Girl of Nightmares

*peeks around the corner, shamefaced* Uh, hi guys. *leans back quickly to avoid tomatoes* I'M SORRY OKAY. I thought that I would be able to access my blog during my holiday but I was mistaken (doesn't happen often, heh ;3) So, yes, I'm still alive. Also, no, I didn't spend two weeks reading the same book. If it amends my hiatus, I'd like to let you know that I read quite a lot of books. I also bought a lot of new books during my holiday, which I'll quickly devour and bring to you! Anyhow, to the overdue review! *cautiously steps out of hiding*

Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake

Genre: Young Adult Horror
Pages: 332
Favourite Quotes: Again, Kendare Blake offers a series of favourites to me, and since I can hardly go and quote the whole book, I will provide you with a single quote that broke me apart, burned my individual bits to crisps and dunked them in to a solution of my tears. SPOILER WARNING (to see the quote, highlight the gap below):

"And then I let her go."

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.

Perhaps it was good that I had so much time to reflect on what I would say about this book. I assume you've read my review of Anna Dressed In Blood and are aware of how many feels I have over these characters, the story line and the author's writing. Well, multiply that by infinity and you have what this book made me feel. Yeah, you read that right. The first book tore me apart, but this one propelled my feels to another solar system. And despite all the time I had, I still don't know how to string 26 letters into a couple of paragraphs that could accurately describe the sobbing ball of emotions I morphed into during the read, let alone the book itself.

But I'm trying.

Girl of Nightmares is, true to its genre, a hauntingly striking sequel. I have read many conclusions or sequels to books that have left me unsatisfied and without closure. As you might have guessed, this book, despite ending with several loose ties, was not one of those books. In fact, it turned its ending into an art form. I have yet to encounter a book that pulls an ending off quite so well and effortlessly at that - giving the reader closure but yet in a way that haunts them for weeks to come. Kendare Blake has truly mastered writing, with her clever and spell binding words, as well as her ability to portray characters, their turmoils and relationships realistically. She writes to the level of real that you cannot help but wonder whether it is you that's actually fictional, as opposed to the characters.

Anna was largely absent for most of the book, yet the book is written in a way that gives that absence a presence more dominant than Cas, who narrates the entire book. And let's not get started on how she is portrayed when there - Kendare Blake manages to make her presence known in a game of double torture from victims Anna and Cas. To be honest, I don't even know who hurt more - Anna, who was literally on fire at one point, or Cas, who had to watch the ordeal helplessly. To give you an example, there is this: "In the sixth row of the theater, in the third chair in, Anna winks at me. Or maybe she just blinks. I can't tell. She's missing half her face." If there was any line that described Cas's desperation to what's happening, then this is it.

There was a fair share of heart wrenching sadness in this book, but we cannot forget the moments that turned my crying sob-ball into hysterical laughter. There was one moment in particular, where I lost my shit, " 'No way. Don't you get it, Cas?' He looks at me disgustedly. 'I ate the fucking gingersnaps.' " It was brilliant. Brilliant indeed. Believe me, when you get to that part, you'll be done. Just done.

And let's not forget the character development. When I say that this book was realistic, I meant it was realistic. These characters don't pretend they are superheroes. They know they can't do everything. They get scared. They show it, and sometimes, they give up for a bit. Because normal people do that. I feel that some authors forget to incorporate that humanity. Of course, not Kendare Blake. She's a master, remember?

This series is a must read. It doesn't matter if you don't read the genre or get scared easily, this book is a must read. Definitely one of my favorite series, from one of my favorite authors, with some of my favorite characters. There are so many things I want to tell you about this book, which I definitely can't because then I'd spoil the whole book, which, I imagine, wouldn't sit well with most of you or me. Either ways, read this beautiful masterpiece. Read it. Now.

And then join the sob fest.

Anna Dressed In Blood

Ladies and gentlemen, I am crushed. Feels are everywhere. I don't even know where to begin. This particular book has been sitting in my book box since the start of the year and I cannot begin to explain how much I regret not reading this sooner. If I'd use star rating, which I don't, I would give this a whole constellation, it was that brilliant. Without further ado, I present to you:

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Genre: Young Adult Horror
Pages: 316
Favorite Quotes: There are several witty and simply awesome quotes. These are random ones I picked out, because I couldn't decide: "Arthur without Excalibur was still Arthur", "But hey, at least we'll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I'm a psychiatrist's wet dream.", "Imagination has a poor memory; it slinks away and goes blurry. Eyes remember for much longer." Of course, we cannot, absolutely not forget this one awesome line that made me gasp in class: "You fuck - you ate my cat!" (It was a perfect for the situation. Absolutely perfect.)

"It's the old boy meets girl story, if the boy is a wry, self-destructive ghost-hunter bent on avenging his father and the girl is a homicidal ghost trapped in a house full of everyone she's ever murdered..."

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. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, 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, now stained red and dripping with 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.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

Where do I even begin?

The title. Anna Dressed in Blood. It's beautiful, both in regards to the story and the originality of it, but also in how it sounds. And don't even get me started on that cover or the blood red ink in which the story is printed. (I'm not kidding. Dark red ink. Whoever had this idea needs several pay rises.)

There are few stories that are as original and well rounded as this one, so it is going to be very difficult to describe this book without giving too much away.While the concept of the story was new, it wouldn't have been difficult to fall into the common themes of recent YA books - mainly, unoriginality and romance overshadowing the actual plot. This book did neither. In fact, it did nothing that I expected it to do. First of all, the book is written in first person from the male protagonists point of view. Let's take a moment to appreciate the lovely change from the norm that was, because, let's be honest, girls are running young adult books. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is a refreshing change to have that change. You know what else is a refreshing change? " 'I come in all big and bad, and you use me for a game of handball', I grin. 'Makes a guy feel damn manly. She grins back. 'It made me feel pretty manly.'" We have a hunter here, right? A ghost hunter, one of the rare - if not only - guy that can do what he does. Anna wipes the floor with him. Several times. And that's okay. You know why? Because these characters are damn brilliant, that's why. They're believable. Cas is as tough as he needs to be, without losing his humour or sight of where he's going. But he's also scared. Anna may be one scary little shit, but she still shows more humanity than a lot of books I had skimmed as of late. Friendly reminder: she's not human. Yes, there is a weak tag-along character. No, he doesn't stay an unpopular tag-along character and gets killed off. He isn't brave, but he grows to be. Character development, everyone. Prom Queen? Check. Book that finally acknowledges that not all popular girls are mean and shallow? CHECK. Is she practically useless? Yeah. Does she stay practically useless? No. Why? SHE TRIES.

I don't think I have to go into further detail on my character love. All the kudos for them, all the kudos indeed.

Now, this book has romance in it, as I've mentioned. It's there, budding. But it doesn't properly manifest until about two hundred pages in. That's right. There actually is a plot around Cas who has other important things in his life that don't involve love - and  even when it gets to that, he understands the severity of it. Both do. The hints of romance gave the best balance to the strong but vulnerable double character that both Anna and Cas were (although, spoiler alert, Anna was literally two characters).

From the originality of it all, the spell binding concept, the gasps and witty lines, the budding romance and terrible history of Anna, the underlining seriousness and fear, and just the sheer beauty of this book, I cannot tell you anything other than read it. Yes, it's a horror novel, but don't worry - while there's quite a bit of gore and terror, it's not terribly bad. It's light enough to get you through the day (though I wouldn't advice it for the lighthearted as a midnight read).

The suspense from this book nearly turned me into a ghost, so you better give yourself plenty of time to devour this wonderful piece of literature. You won't regret it - the questions and wonder and feels this book gives you are endless. Which is precisely why I am diving straight into the second book. So, if you will excuse me, I have to go and cure those feels of that ending (yes, I really just alluded to this. You must go get the book now to understand what I'm talking about. No, I'm not sorry.)