Title: Girl Of Nightmares
Author: Kendare Blake
Published: August 7, 2011
Publisher: Tor Teen

Rating:

The Synopsis:
It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he’s 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.

Anna Dressed in Blood blew me away. I read it in one sitting, and it kept me up all night, with visions of creepy things lurking in the corner of my bedroom. Girl of Nightmares on the other hand, took me a little longer to get into. I’m not sure exactly why, but it dragged for me until about the midway point. I really loved Cas’ character in the first book, but in the second there’s a shift, and it’s more than just losing the woman he loves. However, the secondary characters, grew a bit more. One of them pulls something really stupid though, and I really felt bad for Thomas.

For me the book really picked up gear in the last half. The introduction of another character however, really set my teeth on edge. She’s just Cas 2.0, and she flaunts it every chance she gets. I did like the ending, I thought it wrapped the book duet nicely. I want to read more of Kendra’s books, because I really enjoy her writing. Girl of Nightmares just didn’t do it for me.

Overall Pace is a bit sporadic, and the characters are a bit different than in the first novel, but still an enjoyable read.