takes on an apprentice, etc.) He finds friends and even family that make his life wholesome and somewhat complete. This is the rising action.

Then comes the climax. The big turning point. Things are about to get ugly. Real ugly.

I expect the next book, Changes to be that climax. The series is planned to be 24-25 books, and I'm willing to guess when Butcher wrote it, it was supposed to be the midpoint of the series. A few TikTok commenters have warned me to listen to it with tissues handy.

Also, it's a small thing, but-- all the other titles in the series are two words, with the same number of letters in each word. Changes is the only book with a one word title (and it's seven letters, which seems significant somehow...). I'm guessing this is the book that's going to... well... change everything.

But back to Turn Coat:

Something I enjoyed about this book and it's predecessor is how the magic battles are getting cooler and cooler. Not only is Harry getting better at using magic, but he's also moving into circles with more adept magic users, and we get to see them in action. Last book we had the Archive vs. 7 Denarians. This book gives us a skinwalker (aka, the Native American boogeyman with shapeshifting abilities) vs. Wizard Listens To Wind; and Native American Joe got some moves! Also, Harry has a kind of "battle-of-wills-but-not-really" thing with a giant tree-monster-spirit thing and it's pretty cool too.

Overall, this book was a fun read (as all the Dresden Files books have been, must I say it again?) and I can't wait to read the next one. I'll let you know (probably tomorrow) how it goes.