Review of Anna Dressed in Blood

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Genre: Young Adult paranormal fiction
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication date: August 30th, 2011

I don't read a whole lot of paranormal fiction, and ghosts are not my thing. Something else that's not my thing: buying hardcovers. However, when I heard all the raves about ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, I threw all my "usuallys" out the window and bought it.

Holy crap.

So, if you are squeamish about corpses, ghosts dripping blood, ghosts with no eyes, basements full of dead bodies, etc, then this book is going to FREAK YOU OUT. In a kind of awesome way.

If you are a fan of badass male narrators, aloof cats, mean girls who are actually nice, and homicidal spirits, then you should go buy this book.

Cas is a ghost hunter, just like his father was. He spends a few months here and few months there, following the call of the kill. He moves to a small town in Canada for his senior year of high school, because the town is haunted by an especially prolific murderer: Anna Dressed in Blood, a young girl who was killed several decades ago. Everything seems to be going as normal until Cas actually meets Anna--and discovers that, for the first time, he is in over his head.

It's rare that I ever identify with a male narrator in YA. Cas is one of the few that I almost understand. He's angry. He's isolated. He doesn't know how to relate to people his own age after everything he's seen. And like Cassel Sharpe in Holly Black's WHITE CAT, he is still coming of age despite missing out on his childhood.

Although the plot is well-developed and interesting, the character development is what I love most about ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD. I can't wait for the second book, which is due out at the end of next year.