Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Anna, #1
Length: 320 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]
Synopsis:
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.
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.
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Before I go straight into the review for this book, I just have to say that it was just amazing to read this book. It was just so much better than I would have expected before going into it.
Why?
I have always been interested in the paranormal world. I love hearing stories about ghosts and anything related. When this book came across my attention, it immediately grabbed my attention. A story about a ghost? Not just an ordinary ghost, but a super killer ghost? And that someone comes and try to finish them off, but for some reason he his spared? I was hooked immediately.
What I Liked About It?
Everything. When I read the synopsis, I was afraid of how this book was going to turn out. When I learned that the main character would be spared, I was afraid his character would change immediately and start wondering why he was spared. I was hoping that he wouldn't go back and just keep asking why he was spared, what was the difference. Instead, he opened the books on how to defeat Anna Dressed in Blood instead, even going back and asking what's giving her the power. (I would have guessed that no ghost would reveal how they died and what is giving them their powers if nobody knew it.)
The one thing I thought was different was the romance. I thought that when the main character was spared, he would go back and ask why, and they would just talk to each other and love would just come flying in right away. However, I was completely wrong. Obviously the romance was there, but you could feel that the speed of it was slow and progressive and didn't appear right away. There could have been hints dropped at some point, but as a new reader to this book, it didn't appear until the third quarter of the book. At the time, it just felt right.
All the characters are just lovable and amazing. Each and every character had a build-up from the beginning and you can see the progress that they each made from the beginning of the book to the end. The character building was just on point. Nothing was to jumpy for any of the characters.
Was there anything I didn't like or would suggest changing?
There was nothing that I didn't like, but I would have hoped that some scenes would have had more background details to. One of them being how his father and ancestors came to be with the weapon. I just wanted a little bit more history behind his weapon. There was another scene where I hoped to see more of the main character's logical thinking as why he did something (that was important) instead of just knowing he had to do it.
Overall, if I could, I'd give it a ton of more stars. Reading this book has made me wanting to read more paranormal and (slight) horror genres. If anyone wanted a simple paranormal and horror book, I would recommend them this book. Although I would warn them that there are slight gore described.
Before I go straight into the review for this book, I just have to say that it was just amazing to read this book. It was just so much better than I would have expected before going into it.
Why?
I have always been interested in the paranormal world. I love hearing stories about ghosts and anything related. When this book came across my attention, it immediately grabbed my attention. A story about a ghost? Not just an ordinary ghost, but a super killer ghost? And that someone comes and try to finish them off, but for some reason he his spared? I was hooked immediately.
What I Liked About It?
Everything. When I read the synopsis, I was afraid of how this book was going to turn out. When I learned that the main character would be spared, I was afraid his character would change immediately and start wondering why he was spared. I was hoping that he wouldn't go back and just keep asking why he was spared, what was the difference. Instead, he opened the books on how to defeat Anna Dressed in Blood instead, even going back and asking what's giving her the power. (I would have guessed that no ghost would reveal how they died and what is giving them their powers if nobody knew it.)
The one thing I thought was different was the romance. I thought that when the main character was spared, he would go back and ask why, and they would just talk to each other and love would just come flying in right away. However, I was completely wrong. Obviously the romance was there, but you could feel that the speed of it was slow and progressive and didn't appear right away. There could have been hints dropped at some point, but as a new reader to this book, it didn't appear until the third quarter of the book. At the time, it just felt right.
All the characters are just lovable and amazing. Each and every character had a build-up from the beginning and you can see the progress that they each made from the beginning of the book to the end. The character building was just on point. Nothing was to jumpy for any of the characters.
Was there anything I didn't like or would suggest changing?
There was nothing that I didn't like, but I would have hoped that some scenes would have had more background details to. One of them being how his father and ancestors came to be with the weapon. I just wanted a little bit more history behind his weapon. There was another scene where I hoped to see more of the main character's logical thinking as why he did something (that was important) instead of just knowing he had to do it.
Overall, if I could, I'd give it a ton of more stars. Reading this book has made me wanting to read more paranormal and (slight) horror genres. If anyone wanted a simple paranormal and horror book, I would recommend them this book. Although I would warn them that there are slight gore described.
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