YMMV / Proven Guilty

• Growing the Beard: While the series is generally agreed to have already improved as of either Grave Peril or Dead Beat, Molly's trial in this book is often seen as being one of the first truly (for lack of a better word) profound moments in the series, helping elevate The Dresden Files beyond just pulpy fun and show how talented Jim Butcher really is as a writer.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Among the shapes adopted by the phobophages are a couple of grotesquely-mutated animals (a baboon and some kind of cat) from an In-Universe-only horror film called Nature Red. Evidently this film is about a retrovirus getting loose in a zoo and turning the animals into bloodthirsty monsters ...which is exactly the same plot as the 2016 film Zoombies.
• Nightmare Retardant: Harry examining a heroin addict with his sight and seeing her needle marks as hungry mouths opening and closing is horrifying ...but potentially less so once you realize it's yet another of the countless horror movie references in the book, namely to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Charity Carpenter goes from an annoying stereotype of a housewife who hates Harry to an incredibly tragic and sympathetic former wizard who is understandably terrified for the fate of her children and has been struggling with her sense of responsibility thanks to a Dark and Troubled Past.
• Signature Scene: The trial of Molly Carpenter.
• Squick:
  • Harry's description of having to dislocate his thumb to escape from Madrigal Raith's thorn manacles is exceptionally hard to read.
  • The book's description of Molly trying to seduce Harry comes off as (to borrow a term from Butters in the next book) rather Nabakovian, considering that Molly is only seventeen in this book.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The argument between the Merlin and Harry concerning the White Council's hardline attitude regarding warlocks and Black Magic can be seen as a commentary on heavy policing vs. social outreach.
• The Woobie: The various victims of both Molly's mental magic and the fetches.