Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Sep 20, 2011 Desperado rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviews, young-adult, paranormal-ya, 5-and-4-star-ratings, rrrc-monthly-reads, favorite-reads-of-2011

I have a confession to make: I’m afraid of ghosts. Terrified. To the point where the only way I could watch Ghostbusters was between the cracks in my fingers. So when my friend Shannon had a bookgasm over this book, I shrugged. When she practically threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t read it, I was ready to take my ass whipping like a big girl. I mentally kicked myself on the way to the library to pick it up. And now I’m mentally kicking myself for almost letting my fear of ghosts keep me I have a confession to make: I’m afraid of ghosts. Terrified. To the point where the only way I could watch Ghostbusters was between the cracks in my fingers. So when my friend Shannon had a bookgasm over this book, I shrugged. When she practically threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t read it, I was ready to take my ass whipping like a big girl. I mentally kicked myself on the way to the library to pick it up. And now I’m mentally kicking myself for almost letting my fear of ghosts keep me from reading it. Anna Dressed in Blood was just that awesome.

So we have Cas, aka Theseus Cassio Lowood, aka The Future Father of My Future Children. He’s a 17-year-old ghost hunter with a deadly knife and a chip on his shoulder. A ghost killed his daddy-also a ghost hunter-when he was a kid and now he’s determined to send all violent ghosts to the big haunted house in the sky. So Cas, his mother (who’s a white witch, how cool) and his mother’s cat travel the country looking for the ghosties. Everything’s peachy keen until he gets a tip about a creepy ghost called Anna Dressed in Blood. Something about this ghost is different. Something about this ghost is either going to give Cas affirmation that he’s ready to go after his father’s killer-or is going to meet Daddy on the other side. The thing I liked most about Cas was his authenticity. He’s not Superman. He’s not Mojo Jojo. He’s just an normal guy born into a frightening and abnormal world.

Who I picture as Cas

Then we have Anna. I like to think of her as Carrie, Undead Version. What Carrie would’ve been if she’d died after being drenched in pigs blood and decided to go ape shit on Chamberlain in all of her ghosty glory. Anna was murdered at 16 and has since viciously killed anyone who enters her house. So you think “good riddens” right? Put that ghost in the ground! But it’s not that cut and dry. The things that Anna went through while alive and the details that were revealed about her death made me sympathetic towards her character. But not too sympathetic. To quote Shannon, “Anna doesn’t fuck around”. I never forgot for one moment what this ghost is capable of and that she has committed truly horrible acts of violence.

Who I picture as Anna

In addition to Cas and Anna, there’s Thomas, a witchy telepath and Carmel, the “It Girl” at school. As they ran around Thunder Bay, Ontario, trying to find a way to eradicate Anna, I felt winded. As they realized there might actually be an enemy far worse, my heart jumped into my throat . My only issue with this book is the pace. After the first climax, ADIB became a little slow. The storyline chugged along rathering than racing. Other than that, no complaints. This is one of the rare occasions where I’m happy that most YA books turn into series, because I have definitely not had my fill of the amazing and creepy characters in this book. I urge you to give Anna Dressed in Blood a try-but only with the lights on. ...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Regina rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy-uf, audio-also-listened-to, listened-to-audio-only, ghost, ya, only-listeneed-to, bingo-round-5

Somewhere around 3 stars. I could not wait to read this book and when I learned the audio book would be available for free through the audiosync summer download program, I waited to listen to it. That was a mistake. This is not a book to listen to. The narration is horrible. It is painful to listen to. But I pushed through because I wanted to finish the story. This was my second mistake. I should have stopped, deleted the file from my computer and phone forever and read the book. A so-so narrato ...more

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Oct 22, 2016 Rachel-RN rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016

Cas is a ghost hunter. He "kills" ghosts who do more than haunt. He inherited this ability from his father, who was murdered. Cas and his mother move around frequently chasing these ghosts. The book opens up with him doing just that, with the "Hitchhiker."
This was interesting. It did drag in places. There is teenage angst- although not bad. The main character, Cas is interesting, but I didn't particularly like him. He is very cocky. Plus he doesn't like cats (or maybe just not Tybalt- but still ...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Katie rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook

Listened to the audio...obviously, there is something lost there. What? I do not know. A ghost killer named, Cass falls for a killer ghost.

Don't do the audio. It took me a long time to finish it. The narrator was August Ross he did okay with the storyline, but the conversation/dialogue and different "voices" were not done well at all. ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Vivian rated it liked it

Shelves: audio, read-2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 02, 2011 ♥ Unaeve ♥ rated it liked it · review of another edition

not my cup of tee...

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Aug 14, 2012 Patrick rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, book-series

I'm not a huge fan of young adult books. They're enjoyable and easy to read, but a lot of the times they come off as being cheesy or forced. Oftentimes, I'll pick one up thinking that it looks mildly interesting while being comforted by the fact that it will take little to no time to finish. However, I tend to not be overly fond of the high school setting and characters and tend to find the concepts and ideas to feel like watered down versions of their more mature counterparts. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of young adult books. They're enjoyable and easy to read, but a lot of the times they come off as being cheesy or forced. Oftentimes, I'll pick one up thinking that it looks mildly interesting while being comforted by the fact that it will take little to no time to finish. However, I tend to not be overly fond of the high school setting and characters and tend to find the concepts and ideas to feel like watered down versions of their more mature counterparts. That being said, I took Anna Dressed in Blood with a slight grain of salt but reading it felt a lot more interesting than most other young adult novels I have come across.

Anna Dressed in Blood is not like your usual young adult novel. I don't know too much about YA horror, but it was refreshing to see such a dark twist on something aimed at a younger audience. It's not that this book was terribly frightening or anything, but reading it was enjoyable. It was surprisingly gruesome for a YA novel, with more than one character meeting his or her death in a very gory way. Not that I mind or anything.

To sum it up, this book was kind of like the book version of Supernatural. I know I'm not the only one who thought that. It's about a kid who kills ghosts (He's 17 and taking on big evil ghosts by himself.) much like his father did. Then comes Anna, another ghost he must slay, but she remains too powerful to be killed.

The main character, Cas Lowood, felt rather uninteresting. I'm not sure how he became so adept at killing ghosts at such a young age, but I'm guessing it's got something to do with his dad. Either way, he was a rather boring and uninteresting character. I couldn't find any reason to like him, cheer for him or empathize with him. The other supporting characters are just as boring. Carmel is the “Queen Bee” of the school, who becomes friends with Cas instantly. I mean, she literally just sees him and says “Hey I haven't seen you around here.” A few pages later, they're eating lunch together and he's getting invited to their first-day-of-school party later that night. There were a few other characters as well. They were the stereotypical guys whom Carmel once dated (presumably jocks) who get angry and jealous at Cas for magically getting so close to her. They go so far as to bashing him in the back of the head with a board. I mean, if these guys are that easy to tick off, wouldn't they have ended up in jail eons ago? As we later find out, these guys are the epitome of stupid because they (view spoiler) Part of the reason I'm hostile towards YA books is due to all these boring high school tropes.

Anna herself is an interesting character. She is dark and powerful and yet somehow understandable. For some strange reason, she decides not to kill Cas upon their first meeting and they develop a rather odd friendship. (Thankfully, it wasn't a romance.) The dynamic is interesting and well-done although I never felt the intensity between the two. It's easy to root for the villain in any series, so I'm usually rather biased towards the bad guys (or girls) here.

The story's foreshadowing is honestly, rather obvious. The main conflict takes a not-so-sudden turn and shifts focus. Near the end scene, we find that (view spoiler)

The book itself is a refreshing turn for YA. As far as horror or Buffy-esque books go, it doesn't stand out from among the dozens of others aside from having a much prettier cover and more appealing name. However, for YA fans looking for something a bit more spooky, this may be up your alley. ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Dru rated it really liked it

I was only going to give this book 3 stars because I really liked it but some things in the book/plot were like put out there...and left. But there's book two. And I'm really excited. I hope the questions will be answered. Plus I've never had a dead/alive ship (not even that Generation Dead series I read...ick)and I kind of love Cas and Anna. So up to 4 the star count goes :D ...more

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May 14, 2012 Courtney rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, book-from-book-club, young-adult, books-book-club-actually-liked, horror

3.5 I liked this book, it was fun. This was a perfect time of year to read it. I liked the characters. There was lull in the middle for me a bit, however. Some things are not really explained very well, but I am assuming that will continue into the next installment, which I will read.

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