Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: Harper
Age Group: Teen
Source: Borrowed from Public Library
Amazon     Barnes and Noble     IndieBound
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads:

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:

Oh my gosh, I really liked this book!  It was soooo good.  There were so many things I loved about The Body Finder.  Great characters, awesome story, fantastic writing style.

I loved Violet.  She was a great main character.  Her ability to locate dead bodies (whether animal or human) was such an interesting aspect to her character.  All her insecurities where it came to Jay were so genuine, and I could definitely relate to them.  I also loved her determination to use her ability to help others, even though she was so frightened.

Oh, and Jay!  Wowza!  Jay is definitely one of my favorite guys from all the YA books I’ve read.  He is so sweet, and very protective towards Violet.  I just loved the relationship between Jay and Violet.

The supporting characters were awesome, too, and well developed.  Cheslea in particular.  I don’t know if I would have wanted to be friends with someone like Cheslea, but I loved that she had such a distinct personality.

The plot was great – very suspenseful.  It sort of reminded me of all the mysteries I used to read in high school.  There were a few things that I rolled my eyes at, though.  I don’t want to go into too much detail or give too much away.  But let’s just say a certain character is being stalked.  She knows someone is after her.  Then why, oh why, would she ever be okay with sending her friends away, so she would be left alone.  Why don’t they learn?

But anything that caused an eye roll was relatively small, and I loved the book!  I definitely recommend this one, if you haven’t read it already.  I will definitely be reading more by Kimberly Derting!