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A review by befsk
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
2.0
I really didn't get along with this book. And I saw so many 5 star glowing reviews! And excited fans ranting about movie adaptation news! It just didn't live up to the hype.
Let's start with what I was promised and what I got:
- Scary. Scary? What are you, a pre-teen? I am easily scared. I readily admit that. This book was not scary. I thought maybe we were onto something early on in the book (after slogging through Cas' internal bragging about how much better he is than all of his classmates at his new school) when we first met Anna. I was excited! Nearly 100 pages of crap to wade through (25% of the book) and the action finally picks up! Only to drop that shit immediately. And there was nothing else to be afraid of. No other characters or events even tried to be scary until near the end when the big bad appeared. And the big bad didn't scare me because he turned up more than 300 pages in. He turned up in the last 50 pages and acted like he was supposed to be scary . I just wasn't impressed, with so little of the book left to develop him as a big bad and a scary figure.
- Romantic. I mean, really? Really? Over 250 pages in is when the romantic subplot is properly introduced. 100 pages to go and the author decides to cram that in there. Because we can't have a YA paranormal book without romance. Even if it is really, really creepy. Which it was. Obviously, it was hinted at earlier in the novel, but I chose to ignore the hints because it was way too icky.
- Un-put-down-able. Or whatever word sums that up better. I read nearly 50 pages and put the book down for over a month and couldn't bring myself to pick it back up again. As previously alluded to, the pace of this book was awful. Nothing happens for large chunks of it. And when things do happen, it's 10 pages of shit's-going-down followed by 50+ pages of talking and going to school and attempted character development. It took me a month and a half to read this book.
So, other than being disappointing, there were some other things that bugged me.
If you've seen the first season of Supernatural then you'll understand when I say Wendigos? Really? As if the comparison wasn't clear enough, with the phantom hitchhiker (S1EP1, S2EP16) turning up on the first page of this book. And Cas' snarky attitude (which, might I add works a lot better in Dean's case because Cas' direct brain snarking just came across as bratty and pretentious to me), not to mention the name Cas itself (though that one is a little tenuous given that the book mainly rips off earlier seasons of Supernatural).
Voodoo ghost man has dreadlocks and talks in a Jamaican accent. I mean, yes, voodoo was mainly a Caribbean thing, blahblah, but when he's the only black character in the book, well...
Also, the other character we get in the book is a stereotypical angry European traditionalist mother, who practices magic and thinks culture and reputation are everything.
Mistakes. There were a few; punctuation, spelling, grammatical or just sense-lacking errors (a few of which I pointed out in status updates).
It just felt very much like a typical YA-with-subgenre book. The characters weren't memorable, the plot wasn't memorable, and there were a fair few YA stereotypes present, including insta-love and 'witty' teenage characters. Although there was a hell of a lot of swearing for a YA, sometimes unnecessary, sometimes justifiable. And honestly, at least it didn't make me angry or bore me to death. I guess I'll give the next book a shot.
Let's start with what I was promised and what I got:
- Scary. Scary? What are you, a pre-teen? I am easily scared. I readily admit that. This book was not scary. I thought maybe we were onto something early on in the book (after slogging through Cas' internal bragging about how much better he is than all of his classmates at his new school) when we first met Anna.
Spoiler
I mean, she ripped a guy clean in half. With no warning. With graphic detail from the author.Spoiler
Once it turns out that Anna can't/won't/doesn't feel the need to hurt Cas, she became utterly nonthreatening to me.Spoiler
with his flesh-eating habits and sewn-up eyes- Romantic. I mean, really? Really? Over 250 pages in is when the romantic subplot is properly introduced. 100 pages to go and the author decides to cram that in there. Because we can't have a YA paranormal book without romance. Even if it is really, really creepy. Which it was. Obviously, it was hinted at earlier in the novel, but I chose to ignore the hints because it was way too icky.
Spoiler
Making out with a 16-year-old ghost is hot though, right? I guess, at least, on the positive side they didn't bring up the romance when Anna was still nuts and would turn into a deranged killer at any provocation. Which they didn't fix until about halfway through the book. Which does give a reason that the romance was put off until so late, but if that's the case then why make it romantic at all? Fearless ghost-killing self-proclaimed badass falls in love with a ghost? Just seemed unlikely to me.- Un-put-down-able. Or whatever word sums that up better. I read nearly 50 pages and put the book down for over a month and couldn't bring myself to pick it back up again. As previously alluded to, the pace of this book was awful. Nothing happens for large chunks of it. And when things do happen, it's 10 pages of shit's-going-down followed by 50+ pages of talking and going to school and attempted character development. It took me a month and a half to read this book.
So, other than being disappointing, there were some other things that bugged me.
If you've seen the first season of Supernatural then you'll understand when I say Wendigos? Really? As if the comparison wasn't clear enough, with the phantom hitchhiker (S1EP1, S2EP16) turning up on the first page of this book. And Cas' snarky attitude (which, might I add works a lot better in Dean's case because Cas' direct brain snarking just came across as bratty and pretentious to me), not to mention the name Cas itself (though that one is a little tenuous given that the book mainly rips off earlier seasons of Supernatural).
Voodoo ghost man has dreadlocks and talks in a Jamaican accent. I mean, yes, voodoo was mainly a Caribbean thing, blahblah, but when he's the only black character in the book
Spoiler
and he's the big badAlso, the other
Spoiler
'truly evil'Spoiler
, at the expense of her only child's lifeMistakes. There were a few; punctuation, spelling, grammatical or just sense-lacking errors (a few of which I pointed out in status updates).
It just felt very much like a typical YA-with-subgenre book. The characters weren't memorable, the plot wasn't memorable, and there were a fair few YA stereotypes present, including insta-love and 'witty' teenage characters. Although there was a hell of a lot of swearing for a YA, sometimes unnecessary, sometimes justifiable. And honestly, at least it didn't make me angry or bore me to death. I guess I'll give the next book a shot.