By Jordan Sunkel
Round Table editor
Violet has a special power. She can’t fly. She’s not super strong. She can’t stop time. She’s not indestructible. But she can find bodies.
Ever since she was a little girl, bodies have been calling out to her. Sometimes it’s a sound or a taste, other times it’s a color or feeling. Some she’s able to control the sounds, while other times they call to her so strongly that she’s pulled to them. However, the bodies aren’t always animals. Sometimes they’re human.
In The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting, a killer has started attacking Violet’s town. Violet finds the first body accidentally, and before long, more girls go missing. Her uncle, head of the police department, knows Violet is the only one who can find them.
As she struggles to find the killer, Violet is forced into life-threatening situations that test her mental strength. While she deals with a killer, she also must deal with the changes in her relationship with her best friend Jay.
The killer becomes more desperate, striking closer to home, and Violet knows she only has a few days to figure out who it is before he strikes again. However, the closer she gets to him, the closer he gets to figuring her out.
Derting’s approach to such a radical power is both thrilling and terrifying. The way she adds in parts of the killer’s thoughts creates a whole other dimension of depth to the story.
The novel lacks surprises and twists, but the book is still good enough to not be able to put down. I wish it had contained a few, which would further increase the suspense in the book.
Unfortunately, the plot wasn’t quite scary enough for me. I don’t typically enjoy scary stories, but I expected more from a novel about a girl with the ability to find dead people.
While the plot lacks terror, it balances with realistic aspects. Although Violet has a weird, supernatural power, she is mainly a normal teenage girl. She struggles with dealing with her friends, her parents and Jay. The relationship between Violet and Jay is heartwarming, sincere and romantic as they discover how to deal with the killer.
As Violet and Jay start piecing together their murder mystery, the killer begins moving in on them, faster than they think. Before Violet knows it, she could be next.
