Sorry that these reviews are up a bit later, had a few wrinkles with my schedule this week and I doubt that I'll be able to get tomorrow's review up on time so I'm going to apologize for that in advance as well. Other than that, I read Anna Dressed in Blood within the past year and thought it was a good book even with I wasn't completely thrilled with the ending, partially since I wasn't sure if the book had a sequel. As it turns out, yes it does and that both helps and hurts it.
Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Summary: Sometime has passed since Anna sacrificed herself to help kill the ghost that had attached itself to Cas's ghost killing blade and he has a bad feeling about it. He's plagued by nightmares and apparitions of her undergoing torture in the afterlife and wants to save her but there's still so much he doesn't know that it's time to find the people do who, the shadowing organization who made his knife and made his family into the people who wield it.
The Good: This is an odd detail but, even though it was a bit frustrating when Thomas and Carmel were fighting with each other (since you just know they'll get back together, plus it doesn't feel like long since I read the first book so it feels like the characters haven't even been together that long), I still appreciated the fact that they seemed to have a rather normal teenaged relationship with some ups and downs. Quite honestly those two were my favorite part of this book, I liked how they made Cas open up more and even came along with some of the ghost hunting, as dangerous as it might be, since I always prefer stories where you have several characters interacting and bouncing off of each other rather than just one on their own
The Bad: To get to the heart of the manner, I don't think this story needed to be told over two books. I felt like a lot of the second book just felt like fluff, I wasn't that interested in the order that created Cas's knife, couldn't exactly figure out how Blake was trying to write new character Jestine (I think she was going for a younger/morally ambiguous character, which would be hard to portray but I still wish it was done better), and then when the story finally got to where Anna was I didn't quite follow what was going on. Perhaps I was just tired or in a rush when I read it, I don't remember, but I do remember just feeling confused about what was going on and didn't like how everything ended for Anna. I wish the story had instead just ended in Anna and left it at that, albeit slightly differently so that it had been a real ending not the To Be Continued one it actually has.
For this book I'll give it a 3 out of 5 since even though I disliked it it was written perfectly fine and fans of horror will still enjoy it (is there much YA horror out there? I don't see a lot but I'm not looking for it and I'm not sure if that's why then). I am still a bit interested in Blake's latest book regardless of this one, hopefully that one will be a little more to my tastes.
SO, last summer I read a book called Death Watch, didn't really like it (the pacing just dragged) and completely unrelated to not liking it I just had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that this was a lot different from what I was expecting. And you guys remember how last week in my Chime review I said that normally when I read a book and it's completely different from what I thought I had heard about it that means I confused it with another book? That was foreshadowing for this review actually, apparently I confused Death Watch with this book. In my defense, kid comes to new town having taken up the mantle of his father which involves dealing with malevolent ghosts and his mother seems to be connected and there's a dead girl as the love interest? That's enough specific detail to get me mixed up easily, especially considered how little information a blurb/jacket copy gives about a book anyway (personally I think that a lot of jacket copy is crap but that's a rant for another time).
Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake
Summary: Cas, like his father before him, kills the ghosts that linger around and cause trouble for the living which involves a lot of moving around and a fair amount of danger. So when he gets a tip about a particularly vicious ghost he and his mother head on up to Canada to deal with her and find a much thornier problem than they were expecting.
The Good: I had an amusing thought reading this book, normally the way that an urban fantasy/supernatural YA book plays out is that you have a girl in town, an ordinary girl, and then a strange guy comes to town and she's dragged into adventure. This book is actually told from the point of view of said guy, which has been done before I'm sure but I can't think of any titles off the top of my head, which has the real benefit of making Cas seem, well, not like an ass and he comes off as a fairly likable and sympathetic main character. The side characters also come off pretty favorably once the story gets moving along, I was really surprised at how sympathetic Anna came off considering, well, just look at the title.
The Bad: Originally I was going to say "I really hope this book has a sequel since it has just enough loose ends that it really needs one" but I actually found a cover for what I assume is the sequel (Girl of Nightmares I believe is the title) when getting the cover for the review so nevermind! I am a little worried that there won't be enough material for another book (I'm also seeing this labled as the the Anna Series and, considering you usually have more than two books in a series, usually anyway, I have no idea how there's enough material left for two books) since Anna's backstory is explained, Cas's backstory is explained, there's a good chance he'll be elsewhere which means new side characters, considering how solid this book was I'd hate to see (quote unquote) ruined by a less-than-stellar follow-up, crossing my fingers that this next one is good!
So 3.5 out of 5 stars for this one, don't think I'll reread it so I probably won't buy it but I'll certainly recommend it to people who like their supernatural YA to have some horror in it (which I don't know if there's simply less of or if I don't run into it as much, probably both). Getting closer to being back on schedule folks, just bear with me until March and then it all changes again!
