review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

pub date: August 30, 2011
publisher: Tor Teen
pages: 316
appeals: horror, male protagonist, friendship, ghosts
content: swearing (including a few f-bombs), gruesome dead people, intense scenes

thoughts:
For a while now I've struggled getting onto books. And I don't think it's always the book. I think it's me. What is wrong with me? I don't know, but I suppose that is for a different post, not this one.

As I mentioned above, this is one of the books I struggled getting into. I think part of it was because I had so much going on and was also reading two other books at the same time. Whatever the reason, I don't really think it was the story itself, and once I got to about page 80, I was hooked. And once I reached the end, I was so bummed I had to wait until August to get the next installment of the story. I wanted more. Series books kill me sometimes.

This was a really well written book, populated by great, realistic, charismatic characters that I really liked. What I really enjoyed was the ghost lore. And Anna Dressed in Blood and her creepiness. And the surprises in the plot and the very cool and suspenseful ending. Especially the ending. The romance was a little blah, but I like romantic romance in my books and this didn't get all that romantic, so it's just me.

So, that was really vague. Kind of useless, too. But I read this book a few months ago and all I got left is vague. But since I wrote this review, I'm going to post it anyway. Enjoy!

summary:
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.