REVIEW: Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake

 

Author: Kendare Blake

Series: Anna

Pages: 336

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: TOR Teen

Amazon: Girl of Nightmares

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

REVIEW: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Contains spoilers from book 1, Anna Dressed in Blood

Girl of Nightmares is the second book in Kendare Blake’s Anna series and takes places a few months after the events of Anna Dressed in Blood.

Cas Lowood and his friends are still reeling after their near deaths at the hands of the Obeahman in book one where Anna Korlov sacrificed herself to save her friends.

Cas is getting back into the swing of things, banishing ghosts but still seeing, hearing and feeling Anna’s presence, he misses her terrible and in the visions he has of her she is being tortured in gruesome ways and these occurrences only seem to be getting worse so Cas along with his friends set out to find out what actually happened to her once she opened the door to hell.

I absolutely adored Anna Dressed in Blood and despite my love for Girl of Nightmares, it didn’t have the same feel to it; it was still scary, eerie and as enjoyable as the first but I honestly missed Anna’s constant presence.

Cas is a strong, determined and seemingly fearless character who is truly devoted to his mother and friends but he also has the most wonderful sense of humor which brings a good laugh to an otherwise chilling tale. I loved how he was still determined to help Anna despite being told that once she had ‘crossed over’ she could not return, he was adamant he would find a way to help her as she did for them.

There is such a menacing feel each time Cas steps closer to evil, every time I read mention of his Athame twitching, I literally twitch myself with anticipation and it happened on numerous occasions.

Carmel and Thomas make wonderful side-kicks and despite me wanting to smack Carmel on a few occasions, they never doubted Cas and the few errors in judgment that he made, they stood by him; I have always liked their interactions and the support they had for one another.

Ms Blake’s storytelling is truly wonderful and her writing perfection,

Girl of Nightmares was a riveting read which had me wanting to know more about not only what had happened to Anna when she vanished from the basement but also what was going on with Cas and the power of the Athame – their trek to get answers from Gideon and the Order of the Black Dagger was quite interesting, it certainly gave a little more insight into what was going on.

Overall, the mystery, chills and action kicked off from the very beginning and didn’t let up; it was fast-paced with a plot that was enthralling and characters which are perfectly developed and compelling. I am not sure if this series will be continuing because the ending came together nicely, I was satisfied with how everything worked out for Anna and Cas.