My Teacher Made Me Do It

Whelp, I've created a blog.  I've thought about doing it for a while, and have always thought to myself, "who would want to listen to what I have to say?" and "what would I even write about?" even though I've had this nagging feeling telling me that I should do it, I finally started one because, yes, I had a homework assignment for a class in my Digital Teaching and Learning certificate that required me to start one.  So here it is.  How do you even get people to read these things...??

I figured I'd start with a book that I just finished very recently, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake.

 

It's nice having a good relationship with your school librarian - I got a phone call one day that the "book I ordered" was in and ready to be picked up.  She had read it and recommended it, so she just inter-library loaned it for me :) Always a nice surprise to see what I'll be reading next.  I'll probably give away some minor spoilers here, but I'll try to not give any major plot points away.

Anna is about a boy named Cas who is a ghost hunter/killer.  He travels around with his mom, transferring high schools all the time, searching out ghosts that are stuck here in our world and killing innocents with their never ending rage and fury at how they unfairly came to an early demise.  He meets a ghost that he can't kill and begins to have a relationship with.  There's also another subplot that has to do with the death of his father (also a ghost hunter) several years before.  So Cas is kind of like a ghost buster, but he doesn't like to be called that.  I haven't rated it yet on GoodReads because I still can't figure out if I loved it or liked it.  So I figure I'll list out things I liked and things I didn't like, and maybe that'll help me come to a conclusion.

Things I liked about Anna:

• Cas is funny - even though it's a ghost story, he adds quite a bit of humor into the mix
• There's a cat in the story
• Overall, most of the characters are pretty likeable
• It's an engaging read - I didn't have any of those chapters that you just have to "get through" and I finished the book very quickly
• There were some pretty spooky parts in the book
• Even though there's a sequel, it can be read as a stand-alone (no cliff hangers at the end where you feel like you're going to die if you can't read the next one right away)
• Adult and female characters in the book are portrayed in a positive light

Things I didn't like about Anna

• It was hard to buy the love story - I need more reason for two beings to fall so in love with each other and make it believable
• Mike was too much of a stereotypical jock/jerk character
• I wanted more background on the voodoo and other magic parts of the story
• I found it hard to imagine Anna as a ghost, solid, and walking around in plain sight of everyone; she seemed less of a ghost and more of a girl with superhuman strength
• Why weren't the cops doing more investigating of the deaths of teens in the area?   

I think I'll go with "liked it," but borderline "love it."  Amazon says it's recommended for 12 and up, which would probably be OK.  There is some gore and some language, but nothing that I think is too terrible for that age group.  I will definitely be reading the sequel to it sometime soon.  Maybe I'll post about it when I read it.

Thanks for tuning in!

-Mrs. Fausett