Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake

Series:  Anna, Book 1

Publisher: Tor Teen

Year: 2011

Pages: 211

Goodreads Description:

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.

Wow, it's been a while since I read a good ghost story. I guess the last one was The Woman in Black last fall. Guess fall is the time for ghost stories, isn't it? This was a good one. Cas is a good main character. Blake does an excellent job telling the story from a male point of view. I like the way that Cas ends up with a Scooby Doo type gang. I liked that Blake gave Cas a strong, honest relationship with his mother. And I loved the turn that things took with Anna. 

I highly recommend this book.