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midnightgremlin's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Murder, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Violence
Minor: Grief
the_books_music_life's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
All the supernatural aspect flowed really well together and we get to see different sides of the supernatural genre in this book, which is rare; you either get vampires and werewolves, or witches and wizards. You don't usually get the spread of supernatural creates that we got in this book. And not in a way that feels cohesive and concise.
Anna Dressed in Blood is my second Kendare Blake series and in every one of her books that I've read so far I ship the main character with a ghost. The way their relationship is written just makes you fall in love with them and their relationship and I wish they could find a way to be together.
The dark/slight humor in this book was the icing on the cake for me. I love Kendare Blake's humor it's so slight that you can miss it, my humor is the same and I adored it in this book.
Without spoilers all I can say about a certain scene is WTF!!! Why did you have to do that! No how could you!!!
If you want to know what I'm talking about just know it involves a death that I will pretend didn't happen.
Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Blood, and Child death
Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Bullying and Sexual harassment
meecespieces's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Gore and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse
brookey8888's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
pgivan21's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Cursing
shelbyleigh_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment
livingamongpages's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Gore
weeziesbooks's review against another edition
Moderate: Gore and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal death
Book mentions Indigenous things (burial mounds, Wendigo, etc.) in an anti-Indigenous way.catsy2022's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Rating: B-
Read for the Spooky Bitches BC for October 2020.
Reading the cover like "Spellbinding and romantic." Romantic? What the fuck?
Anna Dressed in Blood is a story with a pretty cool concept for YA horror; Theseus Cassio Lowood (Cas) is a ghost hunter who travels around the USA and Canada hunting ghosts who are causing problems for people. AKA killing them. His latest tip is Anna Dressed in Blood, a ghost who is rumoured to be tearing vagrants and homeless people apart if they wander into her house.
The pacing of the book was actually pretty great until the big bad was introduced. With 20 pages left we are expected to believe that the bad guy will be dealt with in that space. I liked the unravelling of the mystery and how it tied into Cas' past. I felt like that was a good way of bringing the mystery to the spotlight, though it does seem to be a common thing with YA to neatly deal with any outstanding drama in the first book (rather than let it simmer).
I liked the cover of the book, too. My copy had a red dress-wearing Anna rather than the white dress Anna. The fight scenes were also pretty good and the book is unreasonably gory for a YA. I liked that a lot.
But as for what I didn't like... personally I didn't really like Cas - I felt like his voice was pretty generic. I didn't think the other characters were particularly interesting except for Thomas. The book actually reminded me a lot of Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. Someone thrust into their "destiny" all alone (once Sab becomes a witch) but has experienced people to help them / cover their weak areas.
I also really felt like the romance was awful and kind of gross. It came out of nowhere and made the book so generic. I really came here for scares, but Anna tears 1 guy apart in front of everyone and as soon a she's a cute teenage girl again, all is forgiven and we can move on? It moved at fucking the speed of light and Cas even reflects at the end of the book that 2 months had passed. Alright, that's how teenagers are but...well who could've guessed.
Read it for a bingo square but this isn't one I would recommend.
Graphic: Death and Gore
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Animal death