Book Review: Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake

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.

I read the first book and with THAT ending, I just had to find out what happened after. So I squealed with glee when my hold at the library came up after what seemed like forever for this book. I tell ya, I am going to have to start reading more YA cause some of it is damn good books.

Anyway, the story continues right after book one ends so you gotta start with book one. This is in no way a stand-alone. I was anxious to get to the REAL story. I felt that some of what was in the book leading up to the climax was just filler but what do I know?

The plot completely believable, the world building is spectacular and the characters are fully fleshed out. I could relate to all of them. Well, expcet the popular girl. I was never popular in High School so I have no idea what that is like. I still felt that how she reacted was in tune to what I remember from how a popular girl would react.

I loved reading about how the other read books to try and understand the magic behind what they were doing. I would have LIKED to have more detail about the occult side of it but that may have made it a non-YA book. There was that one scene that actually sent shivers up my spine.  I am trying not to spoil it for those who have not read it yet. I know I am not doing a very good job at conveying my love for this book.

OMG, that scene where the “aunt” spirt comes and talks to them and feeds them snacks. She gives them a lot of info to go on for their quest but it turns out that she is dead. It was night time when I read that and I almost screamed. Can you imagine talking to someone then going to their bedroom and finding out they have been dead for a YEAR?!?

And the love story! I wonder if I know anyone that would come and rescue me from hell? I don’t know if it was my fundamentalist Christian upbringing but I detected some religious overtones in this book. The whole you must shed blood and “die” to get someone out of hell. umm, remind you of anyone? cough

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! If you are a fan of YA horror you should get you a copy as soon as possible!