Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood
by Kendare Blake
Release: August 30th, 2011
Pages: 316 (hardcover)
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Publisher
Summary:

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....read more at Goodreads.

Whatever you do, don't call Theseus Cassio "Cas" Lowood a ghostbuster. Ever since his father was murdered by a restless ghost, Cas has taken his father's athame and job killing ghosts - for good (which is totally not ghostbusting¹). When Cas gets a tip about a ghost locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas and his mother - plus her slightly evil yet useful cat, Tybalt - move to Thunder Bay. With a fresh voice and an extremely amusing personality, Cas makes this book shine. In addition to Anna - eerie, terrifying, and complex Anna - the two of them have a magnetic pull that kept me coming back for more.

I honestly was not expecting Anna Dressed in Blood to live up to the hype, but I knew I was wrong to have doubts after reading the first chapter. Cas is a complex narrator, and the budding relationships in the story drew me in. Fear, mystery, and great characters successfully drive this story. The plot moves from focusing on Anna to an even more intriguing and downright shocking mystery. You won't be able to guess where this story will take you next, despite a few hints. With eerie scenes, authentic characters, tantalizing mysteries and more, Anna Dressed in Blood takes your typical ghost story to the next level.

Highlights: Blake holds back nothing with her writing - she unabashedly writes gory scenes that will stay in your mind for weeks, presses the eerie feel of the story enough to give you the chills, and slips in quite a few surprises along the way².  
Lowlights: I would have liked a bit more development with the supporting cast of characters, but I imagine that will happen more in the next novel. 
Notes: There's murder, cursing, witchcraft, gore, blood, creepiness, and whatnot. Rating:   
     1 Who are we kidding, it's totally ghostbusting. But cooler. 2 Seriously, just go read this book. Give it a chance, because it's awesome.