The Body Finder #1: The Body Finder

What would you do if you ever developed the ability to sense the dead and un-rested souls? Not really a power one wants but let’s see how it is dealt with in The Body Finder #1 The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting.

Here is the summary of the book:

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.

Superhuman strength; Lab experimenting turning you into the ultimate soldier; the ability to see the past, present and future; the x-genes giving you the ability to shoot flames, ice, x-ray vision, telekinetics, heightened brain cells, mind reading, manipulating iron etc. All very clean and healthy abilities to have but what if you instead have the ability to sense the echoes of the dead un-rested souls, crying for help, for someone to hear them and put them to their proper resting place; definitely a very creepy ability to possess and this is where we meet Violet Ambrose, the protagonist of the body finder series. She can sense the dead, the un-rested wailing to quench them of their gory end.

Violet is what you call a normal high-school student, a teenager going through and pushing through in the busy throngs of school, experiencing every hormonal need a teenager does and has great friends. But she has a secret, a secret that might get her unnecessary attention – she can sense the dead – not just any dead – she can sense them the un-rested the worst – for these souls have not been put to rest but covered up in the most gruesome of ways possible. It can be animals, and it can be human dead bodies. Only her family and her best friend Jay Heaton know that she possess this ability and know to keep quiet about it.

Throw in the mix her best friend since childhood (already mentioned) Jay Heaton. Not only did they both grow up together but now Violet is starting to feel different about him. The strange butterflies in the stomach, catching her breath whenever he smiles at her, her insides doing somersaults at the thought of the guy, daydreaming about him, getting jealous when any other girl fawns over him, all the symptoms point to the burgeoning feelings of love and attraction to the opposite sex. Yes, her best friend has developed to be quite the hottie and they had thought would never be possible between them, disgusting even, is becoming true.

Every girl in school wants him now and are secretly looking for ways attracting his attention towards them but somehow Jay seems oblivious of all this…..not for long I assure you. Circumstances, well hormonal teenager related circumstances lead both Violet and Jay to realize their feelings for one another.

Something is going on among all this day-to-day routine. Teenage girls…beautiful even are turning up dead and covered up and buried in forest floors, left in the waters even buried in pits. There is a serial killer on the loose and girls are not safe anymore. But searching the essence of the victims or the imprint of the hunter, Violet might just be playing into their trap.

All this said The Body Finder has an amazing and it really sets you in the mood with both the ebook and audiobook at the same time. The writing is very well done. We find both Violet and Jay along with their friends are really easy to connect with. All of them are just as normal and sane as any other person…. well excluding Violet’s ability to sense the dead un-rested souls and the imprints on the hunters that is. The one thing that is a major plus point for Violet is that she knows that she is no superhero but is very brave and rather lacks the quality of self-preservation for herself and Jay is also well written and their chemistry and all their interaction is very well…..adorable and cute.

What should I say about the conclusion and the case going on through it? Definitely sets the mood, we are always anticipating what might happen next, who would be the next victim. And all the portions in the killer’s might of view really drove the nail hard of the coming storm.

Overall Kimberly Derting has done a great job with this one and like in every other paranormal story where the plot is always shaped around the abilities of the character here it felt as if the person (Violet) was running around with an extra ordinary sixth-sense and going through life as a mundane day would be like.

Genre :      Young Adult, Paranormal


Publisher: HarperTeen


Rate:              5/5 (It was amazing)