Book Review: Anna Dressed In Blood

Book: Anna Dressed In Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Genre: YA; Horror; Supernatural

Summary

Theseus Cassio Lowood, called Cas, hunts ghosts who won't stay dead. Wielding his father's athame, a blade that cuts the dead, he sends murderous spirits into the afterlife--again. But now he may have met his match.  Rumors tell of a daughter of Finnish immigrants whose throat was slashed on the night of her first dance, the crimson blood running into her white dress.  This is Anna Korlov--Anna Dressed In Blood. Cas knows he must face off against this powerful ghost. What he doesn't realize is that the trip to Thunder Bay will bring out a secret from his darkest past--and lead him to a love that just might give him a future.

Review

If you like ghosts and action and want a light, fun read, this book might be a good fit. I paged through it quickly and it left me entertained. There's enough blood and profanity to gear it toward an older audience. I liked the characters well enough, especially Anna who can be horrifying and sympathetic. The story of how she became a ghost was probably the novel's strongest scene.

I couldn't find much wrong with the book, but I did wish for a little more. More mystery, more emotion, more fear. I didn't feel particularly surprised or horrified or invested in the characters. The book is told from Cas' point of view, and he's witty and sarcastic but also a bit distant. As a result, I didn't feel as emotionally engaged as I might have been.

Some explanations were hand-waved away.  The police, for example, barely pay attention to the slew of horrifically murdered bodies because they feel uncomfortable with them. Voodoo becomes central to the story, but the foundations of the practice are never laid before us. Only people from Cas' bloodline can wield the athame until all of a sudden someone else can, too. These little inconsistencies add up and chip away at my suspension of disbelief.

Then again, I'm a picky reader.  Anna Dressed In Blood is like a visit to a haunted house: spooky and fun and liberally splashed with gore. It probably won't leave you with a transcendent view of mankind, but it's a great way to maim and murder a few hours of your life.

In Case You Missed It: Literary Orange 2014, Part 5

What: Literary Orange
Where: Marriott, Irvine
When: Friday, April 5, 2014

Please Note: The quotes are approximate.

Lunch

It is noon.  The ballroom is being set up for luncheon, and all the speakers line the hall in their black-clothed tables.  Now is the time to sign books and socialize.  Wise ones have bought their books in advance.  I am not wise.  And I am not alone.

The bookstore is madness.  Every inch of table is crowded by some browser or another, and the line for the register wraps around the wall.  And there is another problem.  All the authors from the same panel sit together.  I cannot afford all three books, yet I will feel horrible if I go up to only one of the speakers with a book to sign.

Deciding against purchase, I go back to the dining room.

On the way, I see the YA panel.  The three women are talking to each other.  No one's really approached them.  I would like to talk to them.  They are role models in my genre.  But what do I say?  Nothing comes to mind.  If I had bought a book, I could ask them to sign it.  But I have not.  What do I do?

If I were suave and graceful, I might simply go up to them and chat.  But no.  I slink to the ballroom, meet my aunt, awkwardly down a salad--before deciding I'm supposed to be networking, dammit, and go back to talk to them after all.  I hope that they have not seen me pass back and forth three times like some kind of stalker.

Jessica recognizes me and we speak briefly about our mutual friends.  I explain the long line in the bookstore. Maurene signs a bookmark for me, and Jessica signs an excerpt of her book.  (Kendare doesn't have anything.)  Now, I've dispensed with the pleasantries, and I still haven't left.  I stand there awkwardly as the lull starts to stretch.  Ask them something, ask them something!  My mind races.

"You have such wonderful ideas," I start.  "Very creative.  Where do you get--?"

No! I tell myself.  You are not going to ask them the oldest, dumbest question in the book! Think of something better!

"I mean," I stutter, making a conversational u-turn, "everyone asks authors where they get their ideas, but, you know, ideas are all around us.  So, um, how do you narrow them down and decide which ones you want to develop?"

Better, my brain says.

I'm so flustered about coming up with clever and creative questions, I almost miss their response.    Kendare says that if an idea doesn't leave her head, she knows that it wants to be developed.  Jessica writes an outline and if she can't come up with enough points, she knows the idea's not strong enough to carry the book.

I nod, trying to think of my next question.

"You speak very well.  You're very funny.  How do you do that?  Practice?"

Jessica says she practices.  Kendare says she just talks about whatever.  Once she had to stretch a 5-minute speech into a 45-minute presentation.  She ended up talking about cheese.

I might have asked a few more questions, but it all goes by in a self-conscious blur.  Eventually, I figure I have wasted enough of their time and make my grand exit.  As I sink into my chair all a-jitter, the dinner rolls come by.

Lunch is a chicken breast coated in breadcrumbs topped with a demi-glace sauce.  (Okay, I'm trying to sound smart here.  I don't know what sauce it is.  It's brown and it's not curry, so I'm going with demi-glace)  It is served with little potatoes that need butter and carrots with too much pepper.

* * *

To Be Continued...

In Case You Missed It: Literary Orange 2014, Part 4

What: Literary Orange
Where: Marriott, Irvine
When: Friday, April 5, 2014

Please Note: The quotes are approximate.

Panel #2
YA: The Awesome Age

People on the Panel

• Maurene Goo, author, Since You Asked, www.maurenegoo.com
• Jessica Brody, author, Unremembered, www.jessicabrody.com
• Kendare Blake, author, Antigoddess, www.kendareblake.com
• Alyson Beecher, moderator

"You don't have to like the character.  Just the story."

My first panel and second panel are in the same room, so I remain in my seat.  Why not?  I've got a good view of the stage.  As the panelists play musical chairs, I gaze through my notes.  Suddenly, I hear my name called.  I look up.

Two members of my party--Michelle Knowlden and Debra Young--sit down beside me.  They both took a "Save the Cat" workshop with one of the panelists, Jessica Brody, and they've come to show support for their former teacher.  As for me, I'm here because this is the only panel even closely related to my chosen genre of fantasy.  Mystery, literary fiction, poetry, and narrative non-fiction are all well-represented.  Speculative works are scarce.

The members on this panel seem young.  Two of the women are Asian--the only non-white speakers I will encounter the whole day.  On the far left is Maurene Goo, followed by Jessica Brody and then Kendare Blake.  Alyson Beecher, the moderator, occupies the far right.  I think about taking a picture of the room for reference, but I'm too lazy.

The moderator makes the obligatory introductions and we begin.

* * *

Moderator: Can you each tell us a little about your writing journey?

Maurene Goo

Maurene: Well, my writing journey was probably different from these ladies here.  I had no aspirations of being a writer.  I never thought it could be done.  I wrote a sample chapter for a grad school application.  I decided not to go into that program, but I kept writing.  I have a friend who's a graphic artist.  I sent the story to him.  It turns out his editor, who worked with graphic novels, wanted to tackle regular novels, and mybook was just what he was looking for. So the stars really aligned for me.

Since You Asked by Maurene Goo

Jessica: At the age 7, I wrote the riveting story of a puppy and kitty who--spoiler alert--get the chicken pox. I put my story on the shelf with all the other books and that was the first time I really saw myself as an author.  As I grew up, though, I thought, Writing isn't a real job.  I kept writing, but it was more of a hobby.  Then I got laid off.  The severance package was 18 months.  I stretched it and wrote novel my first novel.  Then I started to write YA.  I was thinking about trying SciFi when I saw a news article about a plane crash with a sole survivor.  I started thinking about that lone survivor. What if she had no memories?  What if she had superpowers?  That became the basis for Unremembered.

Kendare: I didn't think I could make a living from writing. I had a boring job.  One night I was on the barn roof with my brother.  We were drinking beers, talking about the need to leave the country. And the easiest way to do that was with a student visa.  I went to Middlesex University in England.  When I came back, I thought, Well, I can live with parents forever.  I wrote a contemporary novel, first.  But I decided blood and guts was the way for me and wrote Anna Dressed in Blood.

Moderator: Can you tell me about the element of world-building and research involved in your writing?


Jessica Brody

Maurene: I write contemporary stories, so I don't do a lot of world building.  My settings are realistic but more heightened and exaggerated.  It's a little more fun, a little more fantasy.

Jessica: Writing this trilogy has been a crash course in world-building.  It takes place in the real world--at first.  In the first book, I'd put in little hints about the world my character comes from.  Then, in the third book, I realized she had to return to her own world.  All those hints in first book needed to be explained. 


Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Kendare: Anna Dressed in Blood took place in the real world.  I set it in a city close to my house, so I could do fun research trips for local details.  I take a more minimalist approach to description, but I still need details.  The challenge in Antigoddess was building gods that work in the real world while honoring the original Greek myth.  So I did a lot of research.  It was intimidating, because there were all these different origin stories and some of them contradicted each other.  I ended up relying on Homer.



Moderator: You all create characters that feel very real.  Do you ever have trouble with characters going in different directions than you intended?  Is it hard being evil to the characters?

Kendare: Well, as far as characters misbehaving, I created a character named Carmel, who I thought was going to die. Turns out she didn't.  If I'd have known she was going to live I wouldn't have name her Carmel!  In Antigoddess, Hermes told me he was gay.  I was like, "Okay...  At least you told me early."

Kendare Blak

Jessica: I have argued that erasing all of your character's memories and planting new ones is the most evil thing you can do.  Because if you have no memories, how do you know who you are? As far as surprises, one of my characters turned out to be the brother of my heroine.  It was a very, "Luke, I am your father" moment.

Maurene: I think even normal characters can surprise you.  Friendships in my book turned out to be much deeper than I anticipated.  ...I guess, I don't really do evil things to my characters.  The worst thing I've put them through is Life--which is evil enough.


Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

Moderator: Recently, there was an article in Time discussing what is the ideal YA female protagonist.  Your thoughts?

Jessica: So I wrote a novel called 52 Reasons I Hate My Father about a rich girl who has to work 52 jobs before she can inherit her trust fund.  People have told she's unlikable in the beginning of the story.  I'm like, "Yeah...  And your point is?"  She's supposed to start off unlikable, but over the course of the story she changes and redeems herself.  You don't have to like the character.  Just the story.

Maurene: People have told me, "I hated the protagonist."  I feel deflated, because she's based on me.  There's lots of pressure to have this perfect character, but as a writer, it's not that interesting.  My heroine is honest about her flaws.  That's an attractive quality to me.

Kendare: There's this sense in society that females are judged more harshly than males.  Look at superhero movies.  When we meet the heroes at the start of the movie, they're dicks.  But we're told, "You just need to peel back the layers, like an onion, and you'll see that deep down, he's a good guy."  But we're not willing to do that with female characters.  We expect them to be perfect to begin with.

Maurene: Plus, we're dealing with teenagers.  Think of what you were like as a teenager.  You weren't your best self.

* * *

We open for questions.

I glare at my notes.  They don't quite capture how funny and witty these women really are.  But I have been listening too closely to write down more than a phrase or two. Oh well.  At least I had more fun at this panel than the last one.

After questions end, Michelle and Debra walk up to Jessica to say their hellos.  Networking, I think.  Here's my chance.  But I am not a master socializer.  I find myself standing awkwardly between the three ladies as they catch up.  By the time Jessica turns to me for an introduction, I barely manage to burble out my name.

Well, that went well, I think, as the authors all move to their signing tables.  A chance for networking has slipped through my fingers.

* * *

To Be Continued....