The Body Finder

By: Kimberly Derting

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the 16-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 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 dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him. Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer and Violet is unnerved by her hope 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.

©2010 Kimberly Derting (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

You are warned

The book was ok, but there are some things you should be warned about. The narrator did a bad job on the characters. Her voice was too high-pitched and squeaky when she was doing Violet's part, which made the whole thing extremly distracting. Also, this is literally one of the cheesiest novels I have ever read. Don't get me wrong, there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But I know that many people trying this book are fans of paranormal romance. This book is much more Gossip Girl and The Clique than Twilight.

Romantic suspense for teens

With a serial killer at large and the body count rising, my first thought was that this would be aimed at older teens. Now that I've read it though, I'd say it was more for younger teens. There's an edge of The Disney Channel's version of high school here, although the serial killer is hardly toothless.

Violet is worried about normal things for a teen. Boys, school, lack of coolness. She and her long-time best friend are leaning towards becoming more than just friends and that takes up a huge amount of her mental time... And she has the secret ability to find dead things. It's not something she's happy about, but she can't help but know where they are. Meanwhile, a serial killer is escalating in the area, which a girl with her abilities can't help but notice, even if she's noticing and thinking about her would-be boyfriend at the same time.

The narrator isn't the best with additional voices, but otherwise I thought she was fine. Check the sample!

Overall, I'd say this book was good but not great. I'm in no hurry to listen to the next book in the series, but I liked this well enough while I was listening.

Good plot, horrible narration

The story/plot itself was really interesting. I could see this being made into a movie. However, I found the writing a bit juvenile and awkward at times. But, I will read/listen to the next in the series.

Narration: This book is tied for the worst narration I've ever heard. The only distinct voices were Claire and Violet. Every other female sounded the same and every other male sounded the same. Additionally, the male voices sounded like a woman *trying* to sound like a man. The men/boys came across as sounding oaf-ish and I could only picture Jay as a large, awkward boy. I strongly recommend a different narrator for the remaining novels.

So disappointing!

The fascinating concept is set aside to tell the story of a girl completely devoid of personality who gets a boyfriend.

Seriously, that's it.

It is pure Mary-Sue, wish fulfilment for teenage girls.

It's Twilight 2.0.

Don't buy this book if you are at all interested in the story promised.

The concept is never explored in a fulfilling way despite its originality and potential.

The main character is as dull as Bella Swan and also aims to teach more teenage girls that everything will be OK as long as you have a boy to rescue you.

I suppose in this case it was fortunate Violet had someone around to take care of her since she's always in need of rescuing!

The ‘love story’ itself is not even done well with no depth, rationale or reason so I can’t even recommend it to that kind of audience.

Such a disappointment.

Brilliant book for supernatural/fantasy lovers

A very well written story, a fantastic idea for a supernatural gift, thoroughly enjoyed. The murder mystery side of the book kept me interested throughout, I loved hearing the experiences through both the main characters POV and the killers, enough to keep an older reader such as myself (23) interested and entertained. The romance side however, is much more suited to the (assumed) target age 14-18, yet I understand this is a book written for young adults and i guess I maybe coming to the end of that category 😂. Regardless, well worth the money.