Book Review: Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

Published August 30th, 2011
Tor Teen
320 pages (Paperback)

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. (From Goodreads)

You know when you pick up a book and you really, really just want to fall in love with it, but can't?  That was Anna Dressed In Blood for me.

I'll give Kendare Blake points for originality.  The concept is super unique and unlike anything I have ever read.  I love a good ghost story too, and Anna definitely had the makings of that.

However, I found the characters to be really flat.  I couldn't relate to them and they were kind of boring.  They showed very little emotion.  Again, Anna was about the only character that I felt anything whatsoever for, and that is likely thanks to the whole dual personality-esqe thing she had going on.

I did enjoy the last about 20-ish pages.  That being said, I skimmed over entire chunks.  From what I did read, I was left with enough questions that I will likely give the sequel, Girl of Nightmares, a go.  Maybe.

Much love, Samantha