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Girls*Heart* Books: 'Anna Dressed in Blood' by Kendare Blake: Review & Giveaway

Saturday, November 17, 2012

'Anna Dressed in Blood' by Kendare Blake: Review & Giveaway


Anna Dressed in Blood
Anna Book #1 
By Kendare Blake
Published on August 30,2011 
Published by TorTeen

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.

Anna Dressed in Blood is the first book in the Anna series by Kendare Blake.  I had seen this book on Goodreads and was intrigued by the synopsis but I am a giant baby when it comes to scary stuff so I may have dragged my feet a bit in getting to this gem. I wish I'd read it sooner, honestly. It was a phenomenal read and I am a little in love with the cover. It's beautiful in a haunting way. 

As I said above,  I don't normally go for the scary stories, but this one drew me in from the start. Cas, our narrator, is a fantastically sarcastic BOY.  Yep, that's right, I said boy.  There are not nearly enough male leads in the YA universe right now in my opinion.  This book is terrifyingly creepy in a spine tingling kind of way.  I actually had to put it down and walk away a few times when things got a little more gory than I was used to. 

Anna Dressed in Blood is what I like to call the total package; it's non-stop action and suspense, some twists and yes, even romance. It made me laugh, cry and shudder in revulsion. I loved it.  I cannot wait to read book two, Girl of Nightmares.  This is a must read for those of you who love a good spooky story. 
My Rating: 

And now because I love you guys, I decided to throw in a giveaway!

Good luck everyone!
I tire of writing these things in the third person. So. I write fiction, apparently mostly YA. I didn't know this, but like Stephen King says, writers are the last ones to know what it is they've written. My first novel,Sleepwalk Society is a college story. I guess it falls into that no man's land they call, "New Adult".Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares are teen horror. My short fiction can be found online in numerous places.

But enough about that. When I am not writing or reading, you can generally find me sitting around wondering what the hell I'm going to do with my life. That, or being a gastronome, plotting a new recipe. Perhaps on a run or hike, playing tennis or watching Big Cat Diaries with my feline. This summer I have saved a total of three turtles during attempted road crossings.

Follow Kendare Blake: 


18 comments:

  1. Anna Dressed in Blood was pretty scarey! But, David McAfee's Nasty Little F!#*ers was by far the scariest book. It gave me nightmares!

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  2. the scarriest book i ever read was carrie

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  3. Scariest book I've ever read was 'It' by Stephen King. (entered on rafflecopter under Krysta B.)

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    1. That book gave me nightmares, Krysta! Good luck!

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  4. Oober's was pretty, well not pretty, scary. Gave me the willies.

    The twitter link isn't correct, but I already follow you.

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    1. Thank you for letting us know!! I made a typo! I've fixed it now! Good luck!

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  5. A Stephen king book when I was a kid!

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  6. I haven't read scary books before...only scary movies.
    Thanks for the giveaway.

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  7. I haven't read a scary book yet! I'm hoping this will be the first one. :D

    Thanks for the giveaway!

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  8. The scariest book I've ever read would have to be The Bad Place by Dean Koontz! Thank you for the giveaway!!!

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  9. I don't think I've read a book that's scared me out of my wits yet but Stephen King sure has tried!

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  10. I haven't but I'm dyeing to read this one

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  11. oh man, I have had this book on my TBR pile for a while now!

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    1. I cannot remember the name of the book. I owned it but lent it to a friend years ago. I think it was called the calling.. the gathering.. the outsider.. something like that. but that book tripped me out. O.o

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  12. Hmm scariest book I've ever read?? I gotta be honest, I typically stay away from the horror genre. But I really creepy book I've read was Envy by Gregg Olsen. That was an awesome read!
    Thanks for the giveaway & good luck everyone!!

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  13. The first really scary book I read was Stephen King's Christine. It was so good, but scared the pants off me.

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  14. I think it's a toss up between It by Stephens King and Salem's Lot by Stephens King. I read both books when I was younger... alone at night in an empty house is not the time to start reading these books

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