anna dressed in blood

anna dressed in blood
kendare blake
ya/horror/supernatural
tor teen publishing
published 2011

Cas has inherited the job, but don't call him a Ghostbuster.  After his father is murdered by a the ghost he was trying to kill Cas spends the next seven years training to take his place and wield the blade that has been used by his family for generations.  But there's something different about Anna.  Not only is she the most dangerous ghost he's faced, but she's killed the most people too.  However, that's not what's holding Cas back.  There's something about her that calls to him and now he's torn between doing what he knows what needs do and protecting this girl from himself.

Sounds corny, I know, but it was pretty damn good.

I can't remember the last movie that scared me as an adult.  Scary movies just aren't scary to me.  I've seen the Exorcist, The Shining, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Amnityville, etc. and most of them bored the heck out of me.  And modern horror movies.  Please.  Those are a joke.  Paranormal Activity only succeeded in pissing me off because I wasted all that time waiting for something to happen and then NOTHING!  I loved Saw, but it didn't scare me.  Same with The Ring, Let Me In, the first Scream & The Grudge.  Good movies, but they didn't scare me.  The Orphanage was one of the best movies I saw in a long time, but again, wasn't scary.

The movie that gave me the most nightmares?  Phantasm.  I saw about 3 minutes of it when I was little on accident when I woke up sick on night.  My sister and I watched The Pelican Brief and the scene where she's being chased into an elevator made us scream and climb up the sofa.  As a teenager my friend and I watched Candyman in the theater with my dad and uncle and then my dad scared the shit out of us when we got home.  The Orcs kind of creeped me out in Lord of the Rings.

The books that have scared me?  The Relic by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston & Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz.  Damn monkeys.

So I didn't really have high hopes for Anna Dressed in Blood.  I'd seen really positive reviews from book bloggers I follow, but I didn't think it would be that good.

But around the last 40 pages of the book things got creepy and I realized I'd need to finish the book or else lie awake for the rest of the night obsessing.  Blake does an awesome job of describing all the creepiness and gore without being overzealous.  The characters are funny, but real.  Good stuff people, good stuff.  My only gripe?  There's another book coming out around August.  Not everything needs to be a series.  But I'll read it anyway!