Insatiable

Insatiable
By Meg Cabot
Published by HarperCollins

I am vacillating between giving Insatiable a good review or a bad review. Although the book is very readable it is also rather silly. There are some wonderful possibilities that I think Cabot either overlooks or does not follow through. And could two grown men really fall for the same woman within hours?

But you, dear reader, are wondering what this book is about. The main theme is, I am sorry to say, vampires. The main character in this book was as tired of hearing about vampires as you and I are but that did not stop her from falling for one by the end of the book. The interesting twist is that the main character, Meena (yes, the name was not lost on her either for you Stoker fans), also has an interesting psychic gift. Meena can tell by looking at someone how they are going to die. Because of this gift, she spends her life trying to save people. She is always giving advice without actually telling people why she does so. Those closest to her know about her ability and greatly respect it. Meena herself really struggles with it. Why has God chosen to give her this gift?

Through a complex process of events, Meena meets and falls for Lucien who is actually the world's vampire prince, the son of Dracula. She also meets and catches the eye of Alaric, a vampire hunter. They are all drawn into the vampire wars between Lucien and his half-brother Dimitri. There are some pretty funny scenes as well as some horribly silly ones. The plot has a wonderful pace, however, and is hard to put down. At the same time, the ending is pretty predictable and some plot devices become fairly thin.

I had a hard time really liking Meena. Sometimes in books I can empathize with a character even when I get frustrated with the lack of intelligence he or she shows. By the end Insatiable, I didn't have much empathy left. And I am not sure I will read the next book, Overbite.

The book really addressed two issues connected with my own faith: the responsibility of the gifts God gives to each of us and those who are truly insatiable.

Meena herself questions why God or some higher power gave her the gift of knowing how someone was going to die. She had discovered that, if her advice was followed, the person usually avoided whatever death she saw for them. In fact, she became convicted of trying to save everyone. Toward the end of the book she saw how like a vampire she was becoming: she was busy trying to help everyone else become immortal. She then made the realization that no one could avoid death unless they wanted to become a vampire. It is kind of like the song, "Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die."

All Christians are given at least one Spiritual Gift in order to build up the kingdom. At times, we can also complain about the gift we have been given. Perhaps it really isn't a cool gift or we would rather have some other gift. Or, better yet, we have not figured out how to use it for God's glory rather than our own.  What Meena seemed to be missing was a Christian family to guide her in using her gift. It is possible she is heading that way in the second book but I doubt it.

Meena does come to the realization that it is not the evil vampires who are insatiable but human beings. Human beings (especially women) are the ones who want to look good and young all the time so that someone would love and care for them. The vampires understood this desire and used this insatiability of humans to further their own agendas.

As a Christian, I know that I don't have to look good or be young in order to be loved. God loves me just as I am and takes care of me. The proof of this is in the life and death of Jesus Christ and in my own faith experience. God can break our tendency to be insatiable.

So, I guess I come to the end of my review suggesting that you give Insatiable a read if you are a Meg Cabot fan. If you are unsure, however, I would say pass on this one. If you do read it, I would love to hear your own comments!

Happy Reading!

Amelia

Copyright 2011 Amelia G. Sims