The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Published: February 2010 (Maybe March? Goodreads has two dates)
Source: Won
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 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.

This book makes me wonder why I don't read more mysteries. That was one of my favorite elements of the book. Violet's special ability was interesting too, but what kept me reading was the mystery. And the romance, but you can find that in any book.

Violet was a great protagonist, and I related to her well. I thought that the way that she was dealing with her new feelings for her best friend made her very likeable. Everyone views bestfriends turned boyfriends as cliche, but reading this I realized how little of it you see in young adult. I thought that it was done perfectly.

The interludes when we were in the serial killers head were fantastically creepy. I would read them and feel grossed out and disgusted afterword. That was awesome! 

One thing that I didn't like was that the supporting characters, like Violet's friends, were pretty one dimensional. We only got to see one side of them. It was the same with the mean girls. It really wasn't that important to the story, but I would have liked to have seen a different side of some of them.


Basically I loved this book! I just wish that the supporting characters had been less one dimensional.


Characters: 8/10
Writing: 9/10
Originality: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall: 46/50 A-
Cover/Title Comments: Love the title! It sounds creepy and fits. The cover is beautiful but has nothing to do with the story.