The body finder
2010 • 329 pages
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
High school junior Violet uses her uncanny ability to sense murderers and their victims to try to stop a serial killer who is terrorizing her town, and although her best friend and would-be boyfriend Jay promises to keep her safe, she becomes a target.
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BLUF: The Body Finder is equal part mystery and YA puppy love.
Overview: Violet Ambrose has a gift - she can see dead people. Just kidding, but she can sense animals and people that have died at the fault of others. Sometimes this sense is auditory, other times it can be olfactory, gustatory, or visual. While fascinating to an extent, this gift can be traumatizing - she found her first human body at the age of eight.
Mystery Plot: When the killer dumps a body outside of town, Violet and her classmates are shocked. Soon after, a local girl is taken without a trace from the killer. Violet takes it upon herself to help the catch the killer, but can she do so without moving too far into harm's way?
YA Puppy Love Plot: Over the summer, Violet's best friend has grown from boy to manboy. He's turned into a real hunk and is completely oblivious to all of the girls fawning over him - including Violet. How can he be so clueless?
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My thoughts: The concept of somebody who has an ability to sense the murdered as well as the murdered's imprint on the murderer is exciting. It's taking the detective's intuition and pulling it into one of the other senses. I love it.
Unfortunately, these senses aren't quite like intuition: they aren't built up through clues and observations. This means that the reader isn't brought into the trail to find the killer - we aren't able to make our own assumptions. We are left in the dark with no ability to guess the killer.
Don't get me wrong, it's interesting to see her hunt, but not as much fun as it would be to hunt with her.
Now the YA portion, oh my. I can't say I miss the emotional state of being a teenager, but it was captured painfully well...
I can't say that I wasn't annoyed by it. Violet spends a majority of the book crushing on her best friend while, simultaneously, telling herself that she is going to stop crushing on her best friend. Ah, I remember the days of constant self-doubt and uncontrollable emotions. (Or... rather... this book had me relive it.)
In the end: It may be irrational, but I really enjoyed this book. I know I shouldn't as Violet's crush/obsession completely overshadows the murder mystery, but I really did.
