BOOK REVIEW {Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake}

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake

Publisher: Tor Teen

Publication Date: August 30, 2011

Genre: YA, Horror, Paranormal

Source: purchased my own ecopy

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.

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 I got caught up in reading all the hype for Anna Dressed in Blood, so I guess you could say my expectations were through the roof! I'm way behind with reading this one and because of that I've been hearing nothing but raves about Anna. Well, I finally had the chance to dive into this popular book! I enjoyed this book but I wasn't blown away.

I loved Cas. His character seemed like someone I could be best friends with. He was a loner and sarcastic .. just like me! HA. He also was very caring and sweet, which isn't normal in guys these days. I did like how he made friends through out the book with an array of characters that you wouldn't have expected, like a cheerleader, a nerd and an old man! Now for Anna... Anna wasn't what I was expecting. I did like her but I was wanting more gore. I guess that would knock this book into an adult genre if that were the case. But I love a good murdering ghost story and there just wasn't enough of that for me. She seemed to give in to easily to Cas. Maybe that's just me but I was disappointed at the lack of "bitch" she had in her.

The ending caught me off guard. The ghost they all banded together to kill wasn't the ghost you would expect it to be. Although, it was nice to be surprised like that. There's a lot of books out there that you just know how it's going to end before you get half way done with it. Not this one.

If you enjoy ghosts and (slight) horror, then I would definitely recommend Anna Dressed in Blood. I enjoyed it enough that I need to read Girl of Nightmares so I can find out what happened!