Customer Reviews

Insatiable

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am a massive fan of Meg Cabot and her adult books... they're fantastic. I read "Boy Next Door" at least once a year, usually with a glass of wine and a bottle of nail polish. I am imploring you to take me seriously because I sincerely want to save you from reading this book, and lessening your opinion of Meg Cabot.

There are pop culture references that are dry and uninteresting. Mentioning characters like Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood and Edward from True Blood and Buffy doesn't lessen the painfully obvious rip-offs--Meg Cabot's characters are an awkward combination of those three. (And Jon, the funny, down on his luck brother? Jason Stackhouse, anybody?!?!)

Even worse, the plot gets SO RIDICULOUS--I won't spoil it, but please believe me! The plot starts promising and jumps off the deep end. Characters make massive personality changes without much explanation, and the main love interest, Lucien (arguably the only likeable character in the book, although it seems at times that he's BARELY IN IT--what kind of romance has an MIA hero?!) loses all of his appeal in the last few chapters.

Meg Cabot, I love your writing. I will continue to buy your books. Just don't sell out like this!! And if you do, please make the book not quite so stupid.

ALSO: if anyone is looking for a funny, romantic, guilty-pleasure romance writer...try Kerrelyn Sparks. She's wonderful and cheesy, but mostly wonderful.

Best-selling young adult author Meg Cabot turns to vampires in this tongue-in-cheek romance novel, published for adults but suitable for her teenage fans as well. It might be a tiny bit racier than her YA novels, but not by much. The story revolves around New York resident and Soap-opera writer Meena Harper, who is sick of the vampire craze going on around us, and is not happy when the powers-that-be on her soap inform her that she's going to have to incorporate a plot line featuring vampires in order to jump-start their ratings. The character of Meena herself fits into the current craze for paranormal fiction, since she has a unique ability to see when people are going to die when she looks at them. This sometimes helps her warn her friends to escape danger, but sometimes nobody believes her warnings. Meena is content living a single life with her brother and her cute little dog, when who should visit her neighbors but a mysterious Romanian prince named Lucien, whom she falls in love with. He's the only one that she can't forsee when he's going to die, but she doesn't realize that it's because he's already dead! Not only is he a vampire, he is the son of the famous Dracula and is the leader of the vampire community--the supreme ruler of the vampires. Will she and Lucien live happily ever after? Cabot tells this story with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor; for example, when Meena discovers Lucien's true identity, she decides she will write a book to save other women from what she was going through: "Women are from Venus, Vampires are from Hell." The publisher calls it a "modern day sequel to Dracula," although I think it is a book much more for romance readers and Cabot's teenaged fan girls and certainly not for fans of real horror fiction. Recommended for a fun escape novel, perfect as a summer beach read.

I ordered this book thinking it was for teens, and it turns out to be for adults--although older teens might enjoy it, too. (There are a few racy passages.) Meg Cabot's books are always so cheery, whatever their genre, that I just get a kick out of them. Besides, I wanted to watch Cabot poke fun at Twilight and the current rage for vampire stories, which is what the book summary seemed to promise... And yep, Insatiable is pretty much "Buffy meets Bella," with some mind reading thrown in because why not? [Some spoilers below!]

Meena Harper writes for a daytime soap, and she is appalled when she is assigned to write a vampire storyline. "'Vampires,' Meena said. 'Real original, Metzenbaum.' Shoshona stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder . 'Get over it, Harper. They're everywhere. You can't escape them.'"

Which just might explain why Cabot wrote this book! But Meena doesn't catch on for pages, not until a macho vampire slayer holds her hostage in her apartment, demanding the location of her new boyfriend's pad. That would be the gorgeous Romanian prince Meena thinks is just perfect--until she gets the scoop on his supernatural secret. It turns out Lucien is in New York because he's trying to track down the idiot who's been draining human girls and leaving their corpses around the city, stirring up trouble for the secretive vampire community.

Pretty soon Meena--another of Cabot's feisty heroines--is attracting a lot of vampire attention because of her own secret: when she meets someone, she knows when and how they're going to die. It seems odd to her that she doesn't know this about Lucien (who's already dead); think psychic Sookie Stackhouse and her attraction to seemingly blank-minded vampire Bill.

Of course, as in any Cabot book, we get a lot of humor, most of it clever enough to make readers smile. There's Meena's anxious dog, Jack Bauer, for example, who turns out to be more tuned in to vampires than his owner. Also characters like a vampire slayer with an anger management problem, a geeky boss, and a fondness for high-class hotels. Insatiable is a fairly predictable vampire romance/adventure story, which eventually leads to a love triangle and a big, climactic fight scene. There's definitely room for a sequel here.

You might get a sense, as I did, that the book starts out tongue-in-cheek, but ends up taking itself a little too seriously. After all, it's hard to tell the difference between spoof and non-spoof when the female lead is a super-magnet for every major hunk in sight. Exactly why is someone like Lucien so enthralled by a girl like Meena, who's not the deepest person you'll ever meet? (Eternal soulmates--again!) I realize this goes back to wish fulfillment for the Everywoman reader, but I would have liked to see a bit more richness to Meena's character just the same.

Still, Insatiable is a light romp through vampire territory, a nice beach book for anyone who's up for paranormal romance. Note that Meena, perhaps because she's a little older, does seem to have more common sense than Stephenie Meyer's Bella, at least in Book 1. Who knows what she'll do in Book 2?

This book sounded good until you read past the first few chapters. After that, it falls into an immature and boring back and forth childish drama. No real depth, excitement or reality. I was so dissapointed to purchase this and in it's hardcover form, I just hope the used book store can give me at least a little store credit so I can buy something better.

With Meg Cabot's 1-800-WHERE-R-U young adult series high on my list of favorite books of all time (for its strong female character and entertaining humor), the only reason I was even tempted to pick up this vampire novel was because of her name on it. I don't trust such novels, because they're usually wish-fulfillment drivel over bloodsuckers that I've never been able to understand. And, at first, it seemed this novel would break the mold. Meena Harper's character started off witty, driven, sympathetic, and interesting, with a psychic gift for predicting the death of other people that had the potential to carry the story all by itself. Even better, her opinion of typical vampire stories in general was the same as mine.

Before, of course, she actually meets a hot vampire. Then she rips off her clothes so fast she probably gave herself rug burn.

This book seemed like it would try to be ironic, then it played out like every vampire novel I've had the joy of flinging against the wall. Meena falls for a (amazingly attractive, disgustingly rich, predictably cultured and tragic) vampire prince and all that fiddle-faddle about common sense, self-respect, and self-preservation go flying out the window, along with her panties. Falling for him, of course, brings a slew of problems, including a crazy vampire hunting zealot, to endanger her and her friends. Meena gets swept up in the mess because she's in love, never mind that the vampire keeps biting her against her will when they have sex, since love apparently means violating your beloved's physical reservations. And, of course, Meena has good reason to believe at several points in the book that her beloved is capable of killing her. He has a temper, you see, an entitlement complex, and very big teeth. This is what passes for romance in vampire novels.

The cliches don't stop there. Think of every vampire stereotype you've ever seen in movies and books for the past ten years and you'll find it here. Are all vampires rich? Do they hang out in nightclubs? Is there a vampire war brewing? Are there a bunch of lunatics wielding swords dedicated to wiping them out? Are the sexiest examples of them pillars of virtue who would never kill a human, because that would make them less sexy? Is the heroine's blood the most special blood ever? Check, check, check.

Now, let's go down the list of characters: Meena's initial backbone never seems to do her any good while she's being yanked from one scene to the next by people forcing or convincing her to do what they want her to do, and she spends most of the novel alternately bursting into tears and being tenderly concerned for the welfare of people who disrespect her. Her brother is a blithering idiot much too stupid to live. Her vampire boyfriend is an utterly banal template for every mainstream bloodsucker there's ever been since Dracula (except for a big incident in the climax of the novel that was somewhere between awesome and ridiculous). The vampire hunter was a nutjob with very fine tastes in living and in desperate need of therapy (his own boss tells him as much), which was entertaining before I realized he was being set up as Meena's other love interest. Seriously? The bloodthirsty undead on one side and a homicidal maniac on the other? The only thing I could root for was Meena joining a convent.

All of these things would have been fantastic in a spoof, and in fact the book seemed like it was intended to be one - the names of the characters are a bit of a clue. But something went horribly awry in the writing process, since very little was funny after the vampire love interest swooped in on his bat wings. Moments that might have been hilarious fall flat because the romance and angst is all taken very seriously by the narrative. Of course we can't laugh at the prince of darkness, because he can't be sexy if we're snickering uncontrollably because his skin sparkles like cheap rhinestones in sunlight...oops, sorry, wrong novel.

I thought Meena's ability to predict death and her determination to save what people she could, even though they rarely believed her, was much more interesting than anything about the vampires, but her powers were just a minor plot point put there for extra drama, and didn't really matter in the end.

I finished the book, simply because I don't stop reading unless a story is truly unbearable, and this wasn't that bad. It was just appallingly typical (and sometimes stupid). I've read this same basic story so many times by now that I'm still incredulous when I run into it, because I can't quite believe anybody is still writing this stuff. Which is why I don't read vampire fiction anymore, unless it's by an author I expect to be interesting with it.

Cabot really disappointed me here. Frankly, you'd be better off with Stephanie Meyers' Twilight. I actually liked it better than this book, because I never expected it to be very smart and I could enjoy it for the indulgent fluff it was. This book's author and premise may trick you into thinking it's clever or ironic. Trust me: It isn't.

Insatiable
Meg Cabot
Morrow, Jun 8 2010, $22.99
ISBN: 9780061735066

In New York, Meena Harker writes scripts for the soap opera Insatiable. She enjoys her work and is diligent with hopes to obtain a promotion. However, she is hurt when the boss selects Shoshona Metzenbaum the 00 sized treadmill walker with family connections like super director aunt and uncle for the position. Things get even worse when Shoshona directs Meena to write a vampire storyline for the TV show. Having the "gift" of sight that enables her to see who will shortly die; Meena detests the vampire craze and especially loathes her soap following the parade not leading it.

In the apartment building where she lives with her brother and Jack the dog Meena meets Romanian Prince Lucien, who is visiting neighbors. She likes the fact that for the first time she has encountered a person whose death she cannot foresee. However as she falls in love with the sophisticated East European Meena is unaware of why she fails to be able to foresee his death; the reason being he is dead as befitting the offspring of Dracula and is in town due to his being the ruler of the vampire community.

This is a jocular tongue in cheek urban fantasy romance that takes a bite out of the sensual vampire craze. Closer to George Hamilton than Bella Lugosi or Christopher Lee, Insatiable is an amusing lampooning of the craze that those who would dine on us care about us as equals not cattle. Although at times the verbiage turns verbose as if Meg Cabot targets the Princess Diaries crowd rather than the older audience this story line is fun and readers will enjoy her humorous Love At First Bite romantic comedic satire.

Harriet Klausner

Hard to believe, but I actually trudged through this book and finished it. What a waste of time. Cabot really should be ashamed of herself for writing such utterly ridiculous nonsense.

This was a great story idea. but that's all i can really give to this book. i got it because i love Meg Cabot and i wanted to see how she handled a vampire plot line. Sorry Meg, vampires are not your thing. while i appreciate the story i was in agony until the final pages because of the cliche characters and situations. the writing wasn't very good and i can't help wondering if the book was intended as a satire against modern vampires. all i want to say is that if you HAVE to read it, go to the library. it really was a waste of money.

LOVE her adult books...couldn't tell to begin with that this is for 18 year olds? Did NOT like the storyline. I felt like the tongue-in-cheek aspect of it just didn't work. Bored with the book and the characters! Glad i got it from the library!

From the moment I first heard of INSATIABLE's plot, I was tempted. Curiously enough, I do not have vampire burnout like most avid readers apparently do. Unfortunately, INSATIABLE was a plotting and characterization disappointment, an ambitious novel that failed to entirely put the "chick lit" into the "bit lit."

I never fully connected with Meena being the anti-vampire-obsessed modern woman. She is introduced to us as an independent and responsible woman who disdains the romanticization of vampires. However, it is not long before Meena herself perfectly fits the stereotypical role of smart-ass damsel-in-distress. Inexplicably two men who are enemies of one another find themselves attracted to her, and mostly because of her soft, exposed skin. Say what? Is this vampire lit or a more feminist Twilight for the adult audience? Obviously I felt little attraction within the love triangle, which felt forced.

In fact, most of the story feels extremely...well, structurally fictional. Obviously I know this is fiction, but I'm referring here to the way some stories, whether realistic or fantasy, draw us in so completely that we do not stop and question the veracity of the situations but rather find ourselves right there alongside the characters. This was not the case with INSATIABLE. The typical "Meg Cabot narration" in this story--characters constantly trying to rationalize scenarios in their heads, going off on tangents, bringing themselves back on track, going off on a rationalizing tangent again--didn't work with the world she tried to set up here. I never felt connected with lives being at stake, and more often than not was not aware that major conflicts were going on, so roundabout and unfortunately petty were the characters' inner monologues and plodding dialogue. I put down the book with less than 100 pages to go, feeling no need to know how the story ends.

INSATIABLE, sadly, has the same problem that many of Meg Cabot's books seem to have: there is a uncomfortable lack of heart and commitment to the stories. I realize I can't make any assumptions about what these stories mean to the author. But 30- or 40-something books later, I find myself wondering whether or not Meg Cabot is putting as much into her books as she did with her earlier books.