Being stuck at home over quarantine and with the libraries closed, naturally I've begun to run out of things to read. The other night, getting desperate, I trawled through my bookcases and found a long forgotten pair of books - Anna Dressed In Blood and Girl Of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake.

I'll be honest in saying that I completely forgot these books existed and that I owned them. They lurked in some distant part of my memory, and I barely recalled reading them - I think I bought them when I was about fourteen.

I've re read both books now, and I honestly don't know why I forgot about these books, because they're not bad. Not amazing, but a far cry from your usual young adult fantasy crap.

BOOK #1.

Anna Dressed In Blood has an interesting premise. Our main character, Cas (his full name is Thesus Cassio, by the way, go ahead and cringe) is a teenage ghosthunter, sending violent ghosts to the afterlife with the help of his deceased father's athame knife.

Cas is a pretty okay main character. He's basic enough, but he's witty and I found myself liking him.

Cas moves to a new town, Thunder Bay, in pursuit of the infamous spirit known as "Anna Dressed In Blood," the violent ghost of a sixteen year old girl murdered in 1958. But Anna is different from any ghost Cas has ever encountered before, and he finds himself faced with unusual choices, helped by his two new best friends, Thomas and Carmel.

I like Thomas and Carmel a lot. They're not your usual weird loners that the main character befriends - Thomas is a black witch who lives with his grandfather, who happens to be a powerful voodooist, and Carmel is the school's popular queen bee.

Pretty solid book, and I liked the sideplot of the knife and the after effects of the death of Cas' father.

BOOK #2

Girl of Nightmares is a little more longwinded. In this book, without giving too much away, Cas is trying desperately to save Anna from where she's trapped in Hell, plus is being stalked by a mysterious ancient cult.

I liked it a little less than the first book, but it was okay. A few new characters are introduced, including the irritating Jestine, and the ending is fine.

I recommend reading this book series. It's pretty okay.

The main question I pondered:

Do people legitimately not care that so many people, including three popular teenagers, are regularly brutally murdered in this town lmao. They're just like "oh lol another brutal murder, that's fifteen this year haha."