Review for Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Last year The Body Finder- the first book in this series- completely blew me away and was one of my favourite reads of 2010. It was creepy, suspenseful and had a fantastic love story, so when I heard that there was going to be a sequel Desires of the Dead I started counting down the days for the release date pining for my next Jay and Violet fix. Desires of the Dead has an intriguing new plot. The book starts with Violet finding the body of a young boy in unusual circumstances attracting the attention of the FBI who are dumb founded as to how Violet managed to find him. They’re convinced that Violet has some kind of power which could prove very useful to them and so Violet must decide does she keep her abilities to herself or risk being used as a human guinea pig for the FBI? On top of that Violet is struggling to figure out the new rules with her and Jay’s relationship. Now that they’re officially a couple Violet feels that she can’t tell Jay things that she used to especially when it comes to her abilities, she almost lost him once and she doesn’t want to put him in that kind of danger again, so when a series of disturbing events unfold Violet feels that this time she should try and handle things on her own but with the FBI on her back and a stalker growing more and more sinister will Violet turn to the people who love her before it’s too late? What I loved about The Body Finder was how completely creep-tastic it was. Kimberly Derting didn’t shy away from the scary and that made The Body Finder completely thrilling and unputdownable. I have to say that I was slightly disappointed by Desires of the Dead’s lack of creepiness. Unlike The Body Finder I figured out all the big twists and didn’t find the villain to be as terrifying as the murderer from the first book. Kimberly Derting definitely toned down the terror taking away a lot of the suspense that The Body Finder had, taking away the thing that made it stand out from other young adult books. I personally love my thrillers and I admired Kimberly Derting for not shying away from the ugly stuff just because she was writing for a teen audience. I like my villains to be as terrifying as possible, the more sinister the better and I really hope Kimberly goes back to that theme with the rest of the books in this series. That being said I loved everything else about this book. I loved Kimberly Derting’s idea of bringing the FBI into the story setting up for potentially a whole lot of awesome in future books. Violet asks a lot of questions about her abilities in this book, like should she use her powers to help track down killers and missing people? And is she the only person with these kinds of powers or does the FBI already work with people like her? I really like the direction Kimberly Derting’s taking this series and I had to keep reading to find out what Violet was going to do. I loved seeing how Violet and Jay’s relationship developed in this book. It was so sweet and endearing watching them cautiously develop from best friends to a couple. Violet and Jay are one of my favourite young adult couples and I just love reading about them and watching them develop. As was with The Body Finder I loved all of the characters and found them to be really well developed. I didn’t agree with all of Violets decisions but I could understand why she did them so although I didn’t always agree with her choices I still respected and liked Violet because her intentions were always good. As always Kimberly Derting’s writing was wonderful if a little less creepy and atmospheric. She writes fantastic full bodied characters and creates the sweetest tenderest moments between Violet and Jay. Like The Body Finder there are alternate chapters giving us insight into the villain’s mind who in this case is Violets stalker. I always enjoy these chapters and find it adds a nice touch to the book. To sum up no I didn’t love Desires of the Dead as much as The Body Finder but it was a good solid sequel none the less. Desires of the Dead sets up all kinds of awesome for a potentially brilliant third book. I just hope that Kimberly goes back to The Body Finders roots and throws in lots of creepiness to give the third book that extra oomph that The Body Finder had. Overall I would recommend this book and I’m eagerly awaiting the next instalment to find out what happens to Violet and Jay next. My Rating 4/5 stars **** Thanks go to Headline for sending me a copy to review