Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Title: Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2)
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Paranormal/ Horror
Release date: August 7th, 2012
Pages: 336 (Hardcover)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Review
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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.

Last year, readers were fed a horrifyingly delicious tale about a ghost hunter named Cas and the tortured spirit that changes it all.  Ever since Anna willingly threw herself into the pits of Hell in order to save Cas from the extremely dangerous Obeahman, Cas hasn't been able to get her out of his mind.  He's certain that there's a way to get her back, to save her from whatever torture she's going through, and in Girl of Nightmares, we  find out just how he plans to do so.    

With the help of his two best friends, Thomas and Carmel, Cas finds that seeking the doorway to Hell is a near-impossible task, but for the sake of Anna, he never gives up.  I just have to say that I love Cas.  Though gruesome visions of Anna keep appearing in front of him, he's still able to grow tremendously throughout this book.  He doesn't let anything get in the way of his determination, and even when he feels the most alone than he's ever felt, he keeps pushing himself after being told countless times that what he's trying to do is hopeless.

The writing is just as breathtaking and terrifying as ever.  The reader is shown a whole new side to Anna, a side that seems vulnerable when it comes to the Obeahman.  Although Girl of Nightmares didn't seem to scare me as much as Anna Dressed in Blood did, there were definite scenes that will make your skin crawl.  Scenes where Anna's skin peels back from her skull, scenes of rotting corpses chomping on human flesh.  Those scenes couldn't be more perfect, and I'm actually craving more.  The only thing that bothered me in the entire book was that the Suicide Forest was relocated to Scotland to fit the story line.  GUYS.  This is a real place, called Aokigahara Forest, and it's located in Japan.  If that isn't enough to give you nightmares for the rest of your life, I don't know what will.

Kendare Blake is brilliant.  Girl of Nightmares was the perfect sequel to my favorite horror novel and like the first in the series, this book will stay on my mind for a long time.  Though I expected Anna to play a larger role in this book, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, and I'm sure any lover of this series will too.