Meg Cabot: Insatiable

Review by Vicky London

Insatiable is the first book in a new vampire series by Meg Cabot. Spoilers will ensue, so be forewarned. Here’s the cover blurb:

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’t 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 whom 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 to look into her own. And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has every 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.

I was a little surprised when I received this book because I associate Meg Cabot with the genre of teen chic-lit books. It made more sense to me after seeing on her website that she considers it more “girl gothic” than paranormal, though Meena is definitely an adult and not a girl. Cabot says she’s “not wild about vampires” and that they are a tradition rather than a trend. I agree with the tradition part to a certain extent, vampires have long fascinated us in books and movies, but it makes me wonder a bit that the impetus for this book may have been that vampires are “cool” now, especially with her teen audience. I’m also not sure either that I understand why Meena Harper has a similar name to Mina Harker (one of the central characters in Dracula). I think she accomplished her goal of bringing back the strong heroine but I’m not so sure about a confident one. Meena is an odd character and frankly, I don’t understand her decisions at all. She goes from being threatened by a cold-blooded killer, to thinking seriously about joining his organization’s ridiculous genocidal rampage against vampires. Wait, what? I though she loved a vampire? I suppose using her “gift” to keep these psychos alive is more important than being with the man she loves. Hmmm.

Lucien Antonescu starts out as an interesting character. He’s smart, he’s sexy, he’s powerful, and he seems like the antithesis of his father. He rules vampires with a fair but firm hand and he looks good while doing it. He devolves a bit (by the end of the book) into a more two dimensional character whose motivations are quite murky. Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? Meena apparently doesn’t know. And, borrowing a page from the common romance trope, she makes giant assumptions, runs away and doesn’t try to actually communicate with him. I don’t really need a happy ending in a book but this one completely left me hanging and slightly confused. Cabot mentions that she was into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer so I suppose she thinks there needs to be a conflict to separate the two lovers like with Buffy and Angel. This conflict however, seems much more manufactured. In the end I really am not that interested in seeing how this story goes but who knows, maybe it will get better in the next book.

If you’d like to know more about Insatiable and read an excerpt, you can visit the author’s website: http://www.megcabot.com/insatiable/#

Release Date: June 8, 2010
ISBN-10: 006173506X
ISBN-13: 978-0061735066

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