Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake is a YA Horror story of a ghost slayer and his encounter with a rather mysterious killer.

“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. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: 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.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.“

The concept of this book was very interesting. A ghost that doesn’t want to kill, but does anyway and a ghost slayer who wonders about the girl’s past.

As I was listening to the story unfold, I couldn’t help but empathize with the gruesome ghost. We slowly learn about her past and the victimization she endured in the 1950s. The mystery drives you to keep listening.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. I wasn’t a huge fan of the male narrator’s voice when he was portraying Anna as it distracted me from the content with it’s comedic style.

This is definitely more on the moderately gory side of horror with a few minor spooky parts. I wouldn’t say that I was overly scared while listening to this book, but it is a great start to the fall season.

I enjoyed Anna and Cas’s relationship and how they were able to uncover her death. You could tell that there was a connection between them that would later blossom out, and his trust for her is rather unheard of in his line of work.

Overall, I didn’t overly enjoy it, but it wasn’t a boring read. I wasn’t a huge fan of the audiobook, so it would be interesting to compare my thoughts if I were to read it physically instead. The ending was climatic, and you could tell that there was going to be a continuation in the series.

Published: 17 October 2011

Publisher: Tor Teen

Genre: Young Adult Horror

Pages: 316

How I Read It: Audiobook from Library

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