Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake

- Anna #2
Release date: August 7th 2012
Published by: Tor Teen
Genre: Young Adult
Find it on: Goodreads, Amazon

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.

  
It was actually a pleasant surprise when I found out Anna Dressed in Blood was going to have a sequel. It wasn't terribly necessary, to tell you the truth, and I wasn't craving for a sequel when I finished reading Anna, but since there was a second book coming out, I became increasingly happier and more excited to get my hands on Girl of NIghtmares. Now that I have finally read it, I realize that, well... this book really was necessary to give us some closure. 

Anna Dressed in Blood ended in a somewhat tragic scene, where Anna got dragged down to Hell - or someplace else, - with Obeahman. In Girl of Nightmares, Cas is struggling to get back to his life and move on, but visions of Anna being tortured makes that a hard job. Because of that, this book is a lot darker than its predecessor. It's obvious Cas is suffering, not knowing where the girl he loves is, and what the hell he can do to help her - if there's anything he can do to help her. I felt all that right along with him, but while I loved the character development that this angst-filled plot provoked on Cas, I wish the pace of it hadn't been so slow. I understand that there's a lot more going on here than a few ghosts stirring up trouble, really I do, but certain parts were so slow and full of pain that it was suffocating. I missed the easy-going dialogues and action scenes that Anna Dressed in Blood had, and maybe that's why I couldn't fully enjoy this book. 

Most of all, though, I missed Anna herself. It's not like seeing her being tortured repeatedly make me think "Awww, how I missed you, Anna! I'm so glad I'm reading this right now!". It hurt me to see Anna being injured like that, being broken like that, and yes, she did appear in the ending, but it wasn't something I was looking forward to, really. She was so broken that I all I wanted to do was give her a hug. It was obvious that the Anna I met in Anna Dressed in Blood was gone for good, and I was incredibly sad about it. 

The ending, however - and I do not, in any way, say this lightly - is the best part of this book. Yes, the secondary characters were amusing, and I loved the way we got to know the Order and Cas' purpose, but the ending made me forget everything. It was so, so perfect, that I can't - even now - talk about it without looking like a lunatic. If you're looking for a happy ending, you may - or may not - have it. In my opinion, this was a happy ending. It was bittersweet, and though not entirely what I was expecting, it gave this series a solid closure. Of course, Kendare Blake could always write another book about Cas and his adventures, but for now, I feel like Cas's story has come to an end. The curtains were closed exactly how they should have been, and I appreciate that a lot. This series is really good, and it's one of the best series about ghosts that I've read. If you enjoy this kind of thing.... just go for it.