Desires of the Dead: Kimberly Derting

Desires of the Dead, the second book in the Body Finder series, has Violet, a girl capable of matching echoes of murdered bodies with the imprints left on their killers, pitted against an evil unlike anything she's faced before in this blood-chilling thriller and coming-of-age romance.

Breakdown:

Not going to lie, Derting scares me somewhat with her ability to get in the mind of her killers. How accurate it all is, and how sickening they come across (Well, they are serial killers, what else would you expect?) with every life they take. After Violet's lifelong guy friend, Jay, becomes her boyfriend, her entire life changes, and not just because they're not doing homework when they hang out together. Her ability has caught the eye of the FBI, most specifically Agent Sara Priest, who wants Violet to help her match the imprints of killers to the echoes of their victims. After a lifetime spent safeguarding her secret, the idea of being able to use her power to help instead of hide vanishes her indecision. With a new partner by the name of Rafe, who simultaneously freaks her out as he draws her in, and a bunch of creepy clues that point towards a girl and her brother newly moved to Violet's sleepy town, she stumbles upon something more terrifying than she's ever come across: a man so desperate to be loved he would kill the one woman who does just to save himself the pain of her rejection.

What I Disliked:

It's creepy how accurate Derting is in her writing, not to mention outright unnerving. Seriously, is she a serial killer herself? Because it seems that way.

Secondly, who the hell names their kid Violet? How stupid of a name can you get? Sorry, but all I can think of is Violet from Feed by M.T. Anderson, saying, "That's meg awesome." Barf.

Also, how does Violet's inability to walk away from the dead not go noticed? Not many people get up in the middle of the night to investigate dead bodies in a creepy forest in the middle of nowhere. And they wonder why she looks so freaked out all the time!

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5: Sure, it may be creepy, but that's sort of the point, isn't it? And even though what Violet can do seems improbable, the way Derting writes makes it seem less impossible. The writing is descriptive, eerie, haunting, and mysterious, and makes you want to keep reading, which is something not all authors can do.