Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before.

If you look at the starred reviews for Anna Dressed in Blood, you'll see people are crazy about this book. I, on the other hand, am daring to go against the grain and wish to express my disappointment. This book didn't scare me at all and I'm a gal who can get scared pretty easily. Examples:

• The film posters for The Last Exorcism that came out last year terrified me and those were just pictures.
• You know those moments in movies when things get tense and quiet and, as an audience member, you know that something "scary" is going to happen? Something that the movie makers are hoping will make you jump? Yeah, even when I know something is going to pop out at me, I jump. Every. Time.

This book is more like a slasher movie than a paranormal one. I found myself muttering "gross" more than actually being scared. If you like splatter films, then this book may have more appeal. Even though the scare factor wasn't there for me, I think the ghost story in Anna Dressed in Blood is fabulous. I found Anna, herself, to be immensely fascinating and she quickly became my favorite character. As for the other characters, mainly the minor ones, I found them to be stereotypes. I always knew who was going to die because Kendare Blake didn't give them their own personality.

Another thing that bothered me was the romance between Cas and Anna. I didn't feel it at all. In fact, it made me feel weird and squishy inside. It's a hard thing to write - love between a living human being and a dead person. Blake didn't quite achieve it for me.

I really hated writing this opinion. I wanted to love this book, I really did. I also wasn't aware it was going to be a series until I reached the end. This would have made for a great single book, I know it would have, but with it being a series things were left out and I found it to be lacking. I finished it, so I didn't dislike it and it obviously it kept me reading, but the book didn't achieve the 4 or 5 stars I was hoping to give it. Anna Dressed in Blood is more like a 3 for me, and this gives me a sad face.