Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
- Method of Obtaining: I received my copy from my local library.
- Published by: TOR Teen
- Release Date: 8/7/2012
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.
- It’s the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood, for goodness sake!
Ok, color me impressed. Nice job, Kendare Blake on making the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood so creepy I had to sleep with my light on last night.
In Girl of Nightmares, every issue I had with Anna Dressed in Blood disappeared. What I got instead was a beautifully paced story, high in gore and scariness, and the perfect tortured hero in Cas. I had so much fun speeding through this book, staying up til the wee hours of the morning and thoroughly enjoying the spooky quality all the creaks and moans around me seemed to take on.
Then there were things like Suicide Forest and passing through the door to just tip the whole story over the edge.
One of the biggest issues I’ve had lately is the emasculation of male heroes in YA stories. I applaud all the strong, female heroines, but it seems they always seem to suck all the air from the room, to use an expression. They leave the male characters weak and unattractive – but Kendare Blake has found a perfect balance between Cas, Thomas, Carmel, and Anna. Each one has his/her own strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately they work best as a team – and that is what I really want to be seeing in every YA book I pick up.
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