Discussion: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna #1
Release Date: July 5th 2012 (UK version)
Publisher: Orchard Books
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository

Goodreads Summary

Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's athame knife, kills ghosts. In Thunder Bay, Anna, forever 16, drips blood on her white dress from throat slit in 1958, and rips apart anyone who enters her house - except Cas. He makes new friends - high school queen Carmel, jock Will, admiring nerd Thomas and Tom's voodoo grandpa Morfran - to fight this demon.

Paulina and I had our first read along with Anna Dressed in Blood. Because we both can read minds, it wasn't hard to choose this book (actually we both owned a copy so yeah). Before we start the actual review, if curse words bother you, you probably shouldn't read this. It is informal and involves quite a bit of swearing (it's not extreme but still I thought I'd mention it). Paulina will be the one talking in purple and Rashika will be the one talking in blue.

So… What’d you think of this book?

It was great. Actually it was more than great. It was beautiful, breath taking, amazing…

I KNOW! After being in a book flunk, this book was a welcome change. Plus I haven’t read a lot of horror so that was definitely new for me.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for so long! But I never got around to it and then *boom* it was in a charity shop and I squealed when I saw it and maybe jumped around a little bit :)

I ordered it because of the hype… but then it sat on my shelf for a really long time before I got around to it, I am glad we read this because otherwise, it would have taken me a long time to and I would have missed out on all the awesomeness of this book.

I know it’s just ah! So, so great. Okay so this was meant to be a horror… But erm I don’t really see how. I didn’t feel as if this was a horror type book at all.

Pshttt it had scary ass ghosts and had all the murdery stuff, the stuff of nightmares ;) but I wasn’t really scared. I feel like I can read horror after reading this book (if all the books in the genre are like this one). I have always been so scared of that genre but then every time I try to pick up Stephen King I shy away. Back to the point, I don’t think it is a horror in the traditional sense but it has the elements.

Don’t shy away from Stephen King- I read one of his books when I was about 10… To be fair I didn’t really get what was happening so maybe that’s why it didn’t scare me- plus the book took me about a year to read :/

Okay so I completely get why it said “not suitable for young readers” because of all the gory and death and loads of blood and just awesome ghosts. But I read a review that said they couldn’t sleep at night because of this… erm what.

hahahahahaah we are just very brave, maybe we should watch The Shining in the middle of the night and see how that turns out for us ;)

The Shining is one of my favourite movies.

DANGIT! Everyone has seen it! maybe I should woman up and watch it.

Well because I’m so great I see the humor in a lot of horrors… My mom thinks it’s weird when I sit there laughing my ass off as she’s hiding behind a pillow… But the Shining did scare me so, maybe wait a while before watching it :-)

Anyway we’re getting carried away… back to the book.

Cas. So um he was such a kick ass Ghostbuster ;) (he’d totally hate me for calling him that :P)

One of the reasons why I loved this book so much was because I didn’t get a fan crush on Cas!! Not that he’s not crush worthy or anything but I don’t really know why. Hmm

Same here!!! I loved Cas but I wasn’t in love with him. I just wanted to join his team of ghostbusters :P But seriously he was a great character. There is so much depth to him and even though he isn’t a ‘normal’ teen, he does act like a teen and it just makes him so much more relatable. I mean I wanted to find a portal into the book and go hug him and everything, and maybe help him kick some ghost ass ;) (I think I am a ninja but I am not sure :P)

Omg yes!! I miss that in books :( When the author forgets what it’s like to be a teenager and makes the characters act like 5 year olds -.- drives me mad when I can’t relate to the characters. How do they want me to make an everlasting connection with the book?! But Kendare Blake seriously knows how to write her characters!

Talk about Anna’s awesomeness. Like in all honesty, I had a total girl crush on her. Forget the male lead, I was half in love with the female lead and I am straight!

Haha oh dear Rashika… Erm I don’t really know how I feel about Anna. I love her as a character and she’s an awesome ghost.

It’s hard to find female characters like her in YA these days. Most of them act helpless and expect their ‘prince charming’ to come in and save them while we have Anna who goes killing people and kicking Cas’s ass. It was fun to see a female character have so much power. But it was even more fun to discover her past, of course it made me incredibly sad but still.

I don’t know. I have found some female characters that weren’t helpless.

My bad, I didn’t mean helpless but what I meant was that the female lead has all the power and the male was dependent on her, or well had to depend on her sympathy ;)

Ah then yeah I agree with you.

Hey did you know Anna was finnish?  

Is this why you have a girl crush on her ;)

HAHAH no.. but I think it just made the book even awesomer for me, especially since the author got the language right (I asked my friend to double check :P)

That’s even awesomer! I hated Mike… What was his deal?! Ugh I’m glad he died. I laughed...

Eh there wasn’t enough of him for me to care about him but I didn’t like Will, I couldn’t understand why he was so driven. Mike wasn’t the bestest friend ever, shouldn’t he have been scared and shooed of like Chase did? I see what the point of his character was but that didn’t mean I liked him any more.

I liked Will at the start because of him being different than the rest of the football jerks. But I know what you mean… But I guess if one of my friends was killed even if they weren’t that close to me I’d be pissed and probably stop the ghost or at least try to. Although he did annoy me.

Ha if one of my friends who I wasn’t really close to was killed by a ghost… I’d get excited because that would mean Ghosts existed and would mean I was right all along ;) But I see what you’re saying.

Well actually if I found a ghost that was killing people for the fun of it I’d bring with me all the dicks from my school and let Anna kill them.

I’d bring some from mine too ;) but lets talk about Thomas :D

Thomas is just the cutest! He reminds me so much of this guy at my school. And throughout the book I was like like :O that is something he would do. But as a character I think he was good. I didn’t really have an opinion of him. He was just there.

He was just a fun character and I loved his weirdness. It was funny how he creeped people out with his mind reading skills. And it was so cute how in love with Caramel he was. Caramel was pretty awesome as well. Although I wasn’t such a huge fan of her at first.

I know! His crush on her was just so awhhh. I liked Caramel- even at the start. I expected her to be the bitch in the book but I was so glad she wasn’t. She turned out to be pretty awesome and I’m so glad her and Thomas were kinda getting it on.

I thought she was going to be a total cliche but I loved how she turned out to be a feisty little character. It was really cute seeing her develop a crush on Thomas. :D Speaking of Thomas, his Grandpa was so awesome!!!

I loved her little bat! I was pretty much shouting “you go girl” to cheer her on. Thomas’ grandad is so awesome! I would love to know an old man like him. Just so awesome. We are using awesome a lot ;)

Because that just happen to be an essential part of the book… it’s awesomness. With it’s awesome plot, awesome characters and awesome everything else. I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel.

I know! I just need the next book NOW! Anyway what was your rating of the book?

I gave it a 4.. I am saving the 5 for the sequel ;) you?

Hmm I gave it a 5… It was great and I loved it and just so much love for the book. I hope the next book is even better

It better be!!! And well I am hoping her new book Antigoddess is just as awesome (since I ordered it). We should probably wrap up now… anyone who has gotten this far… go treat yourself with loads of chocolate for this huge accomplishment.

Plusssssssss GO READ THE BOOK!!

WE COMMAND YOU TOO!

Or else. I will find out where you live… And I will make you buy the book!

Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy

Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Pre-Order: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Nikki’s life is far from perfect, but at least she has Dee. Her friends tell her that Dee is no good, but Nikki can’t imagine herself without him. He’s hot, he’s dangerous, he has her initials tattooed over his heart, and she loves him more than anything. There’s nothing Nikki wouldn’t do for Dee. Absolutely nothing.

So when Dee pulls Nikki into a crime—a crime that ends in murder—Nikki tells herself that it’s all for true love. Nothing can break them apart. Not the police. Not the arrest that lands Nikki in jail. Not even the investigators who want her to testify against him.

But what if Dee had motives that Nikki knew nothing about? Nikki’s love for Dee is supposed to be unconditional…but even true love has a limit. And Nikki just might have reached hers.

This is not a book for everyone. Not everyone will love it as much as I did and some people will find it boring. But for me this book was so beautiful. I am not sure there are enough words to describe the beauty of this book.

The other day I was trying to explain what happened in this book to someone and I ended up rambling. I am not sure how I’ll manage to write this review.

When I requested this book I was kind of scared because it sounded so intense and I wasn’t wrong. This isn’t YA, its somewhere between Mature YA and New Adult.

Our main character, Nikki has had a shit life. Her mother is a druggie, her step-father is in jail and she has to take care of all the stuff her mom is too stoned to. She dropped out of school when she was 16 and well she has no authority figure present to help her get on the right track.  Her grandmother used to take care of her but she died. All this aside, the author doesn’t dwell on what Nikki’s past was, she doesn’t want us to pity our character but to understand her and where the thoughts behind her decisions stem from.

The author doesn’t make Nikki a particularly easy character to like. Initially she annoyed me then I started to sympathize with her and then slowly I fell in love with her (in a not creepy way).

The thing that annoyed me most about Nikki (and is meant to annoy us) is her obsession with Dee. She cannot see that he is using her and that he doesn’t actually love her. She blindly follows him thinking that if they love each other everything else will be okay. Her friend Bird tries to tell her Dee is a bad guy but she doesn’t listen.

I think that Nikki always knew, the signs were there but she always fooled herself into thinking otherwise. She just needed someone to love her and yes I realize how cheesy that sounds but it’s the truth. She later goes on to realize that maybe she didn’t really love him, that maybe he was like an addiction, a way of filling in all the empty spots in her from the absence of parents and people who would be there for her. In doing this she forgot that she had Bird who would have been there for her no matter what and Bird finally reached her breaking point and gave up on Nikki.

When her boyfriend and her best friend ditch her things get real bad. She realizes she deserves it for the crimes she has committed. She goes to the police and tells them what happened but she still doesn’t tell the whole story, she tries to protect Dee. She ends up going to jail anyway.

This story is kind of like a coming of age story. Nikki makes realizations about what she had and the things she never saw or overlooked and in the end she finally has to deal with the guilt of helping kill a man who did nothing wrong.

To see her change and accept her mistakes and finally stand up for what is right is so beautiful. It made me so proud.

This is a heart wrenching tale which shows the other side of falling in love. Love isn’t all flowers and hearts, it isn’t perfect. This isn’t a tale of crime but of self-realization and has become one of my favorite reads of the year.

That being said this book isn’t perfect, there are tons of things I could pick on and complain about but I’d be a real ass if I did.

If this is any indication of how the author’s other works are like, I need to look into them and read them ASAP.