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A review by foxonabook
Insatiable by Daisy Buchanan
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I picked up this book because it's different from what I would usually gravitate to. I thought this would be a more erotic version of Sally Rooney's books, but what I got was smutty fanfiction masquerading as a queer contemporary novel.
Violet is a lonely 26-year-old millennial stuck in a dead-end job and drifting aimlessly through life. Until one day she meets the mysterious and attractive Lottie and her entire life is upended within the space of a few days. Literally. A few days. Is the reader truly expected to believe that anything portrayed in the book is plausible?
Surprisingly, the poorly written sex (which, if I'm being brutally honest, is better described as written by a teenager whose only source material is really cheap and unrealistic porn) wasn't my biggest bugbear. It was how incredibly unbelievable Violet was portrayed. Perhaps I'm not the target audience, but, geez... this was the second contemporary millennial chick-lit that I read where I felt millennial women were very poorly, one-dimensionally and stereotypically portrayed. Violet has no redeeming qualities.
I was also infuriated by some of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it themes that Buchanan clearly included as a tick-box exercise, such as the eating disorder, coercive abuse, sexual assault, etc.
Don't bother with this.
Violet is a lonely 26-year-old millennial stuck in a dead-end job and drifting aimlessly through life. Until one day she meets the mysterious and attractive Lottie and her entire life is upended within the space of a few days. Literally. A few days. Is the reader truly expected to believe that anything portrayed in the book is plausible?
Surprisingly, the poorly written sex (which, if I'm being brutally honest, is better described as written by a teenager whose only source material is really cheap and unrealistic porn) wasn't my biggest bugbear. It was how incredibly unbelievable Violet was portrayed. Perhaps I'm not the target audience, but, geez... this was the second contemporary millennial chick-lit that I read where I felt millennial women were very poorly, one-dimensionally and stereotypically portrayed. Violet has no redeeming qualities.
I was also infuriated by some of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it themes that Buchanan clearly included as a tick-box exercise, such as the eating disorder, coercive abuse, sexual assault, etc.
Don't bother with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Vomit
Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, and Mental illness