Title: Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)
Author: Kendare Blake [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Tor Teen
Series: Anna
Format: Print
Source: Purchased
Reviewer: Laura
Parental Advisory: blood, violence, death, abuse
Teachable Moments: religious freedom, good vs. evil

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy issues.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . .

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.

Opinion:
I sometimes, occasionally, every once in awhile—giggle, giggle—okay, okay…I fall for fictional characters a lot! This past year quite a few characters have swept through my heart and many more have remained there. But, once in a blue moon, I fall head over heels in love with an author! After reading Anna Dressed in Blood, I have the biggest crush on Kendare Blake!

This book had me at “hello”. The cover jumped right out and spoke to me. What a gorgeous introduction! Then as the pages turned taking me deeper into the tale, the language and words washed over me, formed and fell out of my mouth, and made me smile, laugh, jump, and swoon! The beautiful prose will pull you right into a breathtaking embrace causing tingles and chills up and down your spine!

Anna Dressed in Blood is a ghost story wrapped up with love, friends, family, scares, chills, blood, and voodoo!  A tale brimming with spookiness and dark beauty that made me sit up and yell–”What are you crazy?–Don’t go in there!” more than once. Is there anything better than a good old fashion dark, creepy, and creaky haunted house?  Every town has one or should!  Cas actually says it so much better:

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy issues.”

Theseus Cassio Lowood (Cas) is a hunter of evil, ghosts, and various big bads like his father before him. When we are introduced to Cas, he is set on killing Anna Korlov—Anna Dressed in Blood. Sounds like any other job on the surface, but nothing feels black and white on this one to Cas, which makes my heart very happy. Good vs. Evil should not be so clear cut. People and life do not work like that. Kendare Blake presents this struggle with such grace, beauty and pain. Can something made by evil be used for good? Can someone forced to do such evil make amends? Cas, Anna, and all the ghost busters will have to find out.

Cas and Anna could very well be the most adorable pair. When we first meet Cas, he possesses and portrays this just-swinging-through-town, cool as the other side of the pillow persona, but as the tale begins to come to light and friendships begin to form we see our hero’s heart. I loved the hands in his pockets, shuffling from foot to foot, blushing, tug on your heart Cassio that Anna brings out in him! It was done in such beautiful, subtle, flirty ways. I adored their time together.

I realize horror is not for every one, but the star of this show is Anna.  She is a strong, beautiful, deadly, mysterious young woman who stands up for herself and the people she cares about. If you are anything like me, constantly hoping and searching for a strong heroine, look no further than Anna.

Anna Dressed in Blood became one of my favorite reads this year. It had everything I needed—from the scares and love to the little things that spoke to me. Any book that quotes Back to the Future, uses the word wonky, and throws in a shout out for Peter Venkman has a permanent spot in my heart and book shelf to read again and again!

I can’t wait to dive into Kendare Blake’s world again.