Anna Dressed in Blood

Blake, Kendare. Anna Dressed in Blood. Tor Teen (2011). ISBN 978-0765328656.

Plot Summary

                Cas hunts ghosts.  His father did it before his untimely death, and now Cas has taken over the family business of dispatching murderous ghosts to a place beyond this world.  After getting a tip from one of Cas’ usual informants, he and his mother move to a new town in search of the mysterious Anna Dressed in Blood.  Cas thinks this will be the usual ghost hunt but it turns out to be anything but.  After his initial meeting with Anna, during which she rips a boy from town in half, Cas knows Anna is different than any ghost before her.

                Cas must now enlist the help of popular girl Carmel and witchy Thomas in his pursuit of trying to rid the town of ghostly killings.  But Cas isn’t sure he wants to kill Anna anymore.  He feels a strange attraction to this girl and she feels the same thing.  When a very powerful ghost from Cas’ past returns, Cas has to use all of the resources he has, including Anna.  This powerful, thrilling, and, at times, gruesome tale will have readers up at night.

Critical Evaluation

                Considering the title of this book, the gore seemed to be at the right level for a YA horror novel.  Not too much, but enough to really make it in the horror genre.  The swearing did seem over kill sometimes, but wasn’t distracting to the story line.  The plot moves along quite well.  The fact that one of the characters is killed in the first few pages hooks readers right in.  It makes the reader feel as if no one is off-limits to die.  

                The relationship between Anna and Cas seems sort of forced at first.  I don’t see why Cas doesn’t want to kill her.  I suppose the fact that she spares his life instead of ripping him in half would catch his attention and wonder who this ghost actually is.  Once they start to talk, however, the relationship does seem to grow.  However, as is a generality in a lot of YA romance stories, a slightly unrealistic, fast paced relationship is acceptable.

                After the book starts off with so many plot punches, it does seem to lag a little bit in the middle.  Cas visits Anna several times but nothing is really revealed about either of them until later on in the book.  The villain, who is not really Anna, and the mythology behind Cas’ ghost killing knife doesn’t really get explained as well as it could have been.  The last part of the book is completely different from the rest of it.  The new villain, while being mentioned by Cas several times but not in the way that the reader would be able to figure it out, is certainly horrifying but sort of pops up out of nowhere.

                All things considered, this book is still worth reading, especially for those who want to try something from the horror genre that isn’t too full of gore. 

Reader’s Annotation

“Killing” ghosts usually isn’t too hard – unless you fall in love with one?

Author’s Information

Kendare Blake is from South Korea but was raised in the US.  She has a Master’s in English from Middlesex University in London.  Anna Dressed in Blood is her first horror novel.  More about her and her books can be found here: http://kendareblake.com/. 

Genre

Fantasy/Horror

Book Talking Ideas

Frightening experiences with ghosts will be sure to catch any teenager’s attention.  One of the characters dies within the first few pages.  The attraction between Cas and Anna is so unique – something that isn’t in any other paranormal romance novel.  If boys think this is a girl novel, some mention of the gore and frightening lengths Anna goes to put Cas off will show them that it’s a book for everyone.

Reading Level/Interest

12/14+

Challenge Issues

There is quite a bit of gore in this book, like when Anna kills people or projects images of her previous killings.  There is also frightening scenes that may keep some people up at night.  While these are valid concerns, if a child scares easily then this book is not for them.  However, they need to make that decision.  If someone doesn’t like horror, this book is definitely not for them and that’s what I would tell challengers.  There is also quite a bit of swearing, but teenagers especially seem to enjoy using harsh language so this may not be a huge problem. 

Why Include This Title?

Including a strictly horror book was important to me, as many teens like horror books.  This is a well written, new horror that has a little bit of romance and seems like it would work for all teens.