Just your average “boy meets girl, girl kills people” story.
– From the Anna Dressed in Blood book trailer (see below)
Written by Kendare Blake
I must admit I was sucked into this book by the title and the cover, which were delightfully creepy. I even had to turn the book over when I put it by my bed to read. As a YA horror story it rocks!! Cas and his kitchen-witch mother and spooky little cat travel around the country chasing ghosts, which he has the ability to destroy. He meets his match with Anna and her very haunted house – Haunting of Hill House haunted. Anna has the power to tear Cas up, although for reasons later revealed she doesn’t. She does however, tear up the bully. I guess it is not very nice to root for the ghost who tears people in half. Anna will steal your heart (literally or figuratively). I just discovered there is a sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood called Girl of Nightmares. I will prepare for some more sleepless nights!
Review by Kaydean Judy, Granger High Media Center
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 stars)
Interest Level: Jr. High and High School
Kendare Blake – Official Website
Anna Dressed in Blood
Written by Kendare Blake
Tor
316 pages
Release Date: August 30, 2011
ISBN: 9780765328656 (hardcover)
Publisher’s Blurb
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.
Wow! That sounds really creepy!! I think I would have to not just turn the book over, but hide it under my mattress! There are a few kids here who LOVE scary books!! Can’t wait to tell them about this one!