Note: I read and reviewed this book around a year ago November. It’s possible (but not so likely) that my opinions may have changed, I don’t remember much of the details.
Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake
YA Horror
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered 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. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, 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, now stained red and dripping with 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.
Yet she spares Cas’s life.
I don’t think I’ve ever read an actual horror book before this (not counting childrens, Goosebumps types). I don’t think I ever stopped thinking Cas was a mini Wincester in training. Plus the name works. I’ve decided I like some horror—just not zombies and most vampires (how are zombies even supposed to walk? You’d have to have some very fresh corpses, but even then).
It was a nice change of pace from my usual fantasy. Minor spoiler (higlight to see) I appreciated how Anna really tried to fight the violence. The somewhat awkward friendships were great.
I felt the romance could have been better. It made sense and you knew it was going to happen, but it touching the line of insta-love. And Cas’s dirty mouth. Not great that.
As I said above, Cas made me think of a Winchester, which was cool. His disconnect from normal life and its concerns was interesting —it makes sense. I liked Anna, her determination was impressive. Thomas, Carmel, and Mrs. Loglow (or something like that) were really great friends/parent (my friends and family would not just go with it).
- Being that this a horror book, so obviously there’s gore —someone gets torn in half while alive, a neck is snapped, throat slit, and more than a few are eaten alive (it doesn’t actually show anyone eaten, just the leftovers).
- Teenagers kiss and assumptions are made about different gender friendships. A girl is molested by her mother’s fiancee.
- Cas is often scolded by adults for his language (unfortunately, only the major words).
- They go to a high school party and drink—they don’t get drunk.
- This book puts a high focus on black magic and witchcraft (both ‘good’ and bad).
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Summary
- Cas made me think of a mini Winchester.
- It was a nice change of pace from my usual fantasy.
- Romance was a little too close to insta-love.
- Not a light, happy, read-to-your-younger-family-members kind of book.
Similar Books
(I haven’t read any of the Supernatural books, so I don’t know if they’re any good)
387 pgs.
Tor Teen
Oct. 2011
Anna #1
So, I write books. The Anna Dressed in Blood duo is horror, The Goddess War trilogy is mythology, and Sleepwalk Society is contemporary, because the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some. Love to read, too. Fiction, philosophy, good books, bad books, because you take the good you take the bad you take them both and there you have a stack of books and stuff. I mean, you’ve got to be adventurous. There’s more to life that what you’re living, so take a chance and face the wind.
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