Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake

Cas is a high school kid who travels around with his mom, who's a witch, and kills ghosts. It's a tough business, bopping from home to home, killing ghosts, no friends, a loner...a Sam or Dean type from Supernatural. But Cas has purpose. He's in training, doing jobs and getting better and stronger, cuz he's going back to get the thing that killed his dad when he was 7 years old. Then he meets Anna, and a cast-load of kids who think they're going to channel the gang from Scooby Doo, and the shit hits the fan.

I have one word for this book.

Wow.
Great.
Yummy.

Okay, that's three words, but really, this book is by far the best book I've read this year. I loved it.

First, let me gush a little about the voice. I loved the voice of this book, kind of reminiscent of Scott Westerfield and Peeps (yeah! Scott rocks!) with tight, solid writing, and a witty smart-ass style.

The characters. We have a strong, snappy main character who ain't afraid of no ghosts. Okay, maybe a little, sometimes, but he's also not afraid to admit it when a girl ghost kicks his ass. The other characters have depth, are true to life, though maybe just a tad sterotypical. You have your dick jocks, popular girl who has more between the ears then she lets on, and your geek loner that no one notices (who also happens to be a black witch), and you know what? I loved them all, cuz they were so realistically drawn.

The dialogue is smart and smooth. The plot didn't have any holes that I noticed...I didn't find myself tripping through the book. And 3/4 of the way through the book we're wading through dead bodies and thinking we're winding this bad boy up, and the author throws in an OMG-I-didn't-see-that-coming moment. I love OMG-I-didn't-see-that-coming moments. Because basically I love saying OMG-I-didn't-see-that-coming when I'm reading. The more times I say it, the better.

You have a bad-ass ghost that's whacking people as a matter of purpose, and bodies are dropping faster than snowflakes, but there are two sides to every coin. The author paints this picture as deftly as a double-edged sword...there's more to this ghost than your evil slasher-type from a B horror movie. No one is evil just to be evil. There's a purpose to the evil here, and it's not the ghost's fault.

So, bottom line. Get the book. Read it. I hope you love it as much as I did.