Young Adult
Pages: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: March 16, 2010

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.

Now that I've read it, I have no idea why I put off reading this for so long. I was under the impression that this was yet another supernatural romance. Instead, it's a brilliantly suspenseful and thrilling debut that makes me wish YA had more mysteries like this. It's not paranormal really, a tiny spray of fantasy on an otherwise realistic mystery. Only Violet's ability is out of the ordinary, the rest of the book just feels quite contemporary.

My favorite part was the fact that it included parts from the killer's perspective. How morbid is that? Better yet, how gripping is that!? I felt myself rushing through the regular chapters just to reach the creepy italic-lettered part in which my heart would speed up to an unnatural rhythm and I'd be literally squeezing the book as I read. Plus, it has a freakish and utterly unexpected twist around the middle that I DID NOT SEE COMING! That was truly a first, because after being a reader for so long, I tend to picture and imagine all possible scenarios and every possible ending while I'm reading. SO once I'm there, I might be surprised but I have almost always been dangerously close. But here... it was like Whhhaaaat!!!?? Then you realize the author was just teasing, trying to confuse you, and them BAM! Another bomb!... SHOCKING! And then you know, just a regular ending. But the twist... WOW!

Maybe you'll understand what I mean, maybe you'll just figure out I'm crazy, but either way you'll enjoy this awesome book. Definitely need to know what on earth happens next. Overall, a very original and fresh page-turner that mixes a delicious romance with some heart-pumping suspense. We should campaign for more mysteries/suspense in YA.