Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Girl of Nightmares
Kendare Blake
Series: Anna, #2
Released: August 7th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Fright Scale: 5 out of 10
Reviewed by: Mel

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.

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 of her face.

Now this is, ladies and gentlemen is what YA humorous horror is all about. This was the one, and only sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood. And I don't think it could have been more flawless.

Ever since the savage ghost Anna disappeared into Hell, Cas- a ghost hunter thought he would be able to move on, forget the girl that caught his heart. Yet as each day passes, it's never getting easier. It's like Anna is still there, haunting Cas. And she is. But why? In Girl of Nightmares, we are reintroduced to our amazing cast, along with a few more characters. However, unlike Anna Dressed in Blood- where Anna was the main spotlight, Cas is the one here. He's haunted, lost and in despair. He still cannot live one day without Anna on his mind. And with her seeming to be haunting him, reaching for his help, the situations don't get better. However! we still have plenty of his sarcastic humour, he isn't full on in sadness and regret. I have always been a fan of his snark in his inner dialogue. A highly likeable male protagonist.

We do get more friendship building between Cas, Carmel and Thomas. (Maybe even a romance between Carmel and Thomas! Eep) Carmel became fairly distant in this book, we start to discover early on she's hiding something. And seems rather uncomfortable at the same time. As for Thomas, he's our sweet nerdy guy with a lot of bravery than you'd expect. This trio of friendshipiness has to be one of my favourite friendships ever. All have some level of badassery. Alas, the main un-perfection in Girl of Nightmares was Anna. We barely encounter her real self until sometime later which did make me begin to think the pace could have been a little faster. Not to state that it was incredibly lagging and boring- HELL NO but I would have appreciated more of Anna and if the pace got through most of the book, and stretched the last bit a little more, I would have been more satisfied.

Kendare Blake's writing does not get enough praises. I love it. I love it. I love it! The quick switches between gloom and snark, horror and sweet is absolutely amazing and I have a writing envy. All the descriptions and scenes were topped perfectly with a sprinkle of gruesomeness.

And the ending was completely satisfying. I really did hope deep down that this was the way it ended and it did and I was just doing a little happy dance inside. I cannot recommend this series enough! If you want some light horror with a dose of humorous and kick-ass characters AND some witty writing, the Anna series should be the first series to look for.