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.
So I’ve been
meaning to read this book forever now, and honestly it didn’t live up to my
expectations. The excitement level and romance level were not as high as I was
anticipating. Sure, I loved the book because hello, homicidal, cursed ghost and
a cute hunter boy? It was like a love letter to Supernatural and Ghostbusters
and I’m totally okay with that.
The big
thing that spoke to me was the characters. They were so well developed and
dynamic. Cas and his mom were a great family duo, and their relationship was so
great. It’s lovely to see such a strong, open relationship between a YA
protagonist and his family. Speaking of
family, I loved Thomas and his grandfather! They were so eclectic and
interesting. I could have read a whole series of books from them! Thomas was
definitely my favorite character. I loved that he was a male witch with obvious
wants (the girl) and a strong loyalty streak (which I adore in characters).The
characters I wasn’t overly in love with were Anna and anyone else at Cas’s
school.
I know.
Shoot me in the face, how could I not love Anna? I liked her well enough, she
just wasn’t as strong of a character as I thought she was going to be. And I
think certain plot points weakened her character for me. Like how easy it was
to sap her power and release her from that house? The fact that there wasn’t a
lot of love development between Cas and Anna, they just liked each other out of
the blue? I get that Anna is the only one Cas could really talk to, but it just
seemed like they had one long conversation and they liked each other. Don’t get
me wrong, I love a forbidden romance but it was just a little to sudden for me.
I just had
so many hopes and wants for this book and while I really enjoyed it, some
things definitely could have been better. I really think there could have been
a better link or transition between saving Anna and killing the voodoo demon
that killed Cas’s father. It was an abrupt shift and I just wish there’d been a
little more lead in or more of a link between the killer and Anna’s past. Like
maybe the voodoo man and Anna’s mother were more similar or linked in a way. Or
maybe if Anna’s mother was someone Cas’s father killed way back when. It just
needed something. But none of these “issues” (if you can even call it that)
hindered my complete enjoyment of the book.
XOXO Tia
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