Real Teen Award
-Breakout Author of 2010
*Debut novel
The Gist
When she was a little girl Violet found a body buried in the woods. She doesn’t know how she did this but her body was being drawn to the dead girl’s body. The thing about this girl she found was that she was murdered. Ever since then she has been able to track dead bodies even though ever since she was little she hasn’t found a human body just birds and other animals that her cat has brought home. Now she is a junior and she can’t shake the feeling that this year is going to be different. Now she has strange feelings for her best friend Jay who has over the summer become greek-god-esque and all the girls want to date him. While struggling with feelings for him there is a murderer in town who is killing girls and Violet just happens to keep finding the bodies because of the unique echoes that murdered bodies leave behind. Meanwhile, the murderer is noticing that the bodies of the girls he is abducting are being found too easily and too quickly. He soon figures out that Violet has been mysteriously finding all his victims and he will stop at nothing to get her out of the picture.
What We Think
What We Think
Reviewed by The North Star
Number of Pages: 336
I was in love with this book. Lately I have been reading books that were just OK and so I wasn’t expecting much out of this one. From the first 10 pages I was sucked into her world and fell in love with the characters. This book was told in the third person and I haven’t seen a lot of that lately and even though I prefer first person, Kimberly Derting did a fantastic job of telling it a different way! My favorite character of this book was by far Jay because he was really comical and even though he was clueless sometimes he was extremely sweet and caring towards Violet. He is one of those characters that you really wish was real and you could hang out with all the time. The story in itself was really interesting to me because I had never heard of anything like it before with the whole fact of a girl who found dead bodies but only ones that were murdered. Echoes were also really cool in thinking when someone dies they has a special and individual echo just for them and it gets you to wonder what yours will be . People nowadays usually don’t write from other peoples perspective and only write from one characters point of view and I really liked how you got to see what the killer was thinking and I found that one of the most interesting parts of the story. I was always sad when I finished a chapter because they were always really short and there wasn’t a lot of them. The end of this book was action-packed and had me reading until midnight to finish because I had no clue as to how it was going to turn out. Overall, this book was amazing and I think that everyone should pick it up as soon as possible.
Real Teen Rating~ A+ : Why are you still reading this, go buy this book NOW!
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Reviewed by Living Destiny
If you haven’t noticed by now (which would be a very difficult feat to accomplish), I get a lot of my books from North’s house. This book is no exception. She was finished with it, I needed something to read (as always), so she gave it to me to occupy my time. The cover looked amazing, and the plot sounded ok, so I tried it. As usual, she has good taste in books.
The plot of this book was another concept I’d never seen before. Having a girl who could sense murdered people by their own unique echoes is pretty original. And I completely agree with North in that it makes you think. I really wonder what my echo would be like. Not that I could ever really find out, because I’d have to be murdered to have one. And then I’d be dead so I couldn’t see it. (Or hear it. Or smell it. Or taste it. Or feel it. An echo can be be any of the five senses.) But it makes me wonder.
I also liked Jay (again like North). He was sweet, but also self-assured and confident. He was the kind of guy that would always make you smile, even if it was against your will. I liked Violet too, though. She was the kind of person that won’t take things lying down. She refuses to take orders from anyone, and she’s tough. She’s determined and smart and she’s just my kind of person.
I absolutely loved how the story was told from two points of view, Violet’s and the killer’s. It was like a whole comparison of good and evil, like yin and yang. The two view points were told so differently, it was almost like they came from two different authors, so it was nicely authentic.
This book had a lot (I won’t say ‘had it all’ because that would be a lie, but it was impressive). It had romance, action, suspense and mystery. There were times where I was ‘aww-ing’, and times when I was totally freaking out. Overall? Not exactly a light read, but definitely a book that anyone, boys and girls, should check out. The sequel, Desires of the Dead, comes out in March, 2011 (as of right now). Looking forward to it? Yupp.
Real Teen Rating~ A+: Why are you still reading this, go buy this book now!
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
I found this book on Barnes and Noble dot com and thought it sounded really cool. It was an idea I’d never heard before, which I respect. It’s not often anymore that I find a book that’s truly unique. But this book was, and it was refreshing. So I made a mental note to remember it, and put it on a to-read list so I’d know what to buy before I got to the store. A while later, the North Star bought it and started reading it; raving about how amazing it was. Next time I was at the book store, I decided to take her word for it; I bought it. And after reading it, I must say that I agree with her. It really was amazing. And for a debut novel! The characters in this book were probably the best part, in my opinion. Violet was a strong protagonist who was easy to like. That’s always good. The grade dips immediately when there’s an annoying main character. But this book had Violet, so no worries there. Her best friend was Jay Heaton and he was the type of guy everyone would want to be friends with. Me included. He was a great character who I always looked forward to reading about. Violet and Jay were the perfect dynamic duo; another reason I liked the book so much. Violets other friends, Chelsea, Claire and Jules, weren’t as amazing, but they were believable teenagers. Like I said before, the plot was extremely unique. I’d never heard of anything like Violet’s death echoes before. It was really cool, and, like everyone else, I found myself wondering what my echo would be. It was definitely a great debut plot. I’m impressed. I may be repeating what others have already said, but I have to say it. I loved how she switched between chapters from Violet’s point of view and the killer’s point of view. It kept me reading eagerly, waiting to see what the killer would do next, and what he would say about it. Seriously intriguing. I must mention something about the title and cover. Good choice are the words that come to mind. The cover (though I’m not sure what it has to do with the book…an echo maybe…) was beautiful. The title was dark and mysterious: a great combination for a book title. As far as I’m concerned, the title and the cover get an A+. Finally, the writing style was good. It was almost mature-sounding, and had it had a voice even if it was written in third-person. The only complaint here is that I think she used “…” too much. She used it to create suspense, or even intrigue, but I found it childish. Once or twice I could condone, but she used it too much for my taste. Other than that, I can’t think of much negative to say about it. It was an all around good book. I would definitely recommend this book!
Real Teen Rating~ A : Go Buy Now.
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