Book Review- Anna Dressed in Blood

I finished reading Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake really early this morning for a Teen Book Scene review.

From Goodreads:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered 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: track, 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, now stained red and dripping with 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.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

Wow!  Talk about a ghost story! This is one of those totally gory, scary stories that keeps you up at night.  And it was so well written and detailed, that I could easily see it being a movie.

Usually, I have a hard time enjoying books that are told from a male character's point of view.  I'm not sure why, but I do.  But not so with this story.  I really liked Cas.  He was a guy character that was a good guy.  He had heart and wasn't all macho all of the time.  And he also had humor.  And Anna--a girl straight out of nightmares.  But a girl who doesn't want to be bad.  Loved her.  And the secondary cast like Thomas and Carmel were great.

I found myself reading this book late at night, not wanting to put it down, but at the same time thinking "What am I doing?  I am going to give myself nightmares!"  Which is a great thing to be so involved in a book.  What fun!

I gave this book a rating of 4/5.

Anna Dressed in Blood will be released on August 30, 2011

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge: 47
2011 ARC Reading Challenge: 40
2011 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 35

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the The Teen Book Scene.