Desires of the Dead , by Kimberly Derting

Hardcover, 355 pages

Published February 15th 2011 by HarperTeen

ISBN

0061779849 (ISBN13: 9780061779848)

edition language

English

original title

Desires of the Dead

series

The Body Finder #2

characters

Violet Ambrose, Jules, Jay Heaton, Claire, Megan Russo

setting

Washington (United States)

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

  My Review
This is a series of books that I would actually happily read over and over merely because it provides what it promises. The book, in comparrison and context to others, is perhaps a little simplistic, but this is where we have to remind ourselves that it is written for the young adult and teenage population, not perhaps say the 21 year olds who can read dean koontz or stephen king. The characters are well developed within the story line so that you get a real sense and feel for who they are without getting bored of them. It had been a while since I read the first one, but I actually felt that I had literally just put it down and started the second one because it was so easy to remember what had happened in the previous novel and therefore we were now. In many ways I would say this novel was more mysterious in the context of that a murder is solved quite quickly on in the books. In most situations you would start to wonder if the book was perhaps moving a little too fast and was this all we were going to get from it. However, with Desires of the dead this was simply a little motion of hooking you into the pages. It was the spark to the rest of the mystery that was about to occur. With books like this, where there is more than one problem going on though, you tend to find that the authors get carried away and are not sure how to handle all the different plots that are within their novel. However, for me I would say that Kimberly Derting, writes with skill and style, allowing everything to slot right into place so that nothing is out of the ordinary but also so that you do not become confused or lost within the pages.


Violet is your typical sort of teenage girl in a very romantic relationship but at the same time, its something that all the romantics at heart can relate to and therefore define easier within our minds. The very fact that we are able to see the fraying strings of the relationship merely shows that this is not all about the bodies that are yet to be fine. there seems to be a story line within a storyline within a storyline, making it that much more thought provoking and self engaging.  In many ways you start to feel sorry for violet and the very fact that she has the ability to do something that a lot of us would probably cringe at, if not worse. I know for me, that being squemish, this would not be the best ability to ever have, plus my caring nature would mean that I would evidentally and quite quickly go insane because there would be to many people to help and to many people to discover. I do love the way that the author portrays her emotions in the novel though in that you can see she is a compassionate person who worries constantly about what others would say were they know what it was that she was able to do. But at the same time you can see she is a head strong lady who knows her actions and her choices and knows where the line to cross is and what she should do. You almost begin to put yourself in her shoes, wondering what it was that you would do were you to be her, would you for example run of and tell the one person that you trust most in the world and love most in the world? or would you keep everything a secret.

As much though, as I want to say it, this book is not something that sticks totally to reality. you can see where there are little flaws to it, but thats when you ahve to remind yourself this isnt reality, its a book about something which isnt actually technically possible and therefore why should everything else then be real as well. There is one thing that I am sure about though, and it is something that both me and my sister have discussed when talking about the series. there has to be another book on the way! the way in which the book ended with Rafe and the whole FBI group thing for people with special abilities seems to suggest that there is another book to the sequel and perhaps our library is just to slow to have it yet? We both agreed that we thing that there is a little something special going on with her and rafe which in all honesty would make a lot of sense as they both have soemthing that they can connect to one another with. They both understand what its like to have this huge secret on your shoulders and not wanting to talk about it with anyone else and yet wanting to share it for good too. the book is just one of those types that leaves you with a whole range of possibilities for what could happen next or what should happen next.

This is many ways is the reason for my five star rating. its a book that keeps your mind active from the word go and is one of those books that is very hard to put down again once you have really gotten into it. you cant help but keep on reading even though you keep promising you will read just one more chapter before you have that little afternoon nap that you so badly need. The whole complexity of the book is just well developed in a way that it suits the age range for which it is aimed at but also has something very interactive about it that I am sure many of us, despite our age, would probably enjoy reading.

My rating