Book Review - The Body Finder

The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #1
Genres: Paranormal, Mystery | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th March 2010
Publishers: HarperCollins
No. Pages: 312
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
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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.

When I picked up The Body Finder at the library, the first thing I noticed about it was just how lovely and subtle the book cover was. Years ago I might have over looked it because of how simple it came across, but I think the thing that makes it work is it doesn't take any attention away from the synopsis of the story and really leaves all the talking to the words inside, it doesn't need to incise you in or convince you or why you should read it and at the end of the reading journey your thoughts are completely about the book and not sidetracked by the over the top illustrations on the front. (Okay.. it might just be me who thinks about marking a book a little higher because of the prettiness... don't judge me!!)

Now that the comments about the cover are over, lets move on to my favourite thing about this story, the idea behind it. Now I could be completely wrong, but there aren't many books out there about girl who can sense those who have been murdered because of an echo left right? if I am by all means feel free to leave the names of the books in a comments because i'd love to have a look at them. Anyway for me, it's the first time I've read anything like this so right from the straight before the story has even began we have this wonderful unique concept.  As we start to read we learn more and more about Violet and how her gift works we start to become a little bit more fascinated than we already where (if that's possible) and then BAM!, we get a chapter from the killer's POV. We are lucky to not only have the unique idea, but a creepiness that should come with this type of book all rolled into a pretty well written novel.

The characters in this book were also just another thing that was done perfectly. In the form of the main protagonist we have Violet, she's not exactly the tough character you would expect in someone who deals with death all the time, but that's one of the things I liked the most about her, she was just your typical teenage girl (with abilities of course). She was shy, she was loyal and she was very protective of those she cared about, she even had crushes. Her crush comes in the form of the very sweet, caring and funny boy Jay. They've been best friends for year but as the years go by Jay becomes more handsome until Violet can't help but look at him longingly. Most of the time when someone writes about friends taking the next step it can either go two ways, it turns out to be rushed, unrealistic and awkward or the characters just fit perfectly and thankfully, that's what we get out of this relationship. They were so cute together and I loved how protective Jay was over Violet.

Overall, in case you couldn't guess, I loved this book. I'm sad I waited so long to pick it up but at least this way I don't have to wait for the others to come out, I can just continue them at my own pace and I for one can not wait to find out what happens next.