Dresden Files Reread - Storm Front Chapter 4

 

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann via Unsplash

Chapter 4 opens with the introduction of Monica Sells. She strikes Dresden as familiar, but he puts that down to something about her look, her outfit, rather than having seen her before. Or someone who looks like her. This is a solid way to turn something that might otherwise be a clue for the audience into foreshadowing - while her appearance is also compared to Jennifer Stanton's, it is only put in terms of the absence of a dye job. We're not really told anything about Jennifer Stanton's facial features, so we can't compare them to Monica's, and we aren't told Monica's eye color, so we can't compare it to Jennifer's. This means that on a first read through, the reader has no way to guess that they're sisters, but when it's revealed, many chapters from now, it doesn't feel like it's coming out of absolutely nowhere. This is some very solid storytelling technique. 

We are given enough information to guess that Victor Sells is abusing his wife. Monica leaping to the defense that "he only wants a good life for us" when no one present in the conversation is questioning his behavior is the major indicator, but her general level of anxiety and the fact that she pays in cash also point in this direction. Really the only thing that points away from it is that she wants him found in the first place, and like, lots of DV survivors still love and worry about their abusers. To be clear, I did't catch this on my first read, but it's there to find if you know what you're looking for. This also implies that she might have been more open with Dresden if he hadn't been so irritable. He definitely thinks he's doing a good job of covering his annoyance with how nervous she is and her mispronunciation of "tarot", but one of the things about abuse survivors is that they tend to get really good at picking up when someone is stressed out or angry, and Dresden getting impatient with her about basically innocuous things is not exactly going to foster a sense of safety. That said, given the amount of difficulty she has talking about magic, and the fact that she gave him the scorpion talisman even though we aren't given any other indication that she wanted to hurt him, I do also wonder if she might have been under some weak or poorly worded compulsion that constrained her words and actions when she was talking to Dresden. 

During the discussion of Monica's missing husband, Dresden suggests that she might be better off talking to a private investigator. So I guess that's a solid yes on Dresden actively self-sabotaging, but also, did he... forget that he's also a licensed PI? There's a short story written before this novel, where Dresden is still completing his PI training, so this is definitely not something Jim Butches just didn't decide until later. (It's called "A Restoration of Faith", I think, and it's in one of the short story collections, which we will be covering in this reread at the points between books where they came out). I don't have a serious criticism here, it's just odd. 

A thing where I kind of do have an actual criticism is the discussion of the scorpion talisman. Scorpions are frequently a symbol of evil - probably the best known bit of folklore about them in the English speaking world is the story of the fox/frog an the scorpion, although we know Dresden doesn't know that one until Mab tells it to him in Summer Knight. But they can also be a symbol of protection from evil and, perhaps more interestingly, given the nature of Victor Sells's rituals, of human sexuality. That's like, a quick Google's worth of information, and while Dresden doesn't have Google, he does have Bob, who is supposed to be as good or better where magic is concerned. There's also the Egyptian scorpion goddess Serket, who was a goddess of like, healing and fertility and stuff, as well as scorpions. And one time she defeated an evil snake god. She's not exactly among the best known Egyptian deities, but given that Justin DuMorne mostly used Egyptian words for his spellcasting, he almost certainly knew about Serket, and we know from Dead Beat that it was DuMorne, and not McCoy, who taught Dresden most of what he knows about the actual applied use of magic. Which is all taking the very long way 'round to saying that it really seems like Dresden should know that the magical and symbolic significance of scorpions is not exclusively Bad Things. 

There's also some discussion of how people new to the craft often think they need to isolate themselves to practice. This is sort of an interesting piece of worldbuilding, inasmuch as it goes absolutely nowhere. Not only it it not what Victor Sells is doing, I don't think we ever see a character actually doing this. 

The chapter ends with Dresden calling hospitals and morgues, thinking he sees the scorpion move, and putting into into a drawer. I don't like to "why didn't he just" fictional characters, and he did check it for enchantments, but I do nonetheless notice that Dresden could have saved himself a lot of trouble later on if he'd put the damn thing in a magic circle. 

I think I've got an actual rhythm going here, so stay tuned for Chapter 5 sometime next Saturday, even if it ends up being for values of Saturday that include the early hours of Sunday. Well, it's still Saturday on the west coast. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read ALL the things.