Anna Dressed In Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood is a young adult paranormal novel by Kendare Blake. It’s the first book in the Anna duology and tells the story of a ghost hunter who must kill a very powerful ghost before she destroys the whole community. It was first published in 2011 by Tor Teen and was nominated for numerous fantasy and young adult awards, including the 2012 Endeavour Award and the 2015 Lincoln Award. Blake is a popular writer for teenagers, and writes in a variety of genres from paranormal to contemporary. Her latest series, Three Dark Crowns, is a bestseller.

The main character of Anna Dressed in Blood is a seventeen-year-old boy called Theseus Cassio Lowood, or “Cas”. To most people, he looks like any other teenage boy. But Cas has a secret—like his father and his ancestors before him, he hunts and kills unruly ghosts who are causing trouble in communities. His mother is an herbal witch who helps keep Cas out of too much trouble, and she travels around the country with him.

Cas’s weapon of choice is a blade called an athame. By stabbing a ghost with the athame, Cas can bury the spirit forever. Most spirits Cas kills are expected to end up in Hell. All Cas knows is that a vicious ghost killed his father, and he won’t stop ghost hunting until he finds the spirit responsible.



One day, Cas gets a tip about a particularly dangerous ghost causing trouble in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She’s called Anna Korlov—or, colloquially, “Anna Dressed in Blood”. Cas doesn’t know much about Anna, but he knows he needs to take her on. He convinces his mother to move to Ontario, where he’ll need to enrol in a new school.

When Cas starts his new school, he looks for someone who can help him find Anna and understand what’s so dangerous about her. Otherwise, he won’t know what he’s getting into or how difficult she’ll be to kill. The most popular girl in school, Carmel, says that Anna’s something of a local legend, and she agrees to tell Cas all she knows.

One night, Carmel invites Cas to a party, and she tells him all about Anna. Apparently, Anna was murdered many years ago, and she’s always looking for humans to take her wrath out on. People who’ve seen her say she wears a white dress, the one she died in, and it’s covered in blood. Cas isn’t disturbed by any of this—he’s used to ghosts, after all.



Carmel isn’t the only local interested in Anna. Three local boys, Mike, Will, and Chase all have crushes on Carmel and want to impress her. They see Cas as extra competition and therefore dislike him. They decide to show him where Anna died, in the hope he’ll run away terrified. But when they go inside the house and Anna appears, she kills Mike—but spares Cas.

Cas has never encountered a ghost which seems to deliberately spare individuals. He wonders if there’s any way to talk to Anna and find out what her real story is. He might be able to help her move on without killing her. His mother refuses to help, believing this plan is dangerous. Instead, Cas finds a local clairvoyant, Thomas, who agrees to help him solve Anna’s mystery.

Together, Cas and Thomas confront Anna. It’s obvious she’s hiding something from them. Cas suspects that, whatever she’s hiding, it’s what is keeping her tethered to this realm. He must find out the truth before she kills anyone else. Meanwhile, he and the others must deflect questions about what happened to Mike so they won’t be blamed for his death.



Will, Carmel and the others think Anna needs to die as revenge for what she did to Mike. However, Cas and Thomas discover the truth about what happened to her, and they want to help her move on. Anna’s own mother killed her and cursed her to stay in the house forever. However, Anna’s not alone—there’s another more evil, vicious ghost there with her, and it’s the one who killed Cas’s father.

This other ghost, the Obeahman, torments Anna because it knows this is a way to hurt Cas. Cas is torn between saving Anna and fulfilling his ultimate mission: killing the ghost that killed his father. Thomas helps Cas’s mother with a spell that will help Anna leave the house and escape the Obeahman. The others worry Anna’s tricking them, and that she’s actually going on a killing spree.

Anna, however, is a friendly ghost and just wants peace. She also wants to help Cas with the Obeahman. Cas explains he’ll need to nick her skin with the athame to lure the Obeahman into a trap which his mother will set up. The snare works, and the Obeahman is trapped. Anna’s the only one both strong enough and close enough to the spirit realm to destroy the Obeahman forever. In doing so, she ends up “dying” herself.



Everyone’s sad to see Anna go, but they’re relieved the Obeahman is gone. Cas, however, isn’t so sure. He wonders if Anna truly found peace, or if she’s stuck with the Obeahman. His next mission, covered in book two, revolves around Cas’s journey into the spirit world to find her.