Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

A Review by Lydia Joy Douglas

4/5 Stars

Girl of Nightmares is the follow-up to Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood. It starts 6 months after the events of Anna Dressed in Blood and we see a very upset and obsessed Cas Lowood. For those who have never read Anna Dressed in Blood, I will give you a quick summary of the story. We meet Cas Lowood, a ghost-hunter while he is on the road hunting down a ghost who claims his victims on a stretch of highway. Cas has a special knife that dispatches the ghosts, taking them to a place of rest and away from where they are causing havoc. He receives a tip about a ghost who is quite vicious and who has been killing innocents since 1958. He, his witch mother, and spirit sensitive cat, head to the town to dispatch the ghost and find the next job. Cas thinks this ghost will be an easy job, even though his mother warns him not to be too cavalier. When he encounters Anna, she turns out to be insanely strong, filled with hate, and doesn’t care who she kills. That is until Cas shows up. She shows him mercy and lets him leave, which only causes Cas to become curious about this girl, how she died, and why she let him live. He searches with the help of two local friends he made and things get rather crazy. BAM. Now book 2. Cas is on a mission and he doesn’t care what people say. He will stop at nothing to find the answers to the questions he has and finds himself in the midst of an ancient cult and answers that only lead to more questions. His friends stay by his side as he adventures through the various trials such as a zombie-filled forest, Druids who would love to see him dead, and Hell.

This series is very Supernatural based. Cas’s father died and left him to do the family business of killing ghosts. He is very Dean Winchester-esq, complete with attitude and clothing tastes. When I first read it, I laughed at how similar the beginning is to a beginning of an episode for Supernatural and at the fact the character’s name is Cas. Eventually though, the story starts to take on its own form. It stands out from the rest of the supernatural YA literature out there and is pretty enjoyable. I am not sure why, but this series really sucked me in. I enjoy it immensely. It is an easy read (as in, they only took me a day to read). I recommend it for anyone who is a fan of the TV series Supernatural or for anyone who enjoys stories about urban legends and ghosts.