In her second installment in the Anna Dressed in Blood series, Kendare Blake hits the reader’s full force with instant action, gore, and sadly death. Girl of Nightmares begins shortly after the events of Anna Dressed in Blood, with Cas trying to figure out how to save Anna from hell, all the while having gruesome visions of her that almost cost him, and his friends, their lives on more than one occasion. Unable to cope with knowing that Anna is suffering, Cass decides to break all of the rules of ghost hunting to travel to hell and save her. This takes Cas deep into underground London and into the Order of the Black, the group responsible for creating his asthame that sends the ghosts to their final resting place. Cas is willing to sacrifice almost anything to save Anna from her agony, but the price might end up being too high to pay.
Blake never loses the charm and wit of all of her characters in this series. You really start to feel for their plights and want to help Cas with his journey into the underworld. The book was not nearly as gory as its predecessor, but there was still a lot of action and struggle that made the book exciting. One aspect of the book that I did not fully appreciate was the constant whining of Cas for his lost love Anna. It starts to become a little to melodramatic, even for a teenage boy. I also wish there was more Anna in this installment, because she has always been my favorite character of the series. In the end I think it was a wonderful read, and Blake definitely leaves the end open for more adventures from Cas and the gang, even though no sequel is currently set.