The Body Finder
by Kimberly Derting
Summary: 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.
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Source: I purchased a kindle copy.
Review:
While The Body Finder was enjoyable to read, I have to admit that it didn’t leave a lasting impression. As I was sitting down to catch up on reviews, it actually slipped my mind that I read it at all and I had to go back and skim a few pages to jog my memory. That’s actually never happened to me, but forgetting about the story completely has certainly impacted my feelings about it.
Violet could find bodies of animals and people based on some sort of power that leaves her with trails. Often, she can also find the killer based on the weird trail her or she makes and the way it relates to the death trail.
Many YA books can be enjoyed as adults. I’d argue most of them can be. But there’s a few that just aren’t for adults. We expect too much, we ask too many questions, and we just can’t enjoy a book that a younger audience would. For this book, there’s virtually no depth to the story. Violet spent more time dealing with the drama of falling for a guy who was also her best friend throughout most of the story. The finding of the bodies was just an extra side plot to me and it takes Violet no time to just waltz around and eventually sniff the person out, but there was no build up, no list of suspects, and no real plan.
For young teens who like the idea of there being something special about the main character, like the added mystery element, and essentially want a best friends become a couple type of relationship arc, The Body Finder would be a great recommendation. But for me, it just fell flat and didn’t offer me anything worthwhile. I mean, I totally FORGOT I even finished this. I would've given this 3 stars if it didn't turn out to be quite so forgettable.
Labels: mystery, Review, YA
