REVIEW: Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Title: Desires of the Dead (The Body Finder series, #2)
Author: Kimberly Derting 
Format: ARC, 355 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Source: Kai, who got the ARC from ALA
Published: February 15, 2011 by HarperCollins

The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found.

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

Why I Read this Book: When I finally got a hold of and read The Body Finder, I was pleased to find out that the things I heard about the book were true. It truly is a great debut novel. I was expecting a cliffhanger ending at the end of The Body Finder but there wasn’t one.Why was I expecting one? I’m not exactly sure. Maybe because it’s a series that involves the same main characters with a continuing storyline. And while all loose ends were tied by the end, I was still interested in reading Desires of the Dead to find out what else was going on with Violet.

What I Liked: As with The Body Finder, I was invested in the author’s writing style. The descriptions were vivid enough without being too drawn out. Also like it’s predecessor, Desires of the Dead included brief chapters that gives the reader an idea of what’s going on inside the antagonist’s mind. This actually threw me off, not at first but about in the middle of the book. You think you know who the antagonist is but then something comes up, leaving you not so sure.

I liked that the prologue is an event that takes place towards the end of the book and the book leads the reader to that point. The prologue definitely pulled me right in. You will want to devour Desires of the Dead in one sitting.

What I Didn’t Like: I can’t believe Violet was so untrusting of Jay, unlike her relationship with him in The Body Finder. And Chelsea is getting on my nerves now, big time. She’s too selfish and self-serving. I wanted to smack her silly.

Overall Impression: Desires of the Dead is a good follow-up novel. I feel that this book was up to par with the first; neither of the two books outshone the other. Towards the end of this book, I was a little concerned about how things were going to be wrapped up but the author pulled through and did a fabulous job. Most loose ends were tied up so there was no major cliffhanger. There was just enough of the storyline left open to get me interested in reading the next book. There’s definitely room to expand on this series and I cannot wait to see where the author takes the storyline next with the next 2 books. The story arc involving Sara seems interesting and I’m curious to see where the author takes it.

 

The Book Vixen’s Rating: