Insatiable ~ Meg Cabot review

Insatiable
William Morrow
464 pages
June 8, 2010
Buy @ Amazon


Meena Harper is a dialogue writer for Insatiable, TV's number two daytime soap--the she hopes to become head writer for the show she's loved for years (even before she worked on it). There's something else Meena Harper does, something she doesn't let everyone know about . . . she knows when people are going to die just by meeting them.

She knows from experience that people aren't quite open to receiving her news, so she's found ways to warn them without quite telling them why they need to keep her number around or avoid elevators or chicken wings.

Meena's life is about to get a whole lot more interesting because not only is Insatiable about to introduce a vampire storyline to compete with Lust the number one soap (which Meena hates because vampires are misogynistic monsters), but her talkative neighbor sends out an e-vite for a dinner party with her husband's cousin, a Romanian prince who's in town.

Lucien Antonescu, a history professor in Budapest is in town to catch a serial killer leaving exsanguinated girls in NYC parks--and, apparently, attend a dinner party.

Soon, his nemesis Alaric Wulf of the Palatine Guard-a group of vampire hunters headed by the Vatican--is also in Meena's life and a vampire war is under way. Not to mention her pregnant best friend or her laid off brother living with her trying to convince her best friend's also laid off husband to become a cop.


While it's true the summary makes it sound like there are about ten million things going on in Insatiable (and the Amazon one says some things that I'm pretty sure aren't revealed until later a good bit later on--or I missed them!), it's okay because it's 464 pages. And because it all works together.

The characters each have their own things going on and their own reason for being in the story; they're not just there to provide something another character needs. And a soap opera is a perfect backdrop for a vampire story if you think about it--the absurdity that's always in soaps and the suggestion of vampires to normal people being absurd if you're rational.

Meena hating vampires, being so sure they're fictional (and also kind of dumb), and also being so, so against having them on her soap made the story even more enjoyable. Really this is partially an anti-vampire book that is also the best vampire book I've read in ages.

The relationships between the characters are so real and compelling that I wanted more because I really just couldn't get enough of any of them--or this story.I think this is a series and I desperately, desperately hope it is because there are certain characters/relationships/storylines that I really just need more of--and soon.

I'm starting to think I do better with Meg Cabot's adult books than I do with her YA books (and wonder if that's true for anyone else?). I think this was her NaNoWriMo novel, too and that's just insanity to me.

It is above a YA content level--not like Jeaniene Frost's Halfway to the Grave (review) but a little more than Cabot's own Size 12 Is Not Fat (review). If you're good with that content level I very much suggest reading it!

The hugest of thank you's to the publisher for sending this book to me because I might not have read it very soon if I hadn't gotten it in the mail and I massively adored it.




10/10