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A review by samhoddy
Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting
4.0
I first read this book when I was about 13/14 years old. Re-reading this at the age of 22 was definitely a different experience, but not any less enjoyable than the first time around.
I half expected this book to be not as good as I had remembered, or suspecting that I might not enjoy it as much now that I’m an adult. Safe to say this was not the case. Whilst I didn’t love it like I did when I was 14, I still thought this book deserves a lot of credit for holding up so well over time.
I will point out that this book is definitely more of a young adult choice rather than a new adult, so I’ll treat it and rate it as such.
WHAT WORKED
• The general plot for this book was overall really solid. Maybe even better than the first book. I liked that there was multiple plot points at the same time (i.e. the stalker, the FBI and the eventual killer).
• Having Violet meet people that might be different as well, was a good choice. It opens up a realm of possibilities for future storyline’s and I’m excited to see where they take them.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
• Every so often there was a chapter from the point of view of someone who becomes Violets stalker. The moment this stalker is mentioned you are able to guess straight away who this person is and I’m genuinely unsure if this was intentional or not. The name of the stalker is never mentioned throughout the chapters until the official ‘reveal’ but I truly can’t believe the author didn’t think the identity wouldn’t be blatantly obvious. This therefore begs the question, why bother trying to hide the stalkers identity in the first place?
• Miscommunication is the biggest plot device used in this book, and boy do I hate miscommunication. Everything that goes wrong in this book could have easily been avoided if Violet had just told someone, anyone, what had been happening or where she was going! She constantly lies and hides things and it’s frustrating! This is exactly what happened in the first book and it looks like she still hasn’t learnt her lesson. It also gets a little boring seeing her repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Overall this book was super easy to read and took me all of 3 and a half hours to finish.
It was nice to go back and read something from the past and still enjoy it all these years later.
Final rating is 3.5 stars rounded up to a 4.
I half expected this book to be not as good as I had remembered, or suspecting that I might not enjoy it as much now that I’m an adult. Safe to say this was not the case. Whilst I didn’t love it like I did when I was 14, I still thought this book deserves a lot of credit for holding up so well over time.
I will point out that this book is definitely more of a young adult choice rather than a new adult, so I’ll treat it and rate it as such.
WHAT WORKED
• The general plot for this book was overall really solid. Maybe even better than the first book. I liked that there was multiple plot points at the same time (i.e. the stalker, the FBI and the eventual killer).
• Having Violet meet people that might be different as well, was a good choice. It opens up a realm of possibilities for future storyline’s and I’m excited to see where they take them.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
• Every so often there was a chapter from the point of view of someone who becomes Violets stalker. The moment this stalker is mentioned you are able to guess straight away who this person is and I’m genuinely unsure if this was intentional or not. The name of the stalker is never mentioned throughout the chapters until the official ‘reveal’ but I truly can’t believe the author didn’t think the identity wouldn’t be blatantly obvious. This therefore begs the question, why bother trying to hide the stalkers identity in the first place?
• Miscommunication is the biggest plot device used in this book, and boy do I hate miscommunication. Everything that goes wrong in this book could have easily been avoided if Violet had just told someone, anyone, what had been happening or where she was going! She constantly lies and hides things and it’s frustrating! This is exactly what happened in the first book and it looks like she still hasn’t learnt her lesson. It also gets a little boring seeing her repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Overall this book was super easy to read and took me all of 3 and a half hours to finish.
It was nice to go back and read something from the past and still enjoy it all these years later.
Final rating is 3.5 stars rounded up to a 4.