Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare BlakeUK Release Date:
By: Orchard Books
ISBN: 140832072X
Source: Hachette Children's Publishing
Target Audience: YA
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
I really enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood. I loved Kendare's way of providing all the back story information through snippets as we continued to move forward, rather than bombarding us with an information overload. She doesn't jump straight into the main story, but shows us the protag, Cas, in action on a preceding ghost hunt.
This story is told from the POV of Cas, a 17 year old ghost hunter. Anna dressed in blood is the ghost of a 16 year old girl who was murdered about 60 years ago. She haunts her family home, viciously murdering anyone who dares to enter, be that new tenants, realtors or homeless people just looking for shelter for the night. Until one night, as part of a prank, Cas ends up inside the house, and she doesn't kill him. He feels drawn to her and goes back to the house alone, where he meets the girl behind the monster.
Cas is a nice guy with an unusual life and job. Normally working alone and never making friends. This time is different. He makes some good friends which gives us some really good secondary characters to make this story all the more absorbing. Reading from the male POV is a rare treat and Cas certainly doesn't disappoint. He's a real "guy", and it was fun to watch him be the last to realise his feelings for Anna.
Cas, Thomas, the school nerd and Carmel, the most popular girl in school, make up an unlikely threesome of friends but they make an awesome group of ghostbusters, with the help of Cas's mother and Thomas' grandfather, who are both witches.
This was a fun read and did get a bit gruesome at times but I would definitely recommend it and look forward to reading the next in the series, The Girl of Nightmares.
Buy the book: Amazon/The Book Depository
