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Clik here to view.Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder
Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s
Published: March 16, 2010
Pages: 327From the Publisher: 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 that 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 the 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.
First Thoughts: Oh man. What a cool concept but now I can’t sleep!
The Story (non-spoiler): Violet can sense murdered bodies, which includes animals and humans. Gruesome right? Well yes. But what made this book so cool is that each body has it’s own unique imprint, whether it’s a smell, sound, or visual sight…and the killer bears the same echo of this imprint. When serial killings begin in Violet’s town she knows she will be able to find the killer.
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The MC: While I liked Violet, so many times she was the heroine I wanted to strangle. She is brave, yet foolish for thinking she doesn’t need protection. While she can identify the killer, she is also so very likely to be the one that gets killed! However, she was still awesome since she was selfless, loyal, pretty and a great friend. (Yes, I said pretty. What can I say, I prefer my heroines pretty! Makes the romance so fun.) She was also real in the way she dealt with her friend, Jay. She has the sweet innocence of a teenager afraid to find out her crush doesn’t like her back.
The Romance: While this book was not all about the swoon it was definitely there. I think we only started to see the romance blossom, but since this is book 1 I have a feeling it gets better and better with each installment. I loved Jay (and so did every other girl in the book). He was hot and kind and protective.
The Twists and Turns: Yes. I did not see that coming and frankly I was ascared!!
The Ending: Perfect and it tied up so nicely. It could absolutely be a stand alone novel, but since there are more books I’m going to assume each one is like a different episode.
Final Thoughts: While I really loved the concept I totally had some issues with the few chapters that were written through the killer’s eyes. While there was nothing graphic, for some reason it gave me the willies and really bothered me. You should also know I’m also a big baby. I clearly read stories with murder in them, but I think when it’s a paranormal murder, like some demon or beast it doesn’t strike a chord as much as this one did. I could truly imagine this creepy human man stalking young girls and it just really stressed me out. However, the rest of the story is very cool…that’s just where it stands with me.
Rec it? Yes. Image may be NSFW.
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