If you haven’t read any of my previous entries, here’s a little known fact about me. I LOVE a good horror story. I’m not talking about gore and violence, but a well done horror with a solid plot, and things that will make me gasp, want to sleep with the lights on, and question if I’m ready for the zombie apocalypse. I love it when they make me think late into the night, keeping me from sleeping because I’m wondering what I would do in such a situation or keep replaying a scene over and over in my head. And criteria number one for a horror story that I will love is it has to be fantasy or supernatural. I don’t know if those are even the right terms for it, but it pretty much has to be about something that doesn’t really exist (or at least in my opinion doesn’t exist). In my job I spend all day dealing with heart-breakingly depressing and frustrating situations (and no, I’m not talking about my job as a mom, but that of a juvenile probation officer) so I find when I read I want to escape reality, not depress myself even more by reading a story about someone’s entire family being violently murdered. So basically I love a good zombie story or ghost story.
I was very excited this week because I was getting around to reading Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake. It’s been on my to-read list for quite some time and it was finally available at the library. Well, I found myself disappointed, and not for the reasons you are expecting. Prepare yourself, here comes the mom in me…except I was always this way, even before becoming a mom. I really liked the story and I wanted to like the book so bad, but the author used a lot of foul language and it just turned me off. I’m not saying that foul language is ever necessary, but it REALLY wasn’t even necessary in the way she was using it. It was just used randomly in the dialogue. The story did NOT need it. Now I can handle an occasional swear word in books and it doesn’t bother me, but I abhor the F word. And when it was used more than once within the first 30 pages of the book, along with a few other swear words, my excitement over the book quickly deflated. The book has such an interesting premise too. It follows Cas, who in the legacy of his father, slays ghosts. Wait, what? Ghosts are already dead!! I know. He hunts down ghosts that are dangerous and kill or harm humans and kills them with his magic athame he inherited from his father. Sounds cheesy? Well, it doesn’t come across that way in the book, I promise. So Cas has come to a small town to take care of Anna Dressed in Blood, who is a ghost who kills anyone who enters her house…except him. His whole world is turned upside down as he finds himself helping her, and even protecting her and dare I say…falling for her? Once again, sounds cheesy, but didn’t come across that way at all. I wanted to like it all, but I’m turned off by the language. I don’t know if I will be reading the sequel which comes out this fall. Probably not. So in this case, a little horror was not good for my soul. And there are no other good horror stories coming out any time soon. I can’t even satisfy my appetite for horror on television since the Walking Dead doesn’t come back until October!! What’s a girl to do?
If you’ve read Anna Dressed in Blood, did you feel the same way? I want to hear what you think and if swearing ruins or changes your opinion of a book. Is there anything else in a book that ruins it for you?
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