Author: Kendare Blake
genre: horror, ya, ghosts
Story:
Cas took over his father's job after his death. Nothing unusual. Well, maybe except the fact that his father could kill what was already dead, and yet he was murdered by a ghost. Now, with the black knife in his hand and the blood running in his veins, Cas sends away from this world those souls stuck in it. He doesn't pretend he sends them to a better place, for he doesn't know. All he knows is that they don't belong here, they hurt the living, so they must go. Travelling with his mother from town to town, Cas receives a note for a particular ghost -the one of the murdered 16 years old Anna Korlov . Anna dressed in blood. Ghost more powerfull than anyone else Cas has ever encountered; if he can win against her, Cas is sure, he will be able to stand against his father's killer. And yet for a first time Cas isn't sure he will be able to win, for more causes than one.
After thoughts:
Anna dressed in blood was awesome. Truly awesome. I read it as an e-book back when I didn't have a more handy reading device, and I was glued for my laptop for hours. I just couldn't stop reading, and thanks goodness the second book wasn't out back then, or the heat of the machine on my lap would melt me.
We see the story from Cas' point of view, and author's decision is to tell it in present tense. I usually really dislike this, but this time, it felt just in the right place and helps the reader build his vision of Cas. He is a very calm, controled person, who would take his time, even if it's few months, to prepare, research and organize everything, before executing his plan to deal with the ghost. The way the story is delivered in those often short present tense sentenses, it's like you see how he registers every detail .
Cas does everything he deems needed to get the job done, whether this means getting on terms with the school queen bee, relying on some magic more black than white, or killing for a second time murder victims. He does feel sorry for them, but never lets this stop him. Even after addmitting for himself that he feels somewhat different for Anna, his decision to kill her remains.
Anna, on the other side, is not your good little Casper. She's kinda a bad ghost. Tearing up limbs, splitting people in too, keeping a house full of dead bodies, this kind of bad ghost. Yes, in the end she does it because of the madness of her curse, but still pretty creepy. And rather cool. I can't help but compare this book with the Replacement, as it was classified as a teen horror too, but in horror terms this is so much better.
There are some high school and teen party moments, but they were rather good. Nothing cheap or cheesy. The other almost-main characters, school's queen Carmel, attacking the ghost with a baseball batt, and the mind reading witch Thomas were also cuties, fresh and cool. And let's not forget Cas' mom, the white kitchen-witch
I said it, and I'll repeat it - the narration was really awesome and had a great impact on me. Following Cas' thoughts and changes was intriguing, and I thought it really cute how to the end of the book he started calling Anna "My Anna" .
So with no doubts, I give Anna 5 stars. I'm only sorry I can't make my best friend read this book. She's too scared to watch Ghost Whisperer and refused to listen to my babling for this book even before I get to the flesh eating ghosts and dead cats.
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Prompted by the October genre of the month, I was going through my horror TBRs for ideas and I stumbled on this old review of mine from 2012. I was so excited about the series back then, and right now, I am again riled up! I hope to read Queen of nightmares, the second book, soon. Have any of you read this duology? Any thoughts to share? I'd be so happy to hear them!
P.S. This is my first unofficial review posted here, so hope you like it!
