THIS IS AN ALLISON REVIEW <3
“Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story.”
This is the tagline for Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. Maybe it’s because I don’t really have much experience with ‘boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people’ type of stories but honestly I didn’t find ANYTHING average about it. The prose is exquisitely beautiful and pulled me right in from the beginning and if that wasn’t enough the imagery in this book is to die for. Literally. There were so many scenes where I literally felt like I was being scared to death by the vivid and gruesome imagery that was being presented to me on the page. And you know what? It was awesome!
Anna Dressed In Blood
In Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas Lowood is a seventeen year old who kills the dead with a magic athame just as his father did before him. He travels from town to town with his mother getting different assignments and working to help murderous ghosts cross over by killing them. In his current assignment, he’s faced with the task of killing Anna, a sixteen year old homicidal ghost who was murdered more than 60 years ago. Yet once he comes face to face with Anna he realizes that things are not necessarily as they appear.
Why aren’t things the way that appear? Well first of all there is Anna. Anna is not your typical homicidal ghost at all (if there is such a typical thing as a homicidal ghost). She has a secret – a pretty large secret – which explains why she has never been able to cross over and why she has become the type of person she has become since her death. It also explains why her killer was never caught. Through the lens, you are really able to empathize with Anna. I felt so bad for what had happened to her! It’s truly awful but, it makes for a really good story all at the same time. It also makes her connection with Cas even more heartbreaking.
Cas isn’t directly sure what attracts him or connects him to Anna but, he knows that whatever is happening is causing a real strain on his relationship with his work. Ever since he took over from his father, he has followed the rules to the best of his ability. He gets an assignment, finds the ghost, and kills the ghost. There are never any strings and there are never any reasons for him and his mother not to move along to the next town … at least until this point in his life. Now he actually makes new friends and actually struggles with is assignment to kill Anna. It is interesting to watch Cas’s journey as he is introduced as a pompous ghost-killing jerk and becomes someone with compassion and understanding and who has to make one of the hardest decision of his life.
When Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake wasn’t making my stomach turn, my eyes close, or my hands shake in anticipation, it was making me ask a lot of questions. Some of these questions were answered by the end of the book but, others were not which disappointed me. That is until I realized that there was going to be a sequel to the story which comes out this summer! The sequel is called Girl of Nightmares, and I for one cannot wait to see what Anna, Cas, and the rest of the ‘ghost busters’ crew have in store for us next.
Disclosure: Borrowed from local library. HOLLA!
Other reviews of Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake:
Tripping Books
Bookworm1858
One More Page
ReutReads
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Wow-that is such a good review! If I hadn’t already read this, it would definitely spur me to pick it up with its tantalizing teases about the contents of this book.
Sounds awesome! There’s a show on the CW network called Supernatural and I gotta say, it sure sounds like the author is a fan of it! But that’s okay, because I’m one too. Can’t wait to read this!
Wow! Nice review! I’m not usually a fan of scary-type stories but I have been looking for something sort of creepy to read, and this sounds perfect! Thanks!
This is a fantastic review, Allison! I haven’t read but one review before this one (just the other day) and it prompted my interest in this book, but yours has absolutely SOLIDIFIED it. I’m boldly saying that you’ve just moved this WAY up my TBR. I was initially a little creeped out by this book, but you make it sound not over-the-top scary but like a story with substance overlaying a little bit of a creep-factor, which I can totally do. Thanks for a GREAT write-up! Love it!
(I’ll probably wait until the sequel comes out so I can read them back-to-back, because I love to be able to do that if I’ve waited this long.)
What? You don’t read lots of Boy-Meets-Girl,Girl-Kills-People books? Oh man, that’s all I read *lol*
But really – this is an excellent review! I absolutely loved every page of this book (and I’m a wimp, I don’t like scary things!) But I just HAD to know what was coming next.
-Jac @ For Love and Books
I really need to read this asap! It sounds like a book that I will LOVE! Great review, Allison.
Great review. 😀
I pretty much felt like you did – I loved this book from the first page and had sooo many unanswered questions at the end. I am totally dying alive for the sequel!
I LOVED Anna Dressed in Blood! It reminded me so much of Supernatural, one of my favorite TV shows, with the demon killer traveling around from town to town, avoiding making connections with people that he intends to have last beyond the length of his assignment. Cas was a great character because, like you said, he grows. I liked his relationship with Anna, although sometimes it felt like things happened a little fast to me. But I can deal with that.
And was the bad guy not the CREEPIEST thing EVER?! Holy crap!
Great review, Allison! 🙂