Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder 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: move, 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, but now stained red and dripping 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.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.
I am not somebody who gets easily scared when I read books, unless they're zombie books. They scare me a lot. Ghost books, however, do not really scare me. That being said I would not recommend reading this book before you go to sleep because it may start out slow and seem like it isn't scary, but by the end of this book Anna and the bad guy had me shaking with fear. So yeah, this is pretty terrifying at times. Don't let that put you off though, Anna Dressed in Blood was one of the best paranormal YAs I have read in a very long time.
This book is so original because despite being a paranormal love story between a living guy and a dead girl it has the added bonus of the dead girl being tied down by a curse that makes her want to brutally murder anything that moves. Yes, pretty cool. I loved Anna as a character because she was so evil and wrathful but underneath it all you can see her as the innocent girl that she was before everything kicked off. I also loved Cas and his superstitious mother, Cas was such a strong character, I adored him! The backing characters were also good, Cas and his team of 'ghostbusters' Carmel and Thomas were so funny. I loved watching things develop between Carmel and Thomas and that's part of the reason I will be reading Girl of Nightmares.
I have been dying to read this book for a long time and when I read it I was not dissapointed. this book had amazing writing, fantastic pacing, amazing action and a sweet and kind of messed-up romance. The ending blew me away and I cannot wait to read the sequel.
Wow. That just about sums this book up. Wow.
Overall Rating: A+
Book released August 30th 2011 by Tor Teen (US)
The edition I read was released July 5th 2012 by Orchard books (UK)
Book received via a swap.
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