Anna Dressed in Blood

Parents need to know that Anna Dressed in Blood is the start to a horror series by Kendare Blake (Three Dark Crowns) with a movie in the works produced by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and starring Maddie Hasson and Cameron Monaghan. With "blood" in the title, you'd be smart to expect lots of it here, along with ghost scares. It's a good fit for mature readers who are avid watchers of scary movies. Otherwise, expect nightmares. Teens known to the main character, Cas, die gruesomely -- three of them in the present, one in a flashback that includes fear of sexual abuse. Two of these teens are found dead, ripped apart with blood everywhere; one is killed by a parent; one is ripped in half by a ghost. The family cat is killed. People unknown to Cas are found killed and partially eaten. Cas' father had also been found dead, partially eaten, 10 years before. Hauntings show gory details of deaths, such as spilled intestines. Cas dispatches other ghosts with a special knife and learns their stories of how they died, usually violently. He suffers many injuries including a concussion, near organ failure, and bruises. While sexual content is just kissing, swearing of all intensities ("damn" to "f--k") is a regular occurrence and there's some heavy teen drinking at a party (though with a designated driver).