Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) in YA and Beyond

Sep 23, 2011 Brigid ✩ rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, romance, on-my-kindle, paranormal, ghosts

2.5 Stars

Part of my "Huge Review Binge 2k15" (aka trying to catch up on reviews I haven't done in the past two years)

Date read: December 17th, 2013
Date reviewed: July 17th, 2015

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"Anna was on her way to a school dance when she was killed. Someone cut her throat … They say she was wearing a white party dress, and when they found her, the whole thing was stained red. That's why they call her Anna Dressed in Blood."

My thoughts:

There was so much buzz about this book when it first came o ...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Cassi aka Snow White Haggard rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011

When this book, with it's creepy and moody cover and equally creepy title, Anna Dressed in Blood, started popping up in my goodreads emails I didn't know what to think. I'm not a horror person. I don't usually read scary books or watch scary movies. Mainly because they never actually scare me and I always find myself asking "Really that's what your so afraid of?"

But I kept seeing glowing reviews. So I put my skepticism aside and decided to give it a chance.

I really need to stop being so judgment When this book, with it's creepy and moody cover and equally creepy title, Anna Dressed in Blood, started popping up in my goodreads emails I didn't know what to think. I'm not a horror person. I don't usually read scary books or watch scary movies. Mainly because they never actually scare me and I always find myself asking "Really that's what your so afraid of?"

But I kept seeing glowing reviews. So I put my skepticism aside and decided to give it a chance.

I really need to stop being so judgmental about what I think I read. Because I loved Anna Dressed in Blood. Many of my friends say the book scared them. I'll be honest, it didn't scare me. But it didn't depend on cheap thrills or misleading bumps to up the fear factor. You don't have to be afraid to enjoy this book.

The story is well developed, centered around the sad mystery that is Anna Dressed in Blood. Yes she's a big bad ghost. Yes she kills people. But rather than running around screaming and dying like stupid people who run upstairs, not down, during horror movies, the majority of this book is spent on figuring out what made Anna such a powerful ghost. Which is a lot more interesting to me.

I pretty much like all of the characters in this book. Kendare Blake doesn't fall into the trap of making them stereotypes. Carmel--beautiful, blonde, queen bee--could have easily just been that. But she's given life beyond her type and by the end is a well developed character. Cas could've just been witty one-liner mysterious new guy. Anna could have just been a horror story. I think you get my point.

Anna actually becomes my favorite character. Nevermind that she been killing people for 50 years or that I should probably be scared of her. I find her fascinating. In case you didn't read the blurb on the front cover, there is some romance in this book. But it's not he love-at-first-sight crap that I hate in paranormals. It builds over time. Its lingering looks and butterflies in the stomach, all those wonderful things that make your first love so special and usually so tragic.

And let's net forget about Cas (who is actually the main character). He reminds me of Sam from Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. He's witty and a little bit lonely. His connection to the dead has created a barrier between him and the living. But he's not that pathetic loser type character. Fact is, he carries himself with enough confidence that he could have any of the pretty preppy girls he wanted. He just can't relate to them. They're pompoms and football games, he's killer of things that should've stayed dead. Even though he goes around killing ghosts, he doesn't think of himself as a hero. He's got a chip on his shoulder that's been following around since a big-bad-ghost killed his father and he's hoping slaying Anna will prove that he's ready to go after his father's murderer.

This story has just the right amount of twists and turns. What makes me REALLY happy is that the twists actually make sense. You're like "Okay I didn't see that coming but I totally believe it." Halfway through, the book had me coming up with my own theories. I was never right, but that's okay. The book drops clues and hints, and they aren't just red-herrings.

I think this is the perfect October read. It's creepy, ghostly, but somehow has a lot of humor and heart. I'm even considering reconciling with paranormals after this book.

One non-story related issue I had: The book is printed in maroon ink which is rather hard on the eyes. It's gimmicky and trite, which is sad because that's everything the story is not. It's a poor graphic choice by the publisher. I've seen weird ink colors in a few books thus far and I NEVER like it. I got used to it after a few chapters but that's the LAST thing you want readers to do. I literally almost put the book back down when I saw the font color. I know I'm picky about graphic design but I doubt I'm the only one who doesn't want to stare at red ink for 300 pages. ...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Heidi rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011

3.5 stars. Warning! Do not take this one too seriously. I luckily did not and was able to enjoy it quite a bit. I started it on Halloween which I thought was totally fitting for a ghost story. There were quite a few things I normally would have taken issue with, (lack of back story,the whole love at first sight with no real reason/relationship building), but the fast pace and fun way this was written helped me push through without stopping to roll my eyes too many times. I liked the protaganist ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Haley rated it really liked it

Shelves: loveit, magicy-stuff, male-pov, ghost

This was not what I was the expecting, but I really liked it. I love, love, love the cover, its LEGIT. The story was a little...not borning, but not completly interesting. I was a little bored at some times in the plot but by the end I was just screaming. I hated the ending. Anna noooooooo!

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Oct 10, 2011 Falling for Books (Tia) rated it it was amazing

First Line: The grease-slicked hair is dead giveaway-no pun intended.

Favorite Quote: “Over the course of my life I’ve been to lots of places… Those towns aren’t any less haunted than the others. They’re just better liars.”

My thoughts: I was originally drawn to the cover of this blood. It reminds me of every scary tale I’ve ever been told in school as a kid. I must say, that I really enjoyed this book! I found the beginning of the book to be truly creepy and scary. I really couldn’t put this boo ...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Stormi (StormReads) rated it liked it

First thoughts: Wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be.

I love the cover of this book and you would think that it might be a bit more scary than it actually was and I think that is one thing that kept me from giving it a higher rating. Not only that as I did have a few other hang ups.

So Cas is a teenage ghost buster (he hates that term), he kills ghost for a living and people email him from all over with their ghost stories. He only kills those ghost who kill people and he gets a note with ...more

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