Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Description:


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. 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: 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.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

Epic Wins:

• Anna- Can I just say this? COOLEST.GHOST.EVER. She is complex and had to deal with some MAJOR issues. I think what I liked best about Anna was she was tough and could hold her own.   
• Cas- His personality, what loomed in his past , and his um er past time(?) pulled me in. I loved the layers Blake created with him. 
• Blake has some kind of magic when it comes to creating clear characters. All the characters had distinct personalities and pasts.  
• This book was horror in it's prettiest dress.A dress mind you that dripped blood. Also included is a haunting basement filled to the brim with death.  Horror? Check! Check! Check!
• Thomas- The Nerdy sidekick who may or may not know what you are thinking. He was slightly awkward but in an adorable way. I am fairly sure he was my favorite character. 
• The writing is part brilliant and part beautiful. Every description, every word, every line it all came together to make a crazy brain-hacking effect. 
• The Messege(s)- You don't HAVE to fight alone, Sometimes what your are looking for is right in front of you, and Yes door's close but sometime those same doors open back up.
• The creepy factor- I love when books make you FEEL. This book has an intense way of making you feel like you are going to find a ghost hiding in your closet. 
• This book had me up late into the night and up at the earliest hours. I still think about its powerful story , so much in fact that it has hurtled me into a book coma. 

Epic Fails:

• All I will say on the matter is that I hope there is a second book because that ending was WAY intense. 

Overall:

Horror + Murder + Love + Magic + Ghost busters (er I mean hunters) = A book you can't avoid being sucked into. You might as well do yourself a favor and read it now. 

just sayin,

-Kare