Anna Dressed In Blood Book Response

Book Title: Anna Dressed In Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Year of Publication: 2011
Number of Pages: 316
AR Points Awarded: 12

Literary Elements
Narrator - First person, Cas “I know what to look for, because I’ve seen just about every variety of spook and specter you can imagine.” p. 1
Protagonist - Cas is a teenage boy who fights ghosts. He’s moved around a lot in his life, so he’s never really made close friends. He’s very sarcastic and funny, and occasionally kind of rude, but he’s still very likable. “The grease-slicked hair is a dead giveaway -- no pun intended.” p. 1
Antagonist - Beginning of book: Anna is a very deadly, destructive ghost who will kill anything and everything that enters her house. She’s crazy, and she shouldn’t be messed with. “‘She’s killed twenty-seven teenagers...that I know of.’” p. 38
End of book: The Obeahman is the spirit that killed Cas’s dad, and now is out to kill Cas. He’s an evil spirit and he will stop at nothing to kill as many people as he can. “My knife hand is pinned against the wall and he’s (the Obeahman) got me by the collar.” p. 281
Setting - The first one is just a general setting of the area. However, many important events took place in Anna’s house. “The scenery changed fast once we crossed over into Canada, and I’m looking out the window at miles of rolling hills covered in forest...a blanket of pines in colors of green, brown, and rust...” p. 23-24 “As I look up, I can see the house, abandoned for years and beginning to tilt, just a crouching black shape in the dark...The headlights flash on the base of the house, illuminating peeling gray paint and flat, rotten boards, a porch overtaken by grass and weeds.” p. 70 This sets the mood for the house as a very creepy, eerie place.
Conflict - The conflict is man v. man (if ghosts count as “man”...otherwise, it was man v. nature.) In the beginning of the book, Cas is battling Anna, but by the end of the book, he’s fighting the Obeahman. “Thunder Bay, Ontario, is our destination. I’m going there to kill her. Anna. Anna Korlov. Anna Dressed in Blood.” p. 18
Theme - The theme is that life and love aren’t always fair. Sometimes you fall in love with someone, and it gets ripped away, but you need to continue life and make the best of every situation you have. “...life doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t care about fair or unfair...Lately I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. Mostly about doors. Because that’s essentially what Anna did. She opened a door, from here to someplace else. And doors can be made to swing both ways, in my experience.” p. 315
Historical Context - The background for this story takes place in 1958 when Anna died. “‘Anna Korlov. Murdered in 1958.’ ‘By who?’ ‘Nobody knows.’ ‘How?’ ‘Nobody really knows that either.’” p. 36

Reflection
I did like this book. I like books that are wildly fantastic, books that could never ever happen. This was also my first time reading a sort of “horror novel.” I liked how it was very suspenseful and kept me on my toes. However, it was a little difficult to understand and keep up with at points. I feel like it moved a little too quickly in the climax. I didn’t especially identify with any of the characters, but I really liked the character of Thomas. He was kind of awkward and unpopular and a little on the weird side, but he kept the story interesting. This book didn’t remind me much of anything I’ve ever read. It was a little similar to the Twilight books, with the human in love with a non-human, but that was about the only similarity. I think this book would make a good movie because it has very active, dynamic characters, and they’re all very likable. I would recommend this book to any teenagers. I think adults might find it too weird with the whole “boy-in-love-with-ghost” thing. It definitely did not end the way I expected. I expected Anna to live and for her and Cas to be together. I do wish it had ended differently. I wish the Obeahman could’ve died and Anna still been alive.