Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Overall story arc:

Ghost Story. Our main character, Cas, is a seventeen-year-old ghost slayer just like his father... only he was brutally murdered when he was seven. Mother is a white witch. They move around a lot. Cas never bothers to make friends because they always relocate after Cas kills the ghost he came to kill and he simply think its not worth it.
In this new town, however, Cas ends with more than he bargained for. Friends, Anna, a couple murders and his father's killer.

It was exciting and dramatic. The human part of this story was actually more worrisome than the ghosts. We end up discovering how Anna died and who killed her. Some guys Cas knows from school try to kill him a couple times.

It is actually a pretty horrific picture of humanity. I gotta say that a guy trying to kill another because of a girl is f***ing idiotic. Then the guy gets killed by a ghost and of course his friends blame Cas. The victim. Like I said, idiotic.

Romance:

I've read maybe two other books about ghosts. They always end up making one of the ghosts being a love interest for the main character and it's precisely what happens here. Surprisingly though, it works great because Anna, our ghost, actually starts the story as a horrible girl who literally kills everyone who meets her and our protagonist, Cas, is a ghost slayer. Their first interaction is him ending up in her house wounded and her killing the guy who hurt him. Their second interaction is when he returns to the house and tries to kill her. You can imagine how that goes! She's stronger than any ghost he has ever met before and she kicks his ass but doesn't kill him. This sparks his curiosity and he just can't keep himself away from her.

It's cute to see the little details that show their love growing. The author didn't made it obvious instead opting for a subtle approach. It develops slowly and gets under your skin before you realize it even though you know Anna is dead for more than fifty years and they can't really be together. It was soft and sweet. More so when Cas confronts his father's killer and Anna sacrifices herself to save him.





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