Hey bloggers, and blog-readers, and whoever else you might be. I realize I haven't written in a while, and I apologize, procrastinating takes up quite a lot of time. So, I read the book The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. Violet Ambrose is a teenage girl who has normal problems-such as being in love with her best friend Jay- and, one in particular that's not quite as normal. Violet, ever since she was little, has been able to sense the "echoes" of murder victims, both on the victim and the killer. Only her family and Jay know about it but now, with a string of murders happening in her town and the killer having yet to be caught, Violet could be the only one able to end the terror. But as the murderer learns more about her, and what she could make happen, suddenly their once quiet town could have another victim on their hands: Violet herself.
My first thought, after reading the synopsis, was Oh, great, another "Teen fantasy romance" novel. But there were no vampires as far as I could tell, so I gave it a read. And I really enjoyed it. One reason I liked it was because there was a refreshing change of hands from the male character (both in the supernatural sense and in the relationship between the two) having the power, to the female character being the one with a mysterious ability. Although, in the relationship sense, they were -gasp!- equals. Unheard of in teenage mutants, right? But, seriously. I've just spent this whole paragraph talking about how it wasn't a stereotypical teen book at all, but that's not entirely true. The romantic subplot veered toward mushy at times, and to be totally honest, I didn't really mind. I guess that's why the stereotypes exist in the first place: because they're proven "crowd-pleasers".
So, to leave off, The Body Finder is a creepy, albeit really good book (at least in my opinion). So, I recommend that you check it out. You know, to figure out if stereotypes are something you can get past to unearth a good story, or if you'll storm off, disgusted and looking for a more original novel. Either way, I wish you the best. (But I think you should read it.)
