August 9, 2012

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake {Review}


Publisher: Tor Teen
Publish Date: August 7, 2012
Source: ARC/Own
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 lie -- 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 right now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

It’s a pretty well-known fact that the sequel can never be as good as the first, but every once in a while, a book or movie comes along that defies all logic and does just that. Girl of Nightmares was one of those books for me. I liked Anna Dressed in Blood well enough, but it didn’t turn out to be a favorite. Girl of Nightmares, on the other hand, was utterly fantastic.

I found Anna to be scary in the “oh, I’m glad I live in the city instead of the middle of nowhere” kind of way whereas Girl of Nightmares had some parts that were more like “pardon me while I turn on every light in the house.” For those who’ve read it, are you with me on the forest part? I read it in the middle of the night and it gave me a serious case of the willies!

Cas is still Cas, for sure. He’s all about “I’ll do what I want, when I want, how I want” but he also cares deeply for his friends and family. He may not be my favorite character of all time, but I can definitely respect that.
I still quite liked Thomas as well. He’s usually scared out of his pants by the things they deal with, but he still manages to keep his head and help out Carmel and Cas.
Carmel’s the character that throws me through a loop. I can be thinking “that’s it; I do not like this girl” one minute and the next she completely changes my mind by doing something awesome like beating up ghosts with a  stick or telling Mr. High and Mighty to shove it.

I liked the story a whole lot better in Girl of Nightmares as well. It was just kind of meh like the first one for me until about halfway through. I was enjoying it, but it wasn’t anything to make shout to the rooftops about, but then it started getting really good and I was completely invested, flipping pages to find out what would happen to Cas and Anna. 
The Nutshell: Girl of Nightmares is a fantastic sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood. I actually enjoyed it more than the first book. If you want to find out what happens to Anna and Cas next, then you should definitely read this one. If you want to be scared out of your wits then this is definitely your book ;]


Pages: 336
Series: Anna #2 (Sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood)
Rating: Direct Hit

3 comments:

  1. Ooh I'm glad to hear you liked this better than the first one! I'll definitely be reading this now.
    -Rachel

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved GoN and I thought it was a wonderful conclusion to the series.

    Kate @ Ex Libris

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I'm so happy to see that you liked this one so much better than the first! I'm secretly hoping I will as well, as I liked the first, but wasn't near as in love as so many others seemed to be. I'm actually looking forward to that creeped out feeling. I MISS living in the middle of nowhere honestly, but yes, it can be a little freaky at times.

    ReplyDelete

I adore all the comments you write. They totally make my day :]