Review: Anna Dressed In Blood By Kendare Blake (Anna #1)

Title: Anna Dressed In Blood (Anna #1)

Author: Kendare Blake

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Teen

Synopsis/Summary: 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.

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     Anna Dressed In Blood is probably a perfect story to get into the Halloween mood. It had scary ghosts and a hero to save the day.

    The plot is well-planned. With some foreshadowing in the front, which sprang into a full-on climax in later part of the story. I love that kind of layout, that way I don't feel like I am being thrust into events after events just so the author can fill his/her book. The foreshadowing might not help me to prepare what was coming, but the show of planning that counts ;)

    This book is also pretty fast-paced. The story progressed way further than I expected, I actually thought some plots will be dragged to the next book in the series, but it hadn't. I like that, Blake didn't leave me hanging after reading this book, she gave me a sad and tragic closure, and I am very satisfied.

    Also, this is one of the recent books that the plot twists are surprising enough. Okay, technically, only one plot twist in this book managed to knock my socks off and have me shivering from the creepiness of it. But at least I know where the plot twist is! Some other books, if you have read some of my reviews, you will find that I often complain that a book lacked a shocking plot twist, but Anna Dressed In Blood delivered even that to me. How can I not love this book?

    The whole ghost-hunter concept might not be the most original one, but I like it. I like the alterations the Blake did too, like you have to kill the ghost again to banish it forever, it makes much more sense than sucking it into a vacuum :P I also like the setting in Thunder Bay. It sounded like a beautiful town with yellow and orange leaves piling up on the floor by Autumn, which was not at all what we had in Hong Kong, I would love to go there someday (And, I want to know if Anna's house does exist) :)

    Oh, I love the characters of this book, well, all except for a few d-bag that died along the story.

    Cas was so much fun to read. His no-nonsense tone with the occasional jokes are what I liked about the story. He was a good guy, a little too isolated maybe, but I am glad he changed throughout the story. He is also pretty protective of his loved ones, but I guess that's what happens when you lose your dad, you don't really want to lose anyone again, and I like him for it.

   Ah, Anna, I love her so much! So is strong yet fragile, and she can kick Cas' butt if she want ;) Anna had a tragic past, it was horrible what happened to her and I really felt for her. I do think she talked a bit too modern for her time of death. She didn't exactly say any slang or show any signs of knowing any pop culture references, but it's something about her tone that made me feel like she;s modern. Maybe she start up conversations before twisting people's head off :P Anyway, except for this minor complain, I love Anna!

    I would give this book 4.5 stars (round up to 5 stars). It's a very intriguing ghost story and is perfect for anyone looking for a ghost story. It's not very scary, there are some gruesome deaths, but other than that, it's actually more of a paranormal book than a horror book. I would recommend this to all YA readers or fans of paranormal stories, it's a light read with a very lovable ghost and ghost hunter, with the tragic ending, it will be sure to keep you interested for the less-than-enough 316 pages (I mean that I would want more Cas and Anna, not that the story didn't end well;) ).

I've been gushing about Anna Dressed In Blood for a few weeks now and the review's finally out! So, now's the perfect chance to tell me your opinion on the book. I know some of you don't think it was a good fit for you, and I wanna know why. So, tell me, what do you think about the book? Love it? Or hate it? What other good ghost story books are out there that you think I must read? Recommend some! Look forward to seeing you on the comments! ;)