Girl of Nightmares

Gr 10 Up—Fans of Blake's excellent Anna Dressed in Blood (Tor, 2011) will not be disappointed by this sequel. High school junior Cas is a ghost killer who has been saved by Anna, a ghost, through a great self-sacrifice. But now Cas has visions of Anna being tortured, and he decides that it is his duty to save her in return. In the process, he encounters other would-be ghost killers who don't necessarily share his ethics with regard to only killing ghosts who harm humans. Blake is aware of her debt to previous horror/humor hybrids in pop culture, even naming a character Will Rosenberg (as in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer). But her talent for creating a truly scary story laced with laugh-out-loud humor makes this series (assuming there are further installments) a rare treat.Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA