Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Author: Kimberly Derting

Publisher:  HarperTeen

Page Count: 328 pages, Paperback

Date Published: February 15th 2011 (first published March 16th 2010)

Goodreads Blurb:

 Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

My Thoughts: Wonderfully crafted and extremely romantic...

The Body Finder follows Violet. Guess what she can do? Find dead bodies! The prologue starts off with the first time Violet found a murdered girl. She was eight years old. Morbid? I think yes. But it was a really impressive start to the book. Quite a lot of the book is actually not about the murders. It's about Violet's relationship with Jay, her longtime best friend. She's suddenly developed strong feelings for him and doesn't know quite how to handle it. I loved this aspect to the story. Violet's so confused as to why she's suddenly crushing on Jay that she doesn't see what's right in front of her... He likes her too. The romance was super cute and made me smile the whole way through. 

Derting's style of writing was unusually enjoyable. It was vague, in the sense that she didn't over-explain unnecessary things. With that, it was a pretty easy read. I whizzed through it, because of the simple, clear writing, and also, the gripping story. The murder mystery had me hooked. The author inserted random chapters in which we were reading from the serial killer's point of view, instead of Violet and that was extremely chilling. I loved it. There wasn't anything too gory or graphic, but the author still gives that creepy sensation where you feel the need to check behind your back multiple times. 

I also really enjoyed the fact that the ending was... The end. There was no huge cliffhanger, but the author did make it so that you were craving more. You know who the murderer is, that plot-line is finished, but there's still so much more that can be added. I wanted to know more about Violet's body finding ability, and of course read more about her and Jay's relationship. But if you for some reason or another you decide not to read the next book, you won't be dissatisfied that you don't know how it ends. I'm assuming the next books have other murder mysteries for Violet to try and solve, which I'm totally looking forward to.

Have an amazing day/night everyone,
-Kristy