Published: 9/30/2011 by Tor Teen
From Goodreads:
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.
I thought:
Oh my gosh!!! Yeah, because of review deadlines and obligations- I JUST got around to reading Anna Dressed in Blood (this is why I’ve so allotted myself to read at least 2 books per month this year that I purchased myself AND took on some associate reviewers to help me out!! Shhhhyea I did!)
Anyway, the FIRST chapter… WOW! I was INSTANTLY sucked into Cas’s story! I’m talking completely and utterly captivated. Lord help anyone who bothered me while I was reading this book! And seriously, I have NEVER been the kind of chick to get into ‘ghost stories’ before, but Anna was absolutely AMAZING!!!!
“I don’t do what I do and receive accolades and keys to cities. I work in the dark, killing what should have stayed dead.” ~Cas
Cas isn’t your average teenager… He’s a ghost hunter. Traveling all over the country with his EPIC mother… Putting ghosts to rest, as is his legacy. His next ‘target’ is Anna… Who was brutally killed while on her way to a dance at school in the 1950′s. Story has it that when she was killed there was so much blood that it turned her white dress completely red! Therefore she’s called… Anna Dressed in Blood. RIGHT??? *chills*
This book is BRIMMING with one liners that make you seriously laugh out loud- while at the same time being totally goose-bump inducing and wicked freaking creepy!
“I can wrestle the dead all day long, but touch football might knock me unconscious.” ~Cas
Cas meets Thomas Sabin has to ‘think softly’ around him… Uh because he’s a telepath, duh! I nearly FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR laughing at ‘think softly’! I’m not even joking!
Example of EPIC mom-ness:
“My mom is there, chopping herbs for what might be dinner or might be one of her wide variety of magic spells. I see strawberry leaves and cinnamon. That’s either a love spell or the beginnings of a tart.”
We follow Cas and his band of ghostbusters (hehe) as he slowly comes to sort of care for Anna… And see her as much more than just a scary story or a monster that goes bump in the night that must be exterminated. Anna is different from any other ghost Cas has ever come in contact with… Stronger, smarter and seems to KNOW that what she’s doing is wrong.
… Oh my God. That is all I can or will say about WHAT transpires after or how Anna died. But- WOW. This book is SERIOUSLY, just WOW.
“We’d be the fricking dragon and the wicked fairy.”
“But all I get is blah blah, nod off, dead finger in my ear, snap awake. Then repeat.”
(this is perhaps the best line I’ve EVER read in my entire life. Just sayin.)
Anna Dressed in Blood scared the CRAP out of me! No joke. But it was also freaking HILARIOUS! The perfect blend of incredibly sweet romance, humor, snark AND it was completely terrifying! I LOVED every freaking SECOND of it! It was AMAZINGLY EPIC.
“I am not afraid. She’s with me. She’s my purpose and we’re going to save each other. We’re going to save everyone. And then I’m going to convince he to stay here. With me.”
All that being said, I’d just about sell my soul for a copy of Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2)… It doesn’t come out until AUGUST!!!! And Kendare Blake joins rank with only 4 other authors to have received an EPIC rating and CROWNED review from this Brunette!
Book loving, zombie freak, stiletto wearing, twitter whore, coffee addicted Brunette with a purse fetish.
Collector of flamingo paraphernalia & zombie keepsakes… Frequenter of thrift stores... cRaFtY bitch... and I match my eye-shadow to my outfit - everyday.