Review: The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting

 Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Released: March 16th 2010 
Published by: Harper Teen
Pages: 336

Summary from Goodreads:

"A serial killer on the loose. A girl with a morbid ability. And the boy who would never let anything happen to her.

Violet Ambrose can find the dead. Or at least, those who have been murdered. She can sense the echoes they leave behind... and the imprints they leave on their killers. As if that weren't enough to deal with during junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.

Now a serial killer has begun terrorizing Violet's small town... and she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him."

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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 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.

My Thoughts:
I loved the characters. All of them were people I could picture. They all had their own distinct personalities. The whole book was refreshing, from the characters, to the ability, to the lack of cliches.


One surprise that I rather liked was the alternate POV. The serial killer's POV was creepy & made me feel like screaming to the victims like you do in a horror movie. Sometimes I'd finish his chapter & realize I'd been holding my breath.

Violet was a fabulous character. Other than her ability, she was a normal teenager. She didn't seem weak & whiny, nor was she too tough to want anyone around. Her ability was a major part of the story, but it wasn't something that was written to death, it was low key, which was a nice change. This made her very easy to relate to. She had her faults like every teenager does. She'd get an idea & then act on it & not think it through entirely. It would seem like a good idea, but then other characters, (usually Jay) would point out to her how stupid the idea really was. She had great parents. It was nice to have a book where the parents are still married & active participants in their childs life & weren't characters I wanted to smack around.

While some books seem to play up cliches, which are often misplaced & detract from the the story, this one did not. This was a fabulous book from start to finish. I didn't want to put it down until I was finished.

If you want to preorder it, pick the store of your choice:
US: IndieBound    B&N    Borders    Books A Million   
Canada: Chapters  
International: Book Depository
Places to find the fabulous author: Twitter   Website