* This review may contain spoilers for the previous book, Anna Dressed in Blood. *
By Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
To Sum It Up:
The ghost of Anna Korlov saved Cas Lowood and his friends, but now Anna is trapped in Hell. Cas sees visions of her being tortured, and despite being told that there’s no way to bring Anna back, he’s determined to help her. Cas faces a lot of obstacles to his plan, including a secret organization that believes all ghosts, regardless of whether they’re peaceful or evil, should be permanently banished from the mortal world.
Review:
I’d seen quite a few mixed reviews for Girl of Nightmares from readers who, like me, had loved Anna Dresssed in Blood. So I didn’t really know what to anticipate from the sequel and maybe even went into reading it with slightly lowered expectations. While I can now see why this may not have garnered quite as much love as the first book did, I was far from disappointed with Girl of Nightmares.I think the most common gripe I’d seen about this novel was how little Anna was in it. And she really isn’t, at least not to the extent you might assume from the title and the cover (which is fantastic, by the way). Yes, I felt a little let down about this, but my biggest concern was how Cas was going to handle her loss. I was worried that he was going to act all mopey and angsty throughout the book. Now that would have upset me immensely because one of the things I loved about Anna was Cas’s snarky narration. Fortunately, he holds himself together reasonably well. I mean, I wouldn’t call him cheerful, and his distraction over seeing glimpses of Anna being tortured in Hell nearly gets his friends, Thomas and Carmel, killed. On the whole, though, Cas avoids turning into a one-man pity party and still manages to make plenty of biting comments, a Cas Lowood specialty.
Speaking of Thomas and Carmel, I’ve really grown to like these two. Okay, so I was kind of mad at Carmel for a few chapters while reading this, but I understood her reasons for her actions. Plus, she eventually worked her way back into my good graces (Yay, Carmel! I knew you were a good person at heart!). To think that I found Thomas sort of annoying when I first met him in Anna—man, I love that kid! I love his geekiness and his loyalty to his friends, and I love that he’s found a clique with Cas and Carmel. Thomas seems a lot more confident here, too, and at times his wit rivals even Cas’s. Oh, and I’d also just like to say that Thomas’s grandfather, Morfran, is like one of the coolest, if not the coolest, grandpas in YA.
You know which character I didn’t like in Girl of Nightmares? Gideon Palmer, the friend of Cas’s family whom Cas consulted for advice in Anna. Here I was thinking that Gideon was this happy-go-lucky English chap/supernatural expert, and he turned out to be a secretive jerk, emphasis on “secretive.” I felt foolish for taking a liking to him in the previous book. He’s not a villain here, exactly, but I’d certainly never trust the guy again.
So why didn’t Girl of Nightmares quite measure up to Anna Dressed in Blood in my mind? Well, I didn’t think it was as scary as the first book, and the fright factor was, surprisingly for a chicken like me, a big reason why I enjoyed Anna so much. There’s also a lot of focus in Girl of Nightmares on how Cas’s athame (i.e. his ghost killing knife) might be more than merely a weapon. The knife probably ended up in more pages than Anna did, and really, I wasn’t all that interested in the athame’s story. But, this was still a very, very good sequel, and I was sad to see the story come to a close.
All in All:
I really liked this, even though I had a few small quibbles with it. It’s not the all-out horror read that Anna Dressed in Blood was, but I still think Girl of Nightmares is totally worth reading.
