Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder

Author: Kimberly Derting

Genre: Paranormal and Romance

harcover, 329 pages

"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." - Summary from Goodreads

The Body Finder is a luring, addictive book that caught my attention right from the short description in the front cover flap. When I was first introduced to this book, my friend was consuming it at the time and kept blabbing about how good it was. It caught my attention, and I promised myself to investigate the book further.

Violet's special ability was astonishingly creative. I really liked the idea -not in a creepy way, though- of a girl who could find murdered bodies. Not only was it clever, but it was also executed particularly well. Violet didn't find bodies just through one certain sense. Instead, she found them through a number of senses, all creative and enchanting.

They would omit an energy - a sensory echo - in the wake of their murder, like a beacon that only she could find, letting her know where they'd been discarded. it could be anything . . . a smell, a burst of color, a taste in the back of her mouth, or a combination of several sensations at once.

She didn't know how . . . or why . . . It just happened.

Violet and Jay were an addictive combination. I have always had a soft spot for books with boy/girl best friend relationships, I love reading about them when their together, and how they just weave with each other so easily. However, some parts of Jay and Violets friends-only relationship confused me. One moment they would be holding hands across school, and the next they would be completely ignoring each other for a week. One day they would be lying together in their beds, and the slightest provocation would cause them to cast the silent treatment towards the other for days. Their relationship was like a crouching tiger. The slightest move in the scene would cause it to pounce. For the first half of the book I knew that something was missing, something needed to happen to them because they were simply meant to be together. Finally, midway they confessed and poured out their love to each other and picked up the pace. They became inseparable.

The mystery of the killer caught on to me as if it were a fishing hook. Several chapters were introduced by his point of view, which added to the mystery and suspense of the plot. He himself includes a HUGE dangerous twist that made me feel overprotective for Violet and Jay. I felt the need, as the avid reader, to protect them from harm, whether or not there was the fact that I actually couldn't help them. The killer made me emotionally attached.

One of my favorite things about this book was the laconic foreshadowing. Often they were just phrases or a simple sentence that seemed unimportant at the moment to the scene. But they had that effect on me to seem as if they were telling me that something unexpected was going to happen, I just didn't know when or where. The foreshadowing was amusing, and it was a great addition to the story line. Every mysterious sentence kept the gears in my brain turning as I was trying to predict what would happen next.

The Body Finder is a unique, fantastic story that will drag you in like a narcotic. I stayed up until around three in the morning to finish it, as it was impossible for me to put it down. A potpourri of romance, action, murder mystery all topped with the paranormal touch, this book was a highly enjoyable read. Recommended for any young adult who wants a page turning and addictive book.

4.5 Beasts