"She was like a comatose princess in some fairytale when the spell was broken by the kiss of her prince. Except that in her grim fairytale, the kiss was the funeral of a four-year-old boy." (Violet Ambrose)
The romance, the most annoying aspect in Desires of the Dead overshadows everything else in this book.
Violet, the main character, and her best friend turned boyfriend, Jay, have an immature relationship which isn't unusual for their age group. The problem is that their relationship is made out to be one of the most amazing relationships in the whole wide world. I wish I was kidding! If Jay and Violet were not in a relationship, I don't think they would be able to cope with life. Some incidents:
💀 Violet is extremely dependent on Jay and when she isn't around him she feels lonely and ends up in being in a depressed state.
💀 She becomes jealous when Jay befriends the new boy at school, Mike, because Jay starts spending more time with Mike. Excuse me! Is Jay not allowed to have friends? Is he not allowed to have a life outside of his relationship?
💀 Violet isn't able to tell Jay about recent incidents involving her abilities and her meetings with Sara and Rafe and I don't care enough to remember her reason for hiding this information from Jay because it's probably stupid. This is, however, perfectly okay because they have an 'amazing' romance.
Violet is one of the most immature and silliest characters I have ever read about. Aside from her terrible actions when it comes to her relationship, she obviously doesn't watch horror movies i.e. she doesn't have common sense and this is seen she irrationally walks into isolated and dangerous places without listening to Jay when he tells her to wait for him or failing to call her police uncle or parents when she suspects something is awry.
The secondary characters in Desires of the Dead are still as stereotypical as ever and have no depth. Chelsea loses her tough girl attitude and becomes a blubbering hormonal girl the moment she meets Mike and apparently when she speaks to Mike, it's in a high-pitched voice. This makes me irritable. What is the message that the book is spreading about how women should behave when they become involved in a relationship?
The worst part of Desires of the Dead is that the paranormal and mystery aspect have so much of potential and they are just brushed aside for a romance that's absolutely terrible.
Violet's sixth sense and echoes is a unique and interesting ability. While there is a progression in her abilities, I've become confused about what she can do and how her powers really work. This is due to a dream that she has at the beginning of Desires of the Dead that isn't mentioned again. Does she dream about the dead now or was her dream a rare occurrence? I hope that the third and fourth book deals with the questions that I have about Violet's abilities.
Can this book even be called a mystery? The victimiser has their own POV. The chapters in the victimer's POV is named after the seven deadly sins which is quite cool. I hate that the victimiser had a POV because it makes the mystery predictable and I knew exactly who the victimiser was and the 'deeper' mystery long before the book ended. The aim of the victimiser's POV is to provide the motivation behind their victimization and while the motive was much better than The Body Finder it's still predictable and insubstantial.
I'm extremely disappointed in this sequel. Desires of the Dead focuses heavily on a terrible romance and stereotypical and immature characters and didn't focus on the mystery and paranormal aspects that has so much of potential.
"Magical, Violet thought, the desires of the dead. And even as the pain reclaimed her, she was acutely aware that the nature of her ability was nothing less than miraculous. In this moment, it was a thing of beauty."