Anna Dressed in Blood

Now that we have the official TAYSHAS list, I have started on my quest to read as many of them as I can. Yes, there is something in it for me if I am the faculty member who reads the most books from the list, but that's not why I'm doing it. I'm a reader who teaches high school. If I can recommend some books that are aimed at them, and get them to read, it can only be a good thing.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake was my first successful foray into the TAYSHAS books. I say this because I read two that were on the preliminary list, but were cut from the final list. I couldn't have chosen a better start on this if I tried.

Cas Lowood is seventeen and a ghost killer. This means that all those "urban legends" about ghosts who do something to people, he tracks down and kills. He's been doing this for a while-partially because it's his destiny (his father was a ghost killer too), and partially to avenge his father one day. His father was killed by a particularly nasty ghost. Cas's mother is a witch, but you could call her a good witch, since she doesn't generally get involved in the dirtier side of withcraft.

Cas and his mother move frequently due to the nature of ghost killing. He moves to where the ghosts are. Thunder Bay is the city they are in right now. Cas is supposed to be killing Anna, a girl who was murdered in 1958, but has been wreaking havoc in her old house ever since.

Because he moves around alot, Cas doesn't have many friends, and this all changes in Thunder Bay. Carmel, the girl he meets on the first day of school, becomes a good friend to Cas, as does Thomas, a young psychic and witch. Good thing they become his friends because Cas is really going to need their help to kill Anna. Strange things happen when they go to carry out this task, and it's for that reason that I read most of the book after I got home from work today: I wanted to know what was going to happen. Don't you love when books draw you in like that?