Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Book Review Wednesday: Anna Dressed In Blood & the Sequel

Hello, All!

Today we will be reviewing Anna Dressed In Blood & The Sequel.


 Now, I should tell you that I am not a horror fan AT ALL!! At first, I only read Anna Dressed In Blood because of the mention of my name and concept that I was apparently covered in blood. I had originally found this book when a good friend and I were hiding out in the teen library section from a Teen Fandom Con that had gone horribly wrong. The friend had pointed out the book as we had wrapped up filming the horrors of 40 year-olds dressed up as a My Little Pony characters. A few days later, I borrowed the book from my library and set in reading...at 10:00 at night. BIG mistake! I read only a page or two before I realized that reading a horror book at night wasn't the smartest. Early in the morning, I again started the book and was in for a big surprise... 


Pretty much this is the plot: Theseus Cassio Lowood, other wise known as Cass,  has inherited the family business; killing the undead. When his father was brutally murdered by a ghost when Cass was 7, Cass inherited his father's prized athame and setted out killing the unruly undead himself. Now, Cass is a teenager in high school and has no room for pesky things like friends... until he moves to Thunder Bay, Ontario, in search of a ghost named Anna Dressed in Blood. Anna, as a young lady, was murdered in 1958 and now haunts the house in which she lived during her life, and kills anyone foolish enough to come inside. Until Cas stumbled in. For some reason, she spared his life. Along with finding out why Anna spared his while throwing away countless others, Cass makes a few friends along in this freshly, unique protagonist and voice by Kendare Blake.

Surprisingly, I found that I was drawn into this book and enjoyed it whole-heartedly. I found that it was at some times humorous and had some romance in it that made it interesting. Yes, it was very gruesome at times ( I think my nose was continuously wrinkled the whole book), but it IS horror. Over all, I felt that the characters were very well-written and had layers that I appreciated.

There are two problems I would like to address in this book first before I rate it. The first is that this is definitely not for young adults although it is rated for them. This is not a light book and there is intense gore and  swearing.
The second problem is that I felt like I wanted to strangle the characters sometimes. Why? Because it felt like they couldn't just EXPLAIN their problems to each other. This, I find, happens in almost all the books I read, so it's not really a surprise for me, but I felt like I had to warn other fellow book readers. Other than these few problems, I enjoyed the book and thus rate it a grand 4 and 1/2 stars!

On to the sequel! Girl of Nightmares, the sequel, was equally captivating as Anna Dressed in Blood was, and that delighted me tremendously. For this book, I won't give the plot away, but I will give you some titbits. The gore factor declines in this book, though the creepy factor has gone up. The ending was also satisfactory as it was perfect for a reboot if Kendare Blake ever feels the need to start the series again.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series and would absolutely recommend to anyone who wants a quick horror series to pass the time.

See you all Saturday!

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Book Nook




Hello! Hope you all had a great fourth of July! I sure did! ( We played with sparklers)



 Lately, I have been on Pinterest looking at closet book nooks. I definitely wanted one, but really, who has a empty closet ready for a makeover? So I thought, why not just make a temporary book nook? This temporary book nook would just be perfect for a rainy day that could be set up for a day or two. I found a part of my closet  that was I could comfortably fit in and covered the ground the with blankets. If you have carpet, cover the ground with two blankets. If you have a hard floor like I do, I suggest laying down a rug, and then two blankets.


Next, I hung some light and fancy blankets from a shelf above me to give the look that I wasn't reading in a closet.




Since I have shelves that are sliced, I easily put a flash light on the top shelf so the light could shine threw the blankets.

This craft was done in a few short minutes and I was very pleased with the results. This would be perfect for some little kids on a rainy day! Happy Reading!