Desires of the Dead review

Desires of the Dead
Kimberly Derting
February 15th (US)/ March 17th (UK)
Harper (US)/ Headline (UK)

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.

Desires of the Dead is the second book in Kimberly's brilliant The Body Finder series (in which TWO more books have just been announced! Squee!)I really enjoyed The Body Finder. I loved the suspense and I LOVED Jay. Seriously. He is quite possibly one of my favourite YA boys ever! (Not in my top 5 YET though.) Anyhoo... Enough Body Finder love...

Desires starts up a few weeks after the end of The Body Finder with Violet 'finding' a dead child in a cargo crate, which sort of kicks off a train of events to do with the FBI. Now, before anything else, can I just say, did anyone else imagine Sara Priest being Saundra Bullock... Or is it just me who connects female FBI member=Miss Congeniality... ;P) The thing that caught me as different from The Body Finder is that there were a lot of different plot threads in Desires, not that there weren't in The Body Finder, but the threads in Desires were more independent, and they only really, really made sense in the last fifty pages. They all just  felt like independent events, which, while all important to Violet's character growth, didn't seem very related to each other. Which isn't a bad thing! I had a much better understanding of Violet and all her problems for it, and I liked how it all came together at the end (which, y'know, I should've known would happen..)

I think that there was less suspense in Desires and that the main mystery was pretty easy to solve, but I think that that's probably because there wasn't really as much of a threat and because it wasn't the main purpose of the story. I think that Desires was more meant to be about Violet's ability and how she wants to use it, and also for her to come to a greater understanding of it, as well as for use to get a better knowledge of the other characters. (I have grown to love Chelsea a hell of a lot more over the course of this book. She's fab! :D) But of course this is all just interpretation. I could be completely wrong.. That's just how I saw it.

I really like Violet, and I felt I got to know her a lot better in this book. She's kind of hard to dislike.. Apart from when you think of how she's got Jay... Jay was amazingly gorgeouly beautifully brilliant in this book as always, though he a bit of a douche in one bit... Though that only lasted for about 8 pages... Gosh, he's just so sweet. And they're relationship got a lot better too. It wasn't just plain sailing, which was something I liked. Because real relationships aren't like that, and their relationship has always been something I've appreciated :D (Some people might think this next bit is spoilery so I'll write it in white, and if you want to see it then you can highlight it :D I'm a bit of a spoiler fiend.. it's not good ;p) THEY HAD SEX! FINALLY. But I was liked the way it was done. Kimberly didn't actually write them HAVING SEX because it's a teen book and I'm a teen and I don't like reading people having sex y'know... It kinda grosses me out (yes, yes, I'm immature.. ;P) But also when she was writing about the aftermath, it wasn't all like 'and it was all fairies and flowers and happy sparkly rainbow unicorns and happy smiling sunshiney things..' Because the realism of it all is something that draws me too these books, and if she'd one that, then it would've killed it  Anyways, yeah, that didn't make much sense...

Desires of the Dead was a brilliantly done sequel that had me gripped throughout with it's exciting plot lines and excellent character development. I cannot wait for book 3 to come out! :D 4 Stars