Review: The Body Finder

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

publisher: HarperTeen

released: March 16, 2010

hardcover, 336 pages

intended audience: Young adult

source: purchased copy

rating:


description: 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 left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope 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: Since I read The Body Finder so late in the game, I'd obviously heard things about it. Wonderful things. From my fellow bloggers. From my best friend who borrowed my copy ages ago. Everyone raved. So needless to say. I cracked open this books with some very high expectations. And guess what? It lived up to every one of them. A few posts ago, I posted a list of my favorite debuts of 2010...this one is officially added.

Kimberely Derting knows how to write. She knows how to make your skin crawl by making you look through the eyes of a killer. She knows how to give a reader a make-out scene that will bring color and heat to her (or his!) cheeks. She's given us the sweetest friendship around with years of history behind it. And she's given us a new kind of paranormal gift mixed with the typical teenage dilemmas and emotional conflict that made our protagonist a perfect balance of bravery, determination, youth, and vulnerability. There were several amazing moments where the suspense and fear would build and I swear, while reading, my eyes would get bigger and bigger and I would catch myself holding my breath until the scene became clear. Your suspicions would be drawn one way and then the other. This book was quite an experience...an experience that I absolutely loved! I could go on and on, but probably not without saying something that would ruin the suspense. I will say it's probably the most deserving book of the "paranormal romance" title out there, as it's heavy on both! I could see this appealing to both readers of paranormal romance and readers of contemporary romance who tend to shy away from a majority of the paranormal stuff, because the story of Violet and Jay is just so amazingly swoon-worthy!

So if you haven't already, get yourself a copy and read this right away!

The second installment in this series is due out February 11, 2010!! I can't wait!

Visit Kimberly Derting's site here.

Purchase The Body Finder at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository