Review: Anna Dressed In Blood

Anna Dressed In Blood by kendare Blake

Published by Tor Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$16.99 (US hardback)

316 pages

What it's about:

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . .

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life

My thoughts:
It's not very often that I come across a book that honestly freaks me out. I'm actually having a hard time thinking of any book that has freaked me out, all except Anna Dressed In Blood. This book got me all jumpy.

To be fair about that though, I was reading this book in the middle of the night, during a rain storm, and practically in the dark, all but for one lamp on. Got to set the mood for it. And it did honestly freak me out. Every time I would hear a creak or any unexpected loudish noise, I'd jump about a foot out of my seat, or at least it felt like I did.

As for the plot, characters, writing style, and all the goodies, I loved them all. I really liked both Cas and Anna. Though I could not actually relate to them, because I am not a ghost hunter or a ghost, I still enjoyed them. I was fascinated by the relationship of Cas and Anna. How even though Cas knows of the horrible things Anna has done, he is still willing to go into her terrifying house to figure out why they are drawn to each other.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book. I stayed up all night to read it, not putting it down once. I was completely engrossed in the story. I wanted to know everything there was to know about Anna and the horrible ways she killed people, and what Cas was going to do about it.

My rating: 9/10
There is a spoilery reason for the lowered rating that has to deal with the pet cat.