Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake

August 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong…these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.

Review
Ahhhhhhh!  I am so incoherently happy to have this in my hands!  Anna Dressed in Blood was one of my top books of 2011, and Girl of Nightmares was one of my most anticipated sequels (right up there with Insurgent)! I was not disappointed either! Not only is Kendare Blake an awesome person in real life, she’s an excellent writer. Cas Lowood couldn’t have let me down if he tried, and he is in amazing form in the beginning of this book, despite still being distraught over the loss of Anna.  I think we’re all curious to know how this plays out, and I have a feeling it will be bittersweet.  This is the last novel according to Blake’s twitter, so savor it while you can! Cas did manage to annoy me with his “I’m going to keep my hallucinations a secret” buisness, but what bugged me more was how cryptic all the adults were. You let this teenager go out and kill ghosts that could murder him horrifically, but you won’t help him with Anna? That’s ridiculous! Who are these people anyway?

I love Thomas and Carmel. They are perfect two-dimensional friends for Cas. They’re so different and they give up a lot, but they remain who they are throughout. The love story between Thomas and Carmel seemed doomed from the start, at least to me. The popular girls and the weird loner? But this novel doesn’t focus on their relationship, because it’s so easy between them all (though Carmel understandably is having some doubts). What really made me happy was Anna. Just seeing her again made me want to cry.  I love Anna.  I want them to save her, but really, how many ways can this story end, you know?  (No spoiler, just musing.)  I liked how Carmel provided relevant counter-arguments to Cas’s search, even if I didn’t agree with her.  I like that these friends don’t always agree, despite their easy camaraderie. Carmel fucks up, though, and hard. I won’t spoil it, but some of her decisions in this novel made me sad. And mad.  Very, very mad.

We meet someone new, Jestine, but I won’t go into details since she brings the spoilers with her. There’s a ton of creepy, terrifying adventure in the second half of this one, and I loved the journey the friends took, physically and emotionally. I wish we’d seen more of Anna, but I really believe that the first book was Anna’s story, while this one really belonged to Cas. It’s his time for discovery and growth, and he’s given a lot of opportunities for both.  The whole thing is a little bittersweet, because this is the last book, but I am so happy for the time I got to spend in Thunder Bay with Anna, Cas, Carmel, and Thomas.

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Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (II)

December 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Release Date: August 30, 20011
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Library
Rating: ★★★★☆
Buy It: Amazon
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.

Review
A double review! Tina recommended this book, forever ago. And I’ve had it since then, I just haven’t had the time. However, I recently picked up this book and was sucked in. Much quicker than I thought I would be. I tend to have issues with male narrators. I’m not sure why, they just are generally not my cup of tea. But this one seems different. I was still sucked into the book, even with the male narrator. I enjoyed how Cas handled the situation he was dealt. Many wouldn’t have handled it well. I’m not sure I could have handled it well.

Here’s the thing, Cas sees dead people. His father before him did, and died at the hands of one. Cas wants to avenge his death and he knows he isn’t strong enough until he fights Anna. Anna Dressed In Blood as she is known to the local community and to Cas. Anna’s viscous. Everyone knows she is and yet people still go to her old house to party. Even though she haunts it. But that is considered old folklore.

Cas knows different. He knows she haunts it for real and will continue to mess with anyone who crosses her path.

Cas also wants no friends. That’s a lie, he wants them, he just doesn’t have time for them. He moves with his mom too often. Then he comes to Thunder Bay, Canada and zeros out the popular girl, Carmel. He likes to use them. He doesn’t mean to but the popular people know the local gossip the best. And that’s the thing, Carmel does. But at the same time Cas stops using her and slowly they become friends, even if it’s the last thing that they want from each other.

There is also Thomas. Thomas is the town weirdo, loner. He’s like that for a reason. He can read minds. Doesn’t exactly make him popular with people. Even if they don’t know, he still carries that weird stigma with him. The thing is Thomas is helpful. Thomas’ grandfather knows things, and on top of knows. Thomas knows that Cas sees dead people. Even without being able to read his mind, Thomas knew. Thomas just knows things.

Thomas and Carmel become involved, even though they never really asked to be part of this. There is a bond between these three, and by the end they all understand each other and become a group that they never wanted to be nor never set out to be.

There is a flashback scene with the group and Anna and my heart goes out for Anna. I felt for her in a previous scene, but after that flashback scene I wanted to climb into the book, hug her and tell her everything would sooner or later be okay.

Plus, you know what else is awesome about this book. The popular culture references. Ghostbusters anyone?

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Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

September 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Release Date: August 30, 2011
Source: Digital Copy
Rating: ★★★★★
Buy It: Amazon
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.

Review
Read this book right now!  Seriously, stop reading this review and buy this book!  RIGHT NOW!  God, I loved this book.  Cas reminds me of Ethan Wate, but I think I say that about every male narrator in YA.  Ethan Wate is the best, but Cas Lowood is pretty amazing too.  We start off with Cas killing a long-dead greaser who was beat up and killed for his money a few decades ago.  We’re in Cas’s head the whole time, and what a head it is.  He’s not whiny or annoying, and the first person POV didn’t make me want to murder everyone within eyeshot.  Not a single person in this novel is Too Dumb to Live, other than all the people who are murdered, of course.  Plus there’s a black cat, and anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE black cats (especially my boy, Yoshi).

Cas and his mother move around a lot, especially after his father is killed.  They receive tips from Cas’s sources and move to the location to kill the ghost.  Cas only kills ghosts that kill other people, not ghost who just harmlessly haunt.  When they get to town, Cas immediately zeroes in on the popular girls, namely one Carmel Jones.  He attends a party with her and her jock/cheerleader friends and gets them to tell him stories about local ghosts.  This is when Cas first meets Anna.

Anna is terrifying and beautiful at once.  She changes forms when she angry, and Cas calls her the Goddess of Death.  She kills one guy that night, but not Cas, who she just tosses out the front door.  Cas has also met Thomas, a psychic, at this point, and soon Cas, Carmel, and Thomas are working together to try to figure out how to kill Anna.  While they’re doing this, Cas starts visiting Anna and grows more and more attached to her.

This story is truly original, I thought, and a really fast read.  I don’t recommend reading this book alone at night, because I did that and it terrified me, even though I live in a house built after 1960.  This book also lives up to its horror label, and there is talk of blood, guts, and missing eyeballs.  It can be gross, but this is not about gore.  The story that’s weaved underneath all the scary stuff is truly awesome and Blake fleshes out the three main characters while keeping Cas as the narrator.  That is something that a lot of authors have trouble with, but Blake pulls it off perfectly.

Go out and get this one ASAP!

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