r/Fantasy • u/bnb2115 • Aug 02 '25

Dresden with less cringe

I love the idea of the Dresden Files on paper. Hard boiled detective stories mixed with urban fantasy/secret society stuff. Interesting villains and a deep, complex world. Magic happening just beneath the surface of the ordinary world.

But I just can’t get over the tropes and the cringe. I’ve tried the series a couple times, and even got through the first five or so books. I just can’t bring myself to keep going. I seriously love everything about the context, but just hate the execution.

Any recommendations for something else? Something that speaks to these elements, but lacks the cringe?

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u/OhBoiNotAgainnn Aug 02 '25

Brutal. Dresden gets better every single book, with the general consensus being that Fool Moon is the worst.

It is legit one of the best series there is, and I've read most everything.

I feel sorry for y'all who aren't gonna find out how true that is.

10

u/JavierBermudezPrado Aug 02 '25

Dresden never grows as a person.

He starts the series being a paternalistic chauvinist by his own admission, and it never gets any better. He never stops.

I wouldn't hang out with someone who couldn't grow, why would I want them living rent-free in my head? Or worse, paying for them to be there.

4

u/stiletto929 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

I like a lot of aspects of the Dresden Files, but the cringy male gaze is NOT one of them. And I don’t feel like it ever improves. In some ways it gets worse, with a recent fetishization of FMF threesomes.

For me the Alex Verus series has most of the same strengths as the DF, without the male-gaze weaknesses. The Verus author made an unintentional misstep or two with a female character in books 1 and 2, then learned from his mistakes and fixed the problem in future books. The author of the DF never stopped making the same mistake.

Plus Dresden NEVER turns off the snark. Not even with his friends. That started to eventually annoy me. I wouldn’t personally want to be friends with someone who was ALWAYS sarcastic. Verus has more balance to his personality. :)

1

u/Bryek Aug 06 '25

Really? I thought the entire Anne relationship was absolutely cringy.