Review--Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

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.

Finally read Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood and it was fabulous! I was first worried that this "blood red" text would irritate my eyes, but the red was actually pretty dark. Which was nice and did give it the nice "bloody" effect! 

The male protagonist was somewhat new to me, only read a few books with that, but it was still fun and entertaining! Cas is a teenage ghost hunter and he is pretty fierce himself. He is determined to kill as many ghosts as possible and then go after the one who murdered his father. Anna Dressed in Blood is just another number for him. Until he actually sees/meets her.

When Cas sees her for the first time, he is surprised when she doesn't kill him. She's been known to kill EVERYONE who has stepped foot into her house. Yet she spares Cas. And Cas wonders why.

With his motley crew, consisting of the Prom Queen, Carmel and the quiet nerdy, yet psychic Thomas, they are determined to put an end to Anna's reign. But there is just something about Anna that causes Cas to hesitate and he never hesitates when it comes to ghosts. Especially murderous ghosts. 

Cas and his new friends do a little digging into Anna's past to find out who she was, what happened to her and why she is on a murderous rampage with people who enter her house. What they discover will change the way Cas sees things when it comes to ghosts.

But that is only the beginning of his ghost issues, there seems to be another sector in town who is painting the town red.

I was truly surprised by how bloody the story was! I know everyone was saying the same thing, but you really can't believe it until you read it for yourself! And since I was reading it while home alone, it made for an even creepier read! Every time the house creaked I got a little jumpy! And I looked at our crawlspace entrance with wary eyes! It was a downright creepy read and I totally LOVED it!

Ghost stories are hard to come by, but I have been reading quite a few lately--Tara Hudson, as one of them--and Anna Dressed in Blood takes the ghost story to a whole new level. It was different because it wasn't a matter of a love story or trying to solve the ghost's murder. It was actually about a ghost murdering people--yet there's a whole other story behind that! Which was just shocking!

The pacing was done very very well! Cas moves to the new town and expects things to go like every other ghost hunt, yet he learns how wrong he is! It results into a thrill ride of a ghost story! Anna does have reasons for the way she is and I can feel confident in saying that you will not see it coming! I didn't! (But of course, I will believe someone if he/she said he/she saw this coming, if he/she tells me how he/she did at least!--yes I had to go the he/she route, I am an English major after all!)

Overall this was a highly enjoyable read! A nice dark, gritty and yes, BLOODY story! You gotta love the darker edge of YA sometimes! And Blake so fits the bill! I cannot wait to read the next book as this ones ends with a bit of cliffhanger--kind of, the ending at least leaves you screaming, WHY! Anna Dressed in Blood was, simply put, THRILLING!

Overall rating 5/5 stars