Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

This is a fun, quick read.  Its not gonna win any medals or awards but I recommend it all the same.
I think anyone who has heard the Chicago Ghost Urban Legend of Resurrection Mary would enjoy this.  Its the legend of the girl who was killed on prom night and still walks seeking a ride to prom?
She wasn't called Mary or Anna in my Iowa hometown where I first heard the tale.
This has a new spin.  Anna is trapped in a house where she viciously kills anyone who happens to enter.  Cas Lowood, a boy about the age of Anna when she died, is a ghost buster.  He and his white witch mom have come to town to release Anna and send her to where she belongs.  He has the knife his dad used before he died ghost busting.  Nothing much goes as planned.  People die, Cas loses his knife and Anna and Cas seemingly fall in love.  Anna is released but not to a final resting place, rather from that evil which trapped her in the house, perhaps the same evil that killed Cas' father?  Cas is possessed of an Obeahman requiring very special release using his mom, a kid and his grandfather who practice a bit of voodoo and black magic and some of the school kids who first introduced Cas to Anna and actually made it out of the house alive.  Anna, at first evil turns out to be quite likeable.  Cas lightens intense scenes with humorous statements.  And there is a sequel which I am about to read:  Girl of Nightmares.
JDW

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid The Book of Scary Urban Legends - Jan Brunvand

Urban Legends have been a part of folklore for a long time. All are told by a person who said it happened to a friend of a friend. From the Vanishing Hitchhiker, to Bloody Mary, to Spiders in the Cactus, to the Kidney Heist, to the Kentucky Fried Rat. These stories have become part of our culture. Even though the location of where the story happens (like the urban legends that happen on college campuses) changes, the essence of the story remains the same.

So the next time you have a party or a sleepover, and you want to give people a good scare tell them to go into the bathroom and say Bloody Mary three times in front of the mirror, or after you hear about an escaped convict with a hook for a hand, and you come home from being out with your girlfriend/boyfriend and discover a hook in the side of the car door. If you are at a boarding school or college make sure you turn on the lights if you hear strange sounds coming from your roommates side of the room. Last, but certainly not least, if you are babysitting young children, make sure you check on them, and if the phone rings make sure it's not coming from inside the house.

If you want to read more urban legends you can check out Jan Brunvand's other books, and I also recommend the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series.

T.B. 9/19/11