Book Stats:
Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake
(Book 1 of Anna Series)
Pages: (Hardcover) 316
Publisher: MacMillan
Publication Date: 8/30/2011
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Goodreads 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.
Final Verdict:
This book never ceased to take me out of my comfort zone. I can't say the idea was fresh but the Kendare Blake's execution of it made it so as if it was a breakthrough from the unkown. I can't lie, the story is very weird to me. There's the whole deal of witches, "killing" ghosts and things that I would normally avoid. This puts a dent on things I've come to know about those type of stuff. Usually ghosts just walk right through you right? WRONG! It took me a while to warm up to the story but I was enthralled the moment I was done with Chapter One.
First of all, it was a breath of fresh air to read from a male's POV. It's not hard to relate as if he's a girl but you can still feel HIS thoughts. Even though this is told from Cas, most of the story does not actually pertain to him, it's mostly about Anna, just from his perspective.
I honestly didn't know what to think of the romantic aspect of the book when I first thought about reading it. Would it be so wrong to say I was interested? She's a dead girl after all... It would have been easy for the author to just lay an easy romantic plot out there and make it the main focus but no, it gradually builds up and it's the cherry on top of a fantastic journey of redemption, longing and darkness.
We're not children, neither of us. We don't believe in fairytales. And if we did, who would we be? Not Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. I slice murder victims' heads off and Anna stretches skin until it rips, she snaps bones like green branches into smaller and smaller pieces. We'd be the frickin dragon and the wicked fairy. I know that but I still have to tell her."It isn't fair"Anna's mouth twists into a smile. It should be bitter- it should be a sneer but it isn't."You know what you are, don't you?" she asks. "You're my salvation. My way to atone. To pay for everything I've done."
I almost shed a tear or two over that! It's heartbreaking and I can't but agree that it isn't fair. The characters have dark stories that they each bear and it wasn't hard to gradually like them for them despite the very weird circumstances. For one, Cas is alive and Anna is dead.
I don't like cliche's but for this one it worked out. People from different "social statuses" coming out to tackle a single purpose. It developed a nice bonding between unexpected friends which is exactly what Cas needed. So as for sub-characters, they we're likeable.
The book did slow down for me at some parts that I didn't pick up the book to continue for a little while but I did finish it with satisfaction. I definitely liked this enough to anticipate it's sequel, Girl Of Nightmares.
This book never ceased to take me out of my comfort zone. I can't say the idea was fresh but the Kendare Blake's execution of it made it so as if it was a breakthrough from the unkown. I can't lie, the story is very weird to me. There's the whole deal of witches, "killing" ghosts and things that I would normally avoid. This puts a dent on things I've come to know about those type of stuff. Usually ghosts just walk right through you right? WRONG! It took me a while to warm up to the story but I was enthralled the moment I was done with Chapter One.
First of all, it was a breath of fresh air to read from a male's POV. It's not hard to relate as if he's a girl but you can still feel HIS thoughts. Even though this is told from Cas, most of the story does not actually pertain to him, it's mostly about Anna, just from his perspective.
I honestly didn't know what to think of the romantic aspect of the book when I first thought about reading it. Would it be so wrong to say I was interested? She's a dead girl after all... It would have been easy for the author to just lay an easy romantic plot out there and make it the main focus but no, it gradually builds up and it's the cherry on top of a fantastic journey of redemption, longing and darkness.
We're not children, neither of us. We don't believe in fairytales. And if we did, who would we be? Not Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. I slice murder victims' heads off and Anna stretches skin until it rips, she snaps bones like green branches into smaller and smaller pieces. We'd be the frickin dragon and the wicked fairy. I know that but I still have to tell her."It isn't fair"Anna's mouth twists into a smile. It should be bitter- it should be a sneer but it isn't."You know what you are, don't you?" she asks. "You're my salvation. My way to atone. To pay for everything I've done."
I almost shed a tear or two over that! It's heartbreaking and I can't but agree that it isn't fair. The characters have dark stories that they each bear and it wasn't hard to gradually like them for them despite the very weird circumstances. For one, Cas is alive and Anna is dead.
I don't like cliche's but for this one it worked out. People from different "social statuses" coming out to tackle a single purpose. It developed a nice bonding between unexpected friends which is exactly what Cas needed. So as for sub-characters, they we're likeable.
The book did slow down for me at some parts that I didn't pick up the book to continue for a little while but I did finish it with satisfaction. I definitely liked this enough to anticipate it's sequel, Girl Of Nightmares.
Rating:
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