Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publisher: William Morrow
Length: 451 pages
Original Publishing Date: June 8th, 2010
Series: Insatiable #1
Where I got it: Audiobook from the library
Links: Goodreads Amazon Author's Website
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.
But her bosses are making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn’t believe in them.
Not that Meena isn’t familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you’re going to die. (Not that you’re going to believe her; no one ever does.)
But not even Meena’s precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire-hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.
The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that’s why he’s the first guy Meena’s ever met that she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena’s always been able to see everyone else’s future, she’s never been able look into her own.
And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.
Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . .
If she even has one.
Main characters: 2/5
Problem #1: the narrator's voice was too much and got on my nerves! Besides this, Meena was hilarious for most of the novel. Her sense of humor and reactions to events reminded me of what mine would be, so that made them humorous and realistic. Sometimes she got a little old, or her over-the-top gasping became ridiculous (especially in the audiobook, you can imagine). Overall, however, Meena was down-to-earth and entertaining. Lucien, on the other hand, I didn't really see any positive for the guy. Where was his personality?! Or was he all simply stereotype?
Secondary characters: 2.5/5
There were some good secondary characters and some bad. Adam and Leisha were cute and I loved Leisha's contributions to the humor and the plot. She had a down-to-earth and sassy attitude that fit well with Meena's dramatics. Other characters fell a little flat; both a mix of their attempt to satirize common vampire stereotypes and the fact that there were a lot of characters that weren't particularly well developed. Alaric Wulf was sort of a fun character. I didn't understand why he was there at first but I grew to really appreciate the depth of his character and the wrench that he threw into the conflict. Yay Alaric!
Writing style: 1/5
Cabot could be long-winded. Sometimes I would zone out in the middle of a description of how Meena was feeling about something and come back to with her internal dialogue in pretty much the exact same place. And this happened A LOT. This book could have been cut in half, in terms of length. God knows Cabot is hilarious, but in this novel, it seemed like she became very acutely aware of exactly how funny she is, and she has a sort of arrogance about that humor. Like, I know I'm funny.
Plot: 2/5
I liked the twists on the vampire plot. The characters really made it though. The way that Meena was a writer for a soap opera series that included vampires was hilarious. The satire was also awesome, and I love how Cabot made fun of the prevalence of vampires in our society. However, some of this satirical fun sometimes crossed into unbelievable (yes, vampire plots can still be unbelievable) and fantastical. Let alone the fact that, despite the fantastical elements and the conflict, not that much happened! We had a lot of discussion about how people felt about one or two events, and not a lot of forward plot motion.
Ending: 2/5
The one thing I can say for the ending is that there was a lot going on. I could see the scene pretty vividly in my mind's eye. It got a little crazy and ultimately I ended up questioning where the plot went at the end! But definitely the most action.
Best scene: In terms of action, definitely the climax scenes. They were pretty wild.
Reminded Me Of: Twilight meets The Princess Diaries (It's obvious I know, but there it is).
Positives: Meena's crazy personality, some humorous parts, the satire of vampires, some fun secondary characters
Negatives: The narrator's voice, the pacing, the lack of conflict, the length, the ending, just everything being "too much"
Cover: Pretty, but it feels a little cheap I guess. Like anyone could have done it. And I didn't really understand the front cover image
Verdict: My favorite childhood author did not impress me on this forage into adult novels
Rating: 3.8 / 10 (2 stars)
Your Thoughts: Have you read it? What did you think? If you haven't, will you be adding it to your TBR list? Let me know!
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