Anna Dressed in Blood

            When reading a book, it is imperative to me that the narrative of the main character be interesting. I absolutely cannot read a book about a whiny, helpless character that deals with situations in a poor way. Wittiness, humor, and sarcasm are some favorite traits of mine in a narrator, and without them I find that the story can become boring without a strong inner voice telling the tale. One of my biggest pet peeves when reading a story is when the narrator’s voice sounds…off. I’m not sure how else to describe it. Sometimes when authors attempt to write the story in the viewpoint of the opposite sex, the end result comes out sounding odd. Almost as if the character slips out of character, and a male ends up having more of a female inner thought process, or vice versa.

            That’s why it’s so refreshing to find a novel that is written by a woman, but the story sounds like it’s coming out of a teenage boy’s mouth. Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood is a perfect example of this. Most young adult novels these days are staged in a post-apocalyptic dystopian society, where a fierce teenage girl falls in love, starts a revolution, and then overthrows the corrupted power controlling the society. Now, I love a good dystopian story as much as the next teenage girl, but after a few dozen of them that have basically the same plot, the same love interest, and the same type of antagonist, the story gets old.

Anna Dressed in Blood, however, has none of these. It’s about Cas Lowood, a teenage ghost hunter, who falls in love with a ghost. Sounds a bit cliché, doesn’t it? I thought so too, which is why I was hesitant to read it until my mother practically forced me to. So I was shocked and incredibly intrigued when Cas’ narration immediately pulled me in. Like I said before, I usually can tell when the narrator is a male and the author is a female, because the story is either too descriptive or the main character doesn’t talk like a normal teenage guy. Cas is blunt and doesn’t dwell on petty things like a girl might. He doesn’t look for a hidden, deeper meaning in killing ghosts. He wonders where they go, of course, but the main thing he’s worried about is kicking ass and taking names. It makes the novel a quicker read, and I personally couldn’t put it down.