Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen (Macmillan)
Pages: 304 (Hardcover)
Series: Anna, #2
Release date: August 7th, 2012
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Rating: 
In this follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas begins seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong. These aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.
Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.
*munch, munch*
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of me eating my words. Girl of Nightmares truly surprised me. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t expecting to love or even like it because originally Anna Dressed in Blood and I didn’t get along. While everyone else ran around screaming high praises for it, I was left on the side lines. And I hate being on the sides lines. No matter how much I tried to love Anna Dressed in Blood I couldn’t. It had too many open ends and I’m of the belief that even when you are reading a series each book must stand on its own merit. So I was disappointed, but I also wanted to give the second book a try because regardless of my initial reservations, it wasn’t a bad book. And after that fun interview we did, I was convinced to try again. So imagine my delight when I started reading Girl of Nightmares and discover how much I was enjoying it. When I finished I felt like I had been on one epic ghost-busting adventure. And it was awesome.
Girl of Nightmares takes place six months after the events in Anna Dressed in Blood with Cas attempting to get on with his life without Anna. Unfortunately, that’s not going so well for him since he continues to witness Anna being tortured in his sleep and while he is awake. I’m not going to go off and describe the blurb for you, but I will say Cas gets to the bottom of EVERYTHING in Girl of Nightmares.
Everything that I complained about in Anna Dressed in Blood was addressed in Girl of Nightmares. The plot is solid with no inconsistencies that I could see. In fact, I really loved the plot because there wasn’t a dull moment. That partly has something to do with there being a lot of loose ends to cover: the mystery surrounding the athame, where Anna went, Cas’ background, ect. Despite there being so many issues needing to be addressed, I never once felt like Blake info dumped or rushed through explanations. It was all very smooth and engaging. I didn’t want to put my book down, but well, I have kids, so it was unavoidable. And that made me cranky. Also, this book was creepy! Do yourself a big favor and do NOT read the “Suicide Forest” scene late at night. *shudders*
Don’t ask, just obey…
The characters have seen a considerable amount of character development, most notably being both Cas and Carmel. Cas is no longer the cocky little prick who all girls fawn over like he’s God’s gift to womenkind. In Girl of Nightmares he is a broken character struggling to let go of Anna. He obsesses over it constantly to the point where it interferes with his ability to ghost hunt. This was a Cas I could easily sympathize with and I wanted him to find a way for both Anna and him to be happy. As for Carmel… I can’t really say much without giving away huge spoilers, but she was a badass. You will love her.
The best part of Girl of Nightmares was the hilarious dialogue. These characters feel so real to me because Blake has sat down and given them so much personality. Laughing is pretty much a given when reading Girl of Nightmares. You can’t get around it. But that’s okay because you want the humor when you in the midst of being scared shitless.
The ending was perfect. I can’t say anything about it because I refuse to ruin the book for anyone, but I think fans will be very happy and satisfied. Or not. Who’s to say? Lol.
But I would like to share with you a piece of wisdom. After finishing Girl of Nightmares I happened to learn one big lesson:
Reading this book in the second floor hallway right above the stairs at night, while my entire household was sleeping soundly, wasn’t one of my best ideas. Learn from me.
This ARC was generously given to Kat and I by Kendare Blake. This in no way swayed my views of the book. In fact, I think she was expecting me to dislike it, but she’ll just have to settle for my glowing review!
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