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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

by:  Kendare Blake
published by:  Tor Teen
publish date:  August 30, 2011

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.

The comments I had heard on this book ranged from hilarious to horrifying, needless to say I was intrigued.  Plus, I really like ghost stories.  I was really excited to read this book.  I loved the title, I loved the cover, it was a great set up for a really spooky story.

Overall I was impressed.  It was a good, creepy ghost story.  There were parts of it that were shockingly violent and completely unexpected.  Some parts were a little cheesy and hokey, but when don't you see that in a horror novel?  The characters were entertaining, but I wish more was explained about the cat, perhaps in later books. 

The one thing about this book that had me a little spooked was that Cas's dad was killed in a house in Baton Rouge.  The whole time I was reading the book I kept wondering why the author picked Baton Rouge.  Why not New Orleans?  There's more voodoo in New Orleans I'm sure and I don't work in New Orleans.  Just sayin!  I don't want to be thinking about man-eating, voodoo ghosties while I'm driving around.

Moving along...I saw that the cover for the next book has been revealed, but no release date



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