Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

From Goodreads: It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live - not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with. Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong ... these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears. Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

My Rating: 3.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Basically, if Kendare Blake's Girl of Nightmares had featured more of Cas hunting ghosts and less of him obsessing over Anna, I'd have given it a higher rating. While a still a solid sequel though, it just lacked the creepiness of Anna Dressed in Blood.

Since I wasn’t keen on the romance between Cas and Anna to begin with, Cas’ constant moping about Anna made me annoyed with him, especially because it affected his ability to kill ghosts. Thank goodness for Thomas’ optimism and Carmel’s levelheadedness! In fact, I really liked Carmel’s characterization in Girl of Nightmares because she wasn’t afraid to take a step back and stop hanging out with Cas and Thomas when she found the situation becoming a bit too much for her to handle. Unlike Cas and Thomas, who are used to not living a normal life, I thought it was a really smart decision on Carmel’s part to try and figure out what she actually wanted.

I also liked the expansion of the world from Anna Dressed in Blood as Girl of Nightmares explores Cas’ father’s past as a ghost hunter and the athame’s connection to The Order of Biodag Dubh, which eventually leads Cas and his friends to visiting London and Scotland. Besides the awesome and scary scene in the Suicide Forest, I enjoyed meeting Jestine, who almost seemed like a female Cas to me. 

Girl of Nightmares was released by Tor Teen in August 2012. 

Comments About the Cover: I love the colours used, that you can see the dead faintly, and how Anna looks like she’s beckoning you to come join her. It’s brilliant!

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

From Goodreads: Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's athame knife, kills ghosts. In Thunder Bay, Anna, forever 16, drips blood on her white dress from a throat slit in 1958, and rips apart anyone who enters her house - except Cas. He makes new friends - high school queen Carmel, jock Will, admiring nerd Thomas and Tom's voodoo grandpa Morfran - to fight this demon. 

My Rating: 4.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: One of the reasons I didn’t read Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood until now is because I’m a scaredy-cat and generally avoid horror movies and novels. I finally decided to muster up the courage to read it though … and want to kick myself for not having read it sooner!

Blake’s descriptive writing makes it so easy to imagine the ghosts that Cas kills. I was especially delighted by the way that the reader meets Anna and the terrifyingly gruesome way that Cas’ father and certain other individuals are killed. I was equally horrified and disgusted, and then had to quickly look around to make sure that there was no vengeful ghost coming after me.

I haven’t read too many novels with male narrators, but Cas came off like a teenage guy to me. I also enjoyed his interactions with Thomas and Carmel. Despite doing his best to isolate himself, I liked how their friendship sort of snuck up on Cas.

I think my only complaint about Anna Dressed in Blood is the romance. Although I understood Cas’ fascination with and pity for Anna, I found the idea of him falling for a ghost a bit forced.

Anna Dressed in Blood was released in September 2011 by Tor Teen. 

Comments About the Cover: I love it! It’s bleak and haunting, and absolutely perfect for the story!

*Sidenote: I love that the setting for Anna Dressed in Blood is Thunder Bay. Can more authors set stories in Canada, please?