Anna Dressed In Blood

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Date: August 30, 2011
Rating: 3 Stars

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.-GoodReads

I usually don't read ghost stories but I read Graveminder and I've been rewatching seasons 1 and 2 of Supernatural so I felt in the mood to read Anna Dressed in Blood. I was actually really looking forward to reading this book, but I was kind of disappointed. I was hoping to read a book that was kind of like Supernatural. You know, with a guy traveling around killing ghosts, but the romance kind of killed it for me. It just seemed out of place, I think it could have waited for a later book when the author develops their relationship more. On the plus side there was quite a few gross descriptions thrown in there, so that made it feel more like a horror book.

The characters were ok, not boring or annoying but I didn't feel a connection to Cas or any of the other side characters. There just wasn't any spark. Nevertheless, I will say that Anna was pretty darn cool. She kicked butt. I loved the last battle scene, it was awesome!

I felt like the main villain was rushed. You find out about him half way through the book and then the conclusion just seemed rushed. And can I say I hate Voodoo. Even The Princess and the Frog creeps me out. I just don't like it.

The writing style was good and the story was fine, but at times I think it lacked believability. Overall, it was okay read, I'll probably read the sequel eventually but the book wasn't as good as I had hoped.