Discussion: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Girl Of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #2
Published: August 7th 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen


Goodreads Review

It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with. Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears. Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

Last year Rashika and I teamed up on reading the first book in this series Anna Dressed In Blood and we discussed it; you can check it out here.

We both had the second book so we decided to read it together yet again! I'm the purple and Rashika is the blue :-) 

What did you think of the second book then?

Ha, that’s a vague thing to ask. Overall I loved it just as much as I did the first one but there were so many things I missed from the first one. Like did you notice that this one wasn’t nearly as creepy as book 1 without Anna in it? DID YOU?

Hey! I was starting with the same question from our last review… Erm I still don’t quite know how I felt about this one. I loved the first book; but there was something off about this one. I think it was the lack of Anna and her “creepiness”.

Hmph I think that did affect how I felt about the book but at the same time I felt like there were so many other interesting things going on. Like trying to unravel the mystery behind Anna’s disappearance. The trio was fun to read about and I loved how they were willing to help Cas.

I found it kind of boring, them trying to figure out where Anna is… But I did love the three of them, especially the stuff going on between Thomas and Carmel.

Carmel may bother some people with her actions but to be honest, I actually liked that she doubted things. I mean she wasn’t born to that kind of life. She is human and if she weren’t at least the slightest bit doubtful.. I would be worried. Also you didn’t hear me say this but like, I found the first third to be BORING. I was just.. bored but then something changed and I become so emersed. I wanted to know how things would turn out. What the final showdown would be like, who this mysterious brotherhood was… we definitely did get more answers in this one.

I know! I felt a bit bored at the start too, I genuinely couldn’t get into the story. I don’t know why; then something changed and the excitement begun and I wanted all of the questions answered! I didn’t like the whole brotherhood stuff though. I found it so cliche. The showdown was sort of exciting but I wasn’t at all shocked with it. It felt really fake :/

You know what or rather WHO I didn’t like? JESTINE. I just… didn’t like her at all. I am not even sure what her purpose was to be honest. She just bothered me and I spent the whole book once she appeared, hating her. I actually didn’t notice any cliches but then again, I was inhaling the book and which was probably why I didn’t pick up on any. The duology on the whole does have a handful but I actually found the showdown to be interesting… and the resolution *cries*

AHH! That was heartbreaking, I nearly cried! Oh God. Do not get me started on Jestine! I didn’t think I could hate a character so much. I don’t understand why she was in the book? Like seriously. And why did Kendare have to chose that stupid name? Did she watch Tracy Beaker before she chose her name or something (It’s a kids tv show with a girl called Jestine who’s pretty much exactly like the one in the book!)

It was heartbreaking wasn’t it? But at the same time.. it seemed like the best thing to do. Not what I would want, but what would make sense but hey at least someone got an HEA. Going back to Jestine though, I was worried would be like a love interest for Cas with Anna gone and while I am glad that didn’t happen.. I just don’t know what her purpose was… she doesn’t even seem like a plot device. Just another character who was just there.. doing nothing…

At first I was hoping she would be this cool chick who’s kickass and a great character but after I think she was properly introduced I wanted to shoot her. She was so useless even if she did help Cas a little… I’m so glad that there wasn’t a love interest! That would have been horrible!

She was right? I don’t actually know why Cas likes her… it’s a weird friendship they share.

Anyway moving on from HER! One thing that annoyed me the most was the London trip! The whole dark alleys and pubs and everything. London isn’t exactly dark. OH! Then the Suicide Forest bit. I wanted to scream and punch something! That’s not in England! It’s in Japan! God damn it. PLUS THEY DIDN’T EVEN DRINK TEA!

WHATTT REALLLY? The suicide forest isn’t in the UK? O_O That sounds like a case of better research being needed to be done :( No way. I am pretty sure they drank tea at Gideons. HOW COULD THEY HAVE NOT? TEA IS LIFE. LIFE IS TEA.

The forest is called Aokigahara and it is most definitely not here!I mean she did get the suicide thing right, and that the forest is beautiful because the pictures are breath taking; but the wrong damn place! It angered me so much. WELL THEN THEY DID NOT DRINK ENOUGH TEA!!

I don’t think anyone can drink enough tea .-. I’d like to think they magically transported there but I don’t think that was the case because I am pretty sure that all happened in Scotland.

I can drink enough tea. I’m drinking tea right now. There is no such forest in Scotland anyway, I mean there’s a creepy ass bridge in Scotland that I want to visit so badly but apart from that…

Right lets get this show on the road, or at least off the road.

Final thoughts! Go!

Wonderful but it needed a lot more Anna.

I thought it was great and answered all the questions, but not at all close to being as good as Anna Dressed In Blood.

So final verdict??? We have slightly different opinions but in the end we both agree that that ending was heartbreaking.

Rashikas rating-


My rating-