The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Synopsis 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 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.


My thoughts:
Even though not wholly original, this book has some different themes than some YA out there. It was odd to have the teenage flutterings of Violet's crush on Jay juxtaposed with the raving thoughts of a serial killers, yet somehow it seemed to work. Violet's attempts to rein in her feelings for Jay were sweet, but I could see this causing potential eye-rolls for other readers. The build-up of the story is too slow at times and while I cared about Violet, I wanted to read more about her using her abilities rather than her boy-toy dramas, but it was never a dealbreaker and actually endearing in some parts. This story and Violet's abilities reminded me a lot of Harper Connelly in Charlaine Harris's series.
But then chapter by chapter little parts would start to bother me. For instance, Violet and Jay became entirely too sappy and trite or the villain would be too predictable, but at the same time totally unrealistic. So this also meant the ending was a letdown. Things began to snowball until I realized I didn't really want to read anymore. So while I thought the premise was interesting, the execution was lacking. I don't know if I'll be continuing with the series, but I can see why it could have its share of fans, even if I'm not one of them.

Copy Source: Ebook purchased