Thursday, February 28, 2013

Anna Dress in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake
Goodreads Rating: 4.02
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages: 316
Reviewed by: Nicole


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.



I did this as an audiobook because I had heard really great things about it and Audiobook Sync had selected this book to be part of their program. I probably wouldn't have started this book so soon, had it not been voted on by you guys, but I'm so glad that due to the popular consensus of two of you, I went ahead with this book.

At first I was a little wary of this book, I didn't like the narrators raspy voice, and when he tried to do Carmel's voice or Anna's accent, it was downright annoying and bad. The accents were attrocious, but manageable. At some points it was hard to hear him, but I was able to get past that. I also got really frustrated when halfway through the book I realized he was trying to say athame, but was pronouncing it "uh-thah-may" when years of watching charmed taught me it should be pronounced "ah-thuh-may". I know its the whole tomato tomato debate, but all the same. (Wow, that just doesn't make nearly as much sense written out.)

I really liked Cas's narration, he was really funny and real. I liked to listen to his thoughts as he went through his emotions when dealing with Anna and the events surrounding her. I found it a little weird that he formed this connection with her, but at the same time it was understandable, she did save his life a few times.

I loved how different all the characters were, especially that Thomas read minds, and that Carmel wasn't afraid of doing anything. Had I been in her shoes, I sure as hell would have ran screaming. The story that had to deal with Anna and what happened to her was so great and sad, that you couldn't not feel for her and what was happening.

I can't wait to read the next books because this sort of reminded me of how the Winchester Brothers were spurned to become hunters, the loss of a family member that hunted and then their attempt to regain normalcy. Even though the ending went in a different direction then I expected, it didn't feel like the story was dragging on, it almost felt like it was part of the natural progression. 
Nicole

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