Review: "The Body Finder" by: Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder by: Kimberly Derting


Released: March 16th, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age: Young Adult
Pages: 327
Overall:  4 out 5 stars
Recommend Level: Medium to High
Challenge: 2010 Debut Author (The Story Siren)
Summary: "A serial killer on the loose. A girl with a morbid ability. And the boy who would never let anything happen to her. 
Violet Ambrose can find the dead. Or at least, those who have been murdered. She can sense the echoes they leave behind... and the imprints they leave on their killers. As if that weren't enough to deal with during junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.
Now a serial killer has begun terrorizing Violet's small town... and she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him."

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 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 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."

---------------------------------------------------------

Review: I think I'd give it three and a half stars, but either way...I liked the book. I loved that Kimberly Derting jumped right into the love story of the book to not only bring you closer to the characters but to get it over with and get to the point of the book. I think this is the first time in awhile I actually really liked the MC, Violet Ambrose. Not one thing annoyed me about her. And if you know me, that's saying a lot!

The one (maybe on of two) complaints is that it's written in third person. And I actually have a hard time with that because I feel like I'm reading from a distance...or that I'm getting a story second hand--days later. I'd rather be in the place of the MC. I enjoyed Kimberly's writing style...except the third person. 
The ending was amazing and that's why I went ahead with the extra .5 to give it a full four stars. I felt like this book left me wanting more in a few places. I did enjoy that there was no run around of "will they-won't they" it got it out of the way in the beginning so all we focused on were Violet's gift, the romance between her and Jay and finding the killer. 
I can't wait to  read the sequel to the book...but it looks like I'll have to!


(Check out the full list of 2010 Debut Authors I have lined up to read as well as the reviews of the ones I've already read. Just click here!)