Title: Insatiable
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 450 pages
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: Oshkosh Public Library
Plot Basics: Meena Harper is a writer for daytime TV drama Insatiable. The vampire crazy has taken over the daytime set - and New York City. The city is plagued by a killer that is draining the victims of their blood. Lucien, the prince of the vampires, comes to New York to figure out who is behind the murders. His hosts for the trip happen to live next door to Meena. Romance ensues. Along with more murder, vampire killers and a couple of out of work financial analysts who are desparate for jobs.
Banter Points: I had hoped that this would be a fun novel, like I hear Cabot's usually are. And while the writing, tone and overall concept are fun, the actual book is, well, dull and trite. See bummer points.
Bummer Points: I should have known to stop when the vampire hunter, a rather egotistic man who is only in it for the money (even though the organization he works for is more like the typical business rather than the Catholic Church), named his sword "Senor Sticky." I hoped that it would get better.
It didn't.
Meena is so obsessed with her show that every thing in her life revolves around it. Take for instance, the dinner party where she meets Lucien. Every piece of her conversation relates back to the show. Even though he is supposedly a visiting professor from a foreign university who teaches a fascinating and slightly obscure branch of history. Instead she turns all of the conversational tidbits back to the show and its competition that is vampire-obssessed.
Meena's brother is really quite whiney. I never did figure out why he was there or what plot device he was fulfilling. Given how Meena focused on one thing only, it should not have been a surprise that her brother had the same problem. Genetic flaw, I guess.
Lucien should have been a scary vampire. He is the son of the original Vlad of the Bram Stroker fame. Yet, his freakish falling in love with Meena made it impossible to find him scary.
This should have been a light hearted romp through the vampire crazed US. Instead it was a cheezy, badly written, please skip me version of much better vampire literature.
Stacie's Recommendation: Really, don't waste your time.
2 comments:
I wonder if she thought people wouldn't notice how close "Meena Harper" is to Stoker's "Mina Harker?"
Can we maybe be done with vampires for awhile?
I was really disappointed, I have to admit. I keep hearing that her books are fun reads and this just bombed.
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