Hardcover: 336 pagesPublisher: Harperteen; 1 edition (Mar 16 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061779814
ISBN-13: 978-0061779817
I came across the cover for The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting when I was new to the blogging world and was completely enamored! (Plus, the story sounded interesting, too.) This was last September, so I've been patiently waiting all this time. As soon as I received my copy in the mail, I jumped right in.
In The Body Finder, we meet Violet Ambrose, a 16 year old that has the ability to locate dead bodies, be it human or animal. She senses their "echoes" which come in the form of colours, sounds, smells, etc. We soon find out that there's a serial killer on the loose and Violet feels her special talent will be the only way of discovering the killer. This idea is reinforced by her uncle, the police chief.
I found that while this was the catch for the book, the story centred more around the relationship between Violet and her best friend, Jay, which was taking on new dimensions.
I thought Kimberly Derting did a great job of explaining Violet's strange "gift" while not being too over the top, technically. Derting also managed to get us inside the head of the killer which, to me, she pulled off well; these glimpses were most definitely disturbing, to say the least.
I read through the book quickly and enjoyed it, especially because of the love story. In speaking with Mel at He Followed Me Home , we agreed to disagree about Jay's character (click her blog link to see her review.) Maybe it's just that I've been single for far too long, but I very much enjoyed this part of the story; the excitement of new, young, love kept me reading page after page to get to the good stuff (despite the evil being done.)
Thankfully, for me, The Body Finder is an example of much truer relationships between parents and teenagers, which is always a bone of contention with me. Violet's parents are around and involved; they're not perfect but they are more realistic.
I have also discovered that there will be another book, Desires of the Dead, coming in 2011. I'm very excited that we'll get to see more from Violet and Jay in the future!
6 comments:
This sounds great, and I love what you said about the main character's imperfect but involved parents. A young woman's family is often conspicuously missing in YA novels. BTW, I see we have the same C.S. Lewis quote on our blogs. :-)
I have been curious of this book. I am glad to hear you enjoyed the read. I am going to have to look into it for myself. Thank you!
Stephanie - Is that the one about the tea and books not being big enough? It is so true!! Lol.
Melissa - I wasn't sure if you liked the YA kinda books. If you do, then you'd probably like this one :-)
I do enjoy reading YA books, but for a long while now I have been caught up with just adult books. I am hoping very soon here to get back to reading a few YA books. I have a couple on my shelf to get to. :)
I'm going between "adult" and YA books right now but find YA's tend to be faster reads. The Body Finder is at the top of my list, along with Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick :-)
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