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 … 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 left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer — and Violet is unnerved by her hope 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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The plot is very interesting but unfortunately, it wasn’t executed correctly, I’m not surprised given the year the book was published and that from 2009 to 2014-15 practically all the books had the same formula. Anyway, I finished it and I liked it in a way, so that means something but it’s definitely not for me, probably younger readers like it. A plus point is the mystery and tension of the book, it was handled in a good way.
What I didn’t like:
-Annoying protagonist that knows everything, never listens to anyone and is not like the other girls, although at least it wasn’t so obvious and she was not hateful to all the girls.
-Friends-to-lovers, in a nutshell; two childhood friends who love each other but don’t say anything to not ruin their friendship and spend most of the book suffering from it.
-The ending was very dramatic and anticlimactic
-Secondary characters are forgettable
-The decisions of the protagonist are too stupid, like she’s dumb
-Way too cliche
-The paranormal theme was not explained and hardly even considered in the story, although it was the most important thing.
In general, it is not bad but I will not read the other books.
TW: violence, murder, kidnapping.
Heroine: 4/10
Hero: 5/10
Romance: 4/10
Ratio type: F/M
Violence/dark scenes: 1/10
Plot: 5/10
Type: series
Cover: 6/10
It has been awhile since I’ve read Young Adult, so when my podcast partner suggested we read, The Body Finder, and do a review on our podcast channel, Books Don’t Review Themselves, I thought that sounded like a great idea.
I also wanted to do a written review so I could leave it on Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, etc…
Right from the beginning Kimberly Derting had me hooked. A young girl finds a body and the action just continues from there. Although the action shifts to Violet and Jay’s dating lives before going back to the disappearances and murders.
I thought Derting handled the relationship ups and downs of high schoolers very well. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school, but Derting brought back all the sweet and intense feelings one gets from a first love. She held out just long enough with the will they or won’t they to keep the emotions up, but didn’t drag it on so long that I got bored.
Derting also writes about the darker side of relationships. She shows how a normal relationship can quickly turn to obsession and even assault. I thought it was good that she didn’t gloss over this since it’s something everyone needs to be aware of. And for people just starting out dating, they need to know that these are not healthy relationships, as well as not something you should ever put up with.
She writes about not just romantic relationships, but the ones between friends and various cliques. The mean girl didn’t get the punishment I was hoping she would, but she does get put in her place. The way Derting writes about high school interactions is very believable.
The storyline revolving around the murders is done very well too. I didn’t think the scenes were too graphic, and still they managed to convey the fear and horrific nature of the crimes. Derting did a wonderful job laying down clues if you were looking for them. But still managed to add some surprises. I am interested to see how Violet continues using her powers, especially when she starts working with the FBI.
There are three more books in this series, so you’ll have more to enjoy if you like this one. They are, Desires of the Dead, The Last Echo, and Dead Silence.
And you might also enjoy some old school authors like R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series or Christopher Pike’s books. Some of my favorites by Pike are Last Act, Scavenger Hunt, Remember Me, Chain Letter, and The Final Friends trilogy.
The young love first romance story-line was engaging. The serial killer story line was suspenseful. The girl with supernatural powers to find dead things and read imprints of the dead on people who had killed them was an interesting story-line. What I not like was the repeated story-line of young girls making stupid decisions. Most likely will not read more novels in the series.
This book probably deserved 3.5 stars but I gave it four because it was a nice story that had me on edge towards the end. I finished this book in like 5 hours, so it definitely kept me interested.
I did not love this book, but I did not hate it either. I found it to be a nice read that kept me interested from beginning to end. This is saying a lot considering murder mystery themed books do not really interest me. But I really liked Violet and I found the unique twist of her being able to sense dead bodies and able to “hunt” down a serial killer to be a great new twist on a murder story.
This book was interesting, the characters were fitting and great to story; Violet is a sweet girl who’s struggling with her new found affection for her best friend Jay while secretly hunting a killer of young girls. She is not boring but not exactly lovable either, I did like Jay and his overprotective behavior towards Violet and saving her ass multiple times. This book was not necessarily slow paced, but stuck with the story-line very well and flowed at a decent pace.
I would suggest this book if need something to pick up really quick. It will keep you interested to the very end. Not a bad pick up for my first Kimberly Derting book.