Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood
by  Kendare Blake
Date Read:  12/9/2012
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Wow. That was a great book. I went into this book not knowing exactly what to expect. I expected sorta scary. I expected a weird romance with a ghost. And I didn't expect to love the main character so much.

But everything I expected was wrong. I fell in love with Cas from the second page. His voice is very interesting. He's a 17 year old kid who kills ghosts...but hates being called a ghostbuster. =) There are several references that made me laugh pretty hard. He has a sense of humor about him too. His sense of humor kind of reminded me of that of Percy, from the Percy Jackson series. Obviously I love to read a personality like that, and he had it. I really liked him. A lot. And I liked getting to know his back story.

This book wasn't scary at all. It was pretty violent and graphic at times though. But hey, I watch CSI, and Bones, and Grey's Anatomy, so I see gross right in front of me. Reading about isn't as bad as that. But it wasn't scary at all. I'm not sure if that's what the author was going for or not. But it did keep you at the edge of your seat. But always kept giving enough information that you kept reading instead of focusing on not knowing everything that was going on.

And the romance wasn't nearly as prevalent as I thought. It slowly develops. You can tell that they start caring about each other. But this story wasn't really about the romance - it was about killing ghosts and in the end, saving Anna. And there just happened to be a romance that developed on the side.

Anna was a very interesting character. Obviously she is the ghost, and from the title, you know that she was brutaly murdered because she is dressed in blood. As her story unfolded, I got more and more attached to this dead girl. [SPOILER: I thought it was so interesting that she was concious that she is dead, and how she had the two different personalities. I feel so bad for her about what she went through, and her death was horrific. I almost felt myself having tears well up for her. And her mom bound her to the house?! ]

I even liked all the side characters. Overall this book had everything. Interesting characters, very interesting story, good plot, good writing, and a hint of romance. There are a couple questions I am still left with though after finishing this book. I'm not sure if maybe they'll be answered in the sequel - which I have already requested from my library! - or if I will be just left to question. I will put them in a spoiler, so I don't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't read this yet.

[SPOILER: I understand that the fact that her mother did that curse after she killed her is what bound her inside the house - the reason she could never leave. But I'm still not sure WHY she had to kill EVERYONE who came in the house? And why DIDN'T she have to kill Cas? Did I just miss this in the story - or were these questions just not really answered? Because when Cas broke the curse by giving her her dress back, it released her from everything. From the house. From the crazy ghost in the dress dripping with blood. From the killing. So I'm led to believe that somehow that curse is what caused her to have to kill everything. I know she got her power from the way she was killed, and part of that was the curse. But it wasn't explicity explained WHY she went into crazy ghost everytime anyone walked in the door. And more importantly, why she didn't go into crazy ghost when Cas came in. ]

The ending of this book was great. It was so tense I didn't know what was going to happen. This book kind of just ended. The cliffhanger occured, and done. Then we only got a 4 page epilouge. I would be very upset if I didn't know there was a sequel out! I think anyone who enjoys the paranormal genre should read this book. It was so much better than I expected, and I expected it to be good. This was the first book in a long time that really had me sucked in.