Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake

Girl of Nightmares picks up a few months after Anna Dressed in Blood ended. Cas can't accept the fact that Anna is gone and keeps seeing her everywhere. Every thign seems to fall apart, inside his head and outside, with his two best friends, Carmel and Thomas, drifting apart from each other.

This book was very different from the first one. For one, Cas was desperate and depressed almost through out the whole book. I missed his humour and cocky attitude. Also, Carmel and Thomas weren't getting along. It felt like when the chase after Anna was over they were left with nothing in common. It was like the aftermath of the hunt they've been in has left them, all three of them, less themselves.

The two first thirds of the book were really slow and I didn't know if I wanted Cas to keep on looking for Anna or just let her be and move on. Sometimes I even wonder if he couldn't let her go, not because he loved her, but because he felt guilty about where she had ended up. 

In the last third of the book, things picked up and we get to learn more about the athame and the ghost-hunting history of Cas's world. The ending was the one thing that saved this book for me. It was perfect, exactly what I hoped it would be. Everything turned out as I imagined them and I was really glad about it.

All in all, not as good as I hoped for and a bit boring at times, but it was the necessary ending to a beautiful story.

★★★☆☆

book 9             book 42

book 2