Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake

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.



My Rating: 4.4/5
Genre: YA, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal (Ghosts), Romance

Ebook, 387 pages 
Published August 30th 2011 by Tor Teen



MY REVIEW:

“ I think of her again. Anna. Anna Dressed in Blood. I wonder what 

tricks she’ll try. I wonder if she’ll be clever. Will she float? Will she laugh or scream?How will she try to kill me? ”

 -

Theseus Cassio Lowood

First of all, I have to make a confession: When I started reading this book, I knew that there was a second one but I wasn't going to read it - my exact thoughts were " I am not going to ruin the possibly decent picture of this book by reading it's sequel, as it has already happened with the last books I've read". Yeah, wish I believed the same thing now. Having read the ending, I couldn't find the next one fast enough.

Anna Dressed in Blood was almost the perfect book for me - the "almost" part will be explained later. The writer, probably in a moment of sheer enlightenment, conjured a mixture of a horror story set in urban settings, with a funny lead character, a terrifying and lovable ghost, secondary characters you would want to hang out with, some unexpected plot twists and, guess what - a disarming ending! 

The setting was nothing special, but it had a creepy feel that was never absent. Luckily it was backstage enough to not be tiring at all. I enjoyed being in Cas's head, as he was the guy next door in combine with a kick-ass ghost hunter. I also liked the attachment between him and Anna, the way it was so so sad, so sweet and - sorry, Cas - so impossible for them to be together. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that Anna is awesome too - when she is not enraged, that is. 

Moving to the "almost" part... If I asked for characters that are a bit more developed... would it be too much? By all means, this book was more than ok, but if Cas, Carmel and Thomas where a bit more advanced, it would be PERFECT. 

!Spoiler Alert!

Other secondary facts I liked about this book are:

• One, Cas's relationship with his mom. There must be a YA rule out there, forcing the genre's writers to create characters that have shitty conditions back home. Well, I am so happy that Mrs Blake didn't go with the flow and she made me want to be potent with my mommy too, just like Cas is! 
• Two, NO high school drama here. Carmel, the prom queen, is beautiful, smart, humorous and can be a good friend. Also, she gradually falls in love with Thomas, the nerd who is not that much of a nerd after all.