BOOK REVIEW: Girl Of Nightmares – by Kendare Blake

Title: Girl Of Nightmares
(Anna #2)
Author: Kendare Blake
Genre: YA, Horror, Paranormal
First published: August 7th 2012
Finished reading: November 3rd 2015
Pages: 383

“His skin is black as a struck match, cracked and oozing liquid metal heat, like he’s covered by a cooling layer of lava. The eyes stand out bright white. I can’t make out from this distance if they have corneas. God I hope they have corneas. I hate that creepy weird-eye shit.”

I read Anna Dressed In Blood last month as part of my Halloween TBR and I absolutely loved it, so I decided to read the sequel Girl Of Nightmares as well even though technically it’s November already. The sequel is not quite as good as the first book, but that doesn’t take away I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the dynamics between the different main characters, Kendare Blake‘s prose reads easily and with a fast pace it’s quite a quick read as well. Some parts can get a bit scary/bloody if you are not into the horror genre… Although the sequel is not as scary as the first book, so you should be ok if you survived Anna Dressed In Blood. Girl Of Nightmares has a different setting than the first book and I would have liked to see more of Anna, but I think that overall this read is more than satisfying and perfect for next Halloween (if you can wait that long).

WARNING: Possible spoilers! Please don’t read this summary if you haven’t read Anna Dressed In Blood yet. I’ll keep the summary short but it’s almost impossible to keep it completely spoiler-free…

Anna’s ghost has been gone for months now after she opened a door to Hell and dragged along the demon that haunted Cas… But ghost-hunter Cas is having a hard time moving on, even though his friends keep reminding him Anna had sacrificed herself so that Cas could live. It doesn’t really help that he keeps seeing her everywhere; the dead girl he fell in love with. What bothers him most is that he doesn’t know what happened to her and when he starts to suspect something is wrong, he is determined to save her whatever the cost. But can it be done and who will help him find the way?

Girl Of Nightmares might not be as good as the first book, but it is definitely an interesting read with a new twist. I would have liked to see more of Anna, but I enjoyed the European setting and the new information about the whole ghost-hunting business. It’s quite a fast read and those who enjoyed reading Anna Dressed In Blood while definitely like this story as well. Recommended!