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Insatiable
Stuck in a dead-end job, broken-hearted, broke and estranged from her best friend; Violet's life is nothing like she thought it would be. She wants more - better friends, better sex, a better job - and she wants it now.
So, when Lottie - who looks like the woman Violet wants to be when she grows up - offers Violet the chance to join her exciting start-up, she bites. Only it soon becomes clear that Lottie and her husband Simon are not only inviting Violet into their company, they are also inviting her into their lives.
Seduced by their townhouse, their expensive candles and their Friday-night sex parties, Violet cannot tear herself away from Lottie, Simon or their friends. But is this really the more Violet yearns for? Will it grant her the satisfaction she is so desperately seeking?
Insatiable is about women and desire - lust, longing and the need to be loved. It is a story about being unable to tell whether you are running towards your future or simply running away from your past. The result is at once tender and sad, funny and hopeful.
So, when Lottie - who looks like the woman Violet wants to be when she grows up - offers Violet the chance to join her exciting start-up, she bites. Only it soon becomes clear that Lottie and her husband Simon are not only inviting Violet into their company, they are also inviting her into their lives.
Seduced by their townhouse, their expensive candles and their Friday-night sex parties, Violet cannot tear herself away from Lottie, Simon or their friends. But is this really the more Violet yearns for? Will it grant her the satisfaction she is so desperately seeking?
Insatiable is about women and desire - lust, longing and the need to be loved. It is a story about being unable to tell whether you are running towards your future or simply running away from your past. The result is at once tender and sad, funny and hopeful.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2021
346 people are currently reading
18858 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,104 reviews
April 7, 2021
I am angry that I read this book and the only good thing about it is it’s cover. I am so pissed that this is marketed as a sexy queer book about sex parties when it is in fact about terrible straight people, the sex scenes are logistically impossible, it is so depressing because there is zero consent involved and the main character is so unbelievably naive and ridiculous and somehow gets offered a job at the fucking Guggenheim even tho she is currently the PA for someone at an app??? Why!!!!!
If I ever went to an orgy and everyone left after 15 mins and no one ate the BUFfet dinner I would be severely disappointed. This book is like going to a sex party and not fancying anyone and then it all gets called off at 8pm and you didn’t even get to eat a canapé.
If I ever went to an orgy and everyone left after 15 mins and no one ate the BUFfet dinner I would be severely disappointed. This book is like going to a sex party and not fancying anyone and then it all gets called off at 8pm and you didn’t even get to eat a canapé.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2021
Perhaps I'm about 10 years too old for this book because while it's certainly a page-turner, I expected more substance than I got.
Violet is another of those lost millenials (think 'The New Me' and similar) frustrated with her low-pay job, her charity-shop wardrobe and her grotty bedsit in a flatshare with strangers. She's friendless and has recently called off her marriage to a man she didn't love and is drifting aimlessly... until she gets seduced by an older couple and drawn into their sex-party group.
I found Violet unconvincingly naive for a 26 year old - the ever-receding job offer that finally just drops out of the story, the neediness as she wants to be mothered, coddled and rescued from her own life; just the idea of a 26 year old going on holiday with a group of 40-50 year olds takes some believing. Even the ending is just a variation, somewhat out of the blue, of an old-fashioned rescue where Violet never really has to grow up or take responsibility.
The much vaunted sex is pretty clinical and all those descriptions of mechanical body parts with no passion just became boring to the point that I started skimming them. Will Violet keep up her orgy life-style now that she's found true love? If not, it feels a bit sensationalist rather than genuinely exploring alternative sex lives. Big issues of eating disorders, grief, assault almost appear as tick-box items - they make their appearance then are forgotten about.
The narrative voice is that generic one that appears in chick-lit-style books: self-deprecating, dropping designer names, full of cute little victimising anecdotes of how the narrator is wearing drab, holey, smelly clothes... yet, somehow, this doesn't stop everyone desiring her.
Yet there are interesting things going on as well and I'd like to have seen this redrafted to have placed more emphasis on the toxic inequalities in Violet's relationships, and some kind of stronger resolution to her aimlessness in life and job, rather than love coming along as her rescuer. And there are some funny lines that made me grin: 'the only vaguely artistic thing about Alan is that he looks like what would happen if Gilbert ate George' - ha!
Violet is another of those lost millenials (think 'The New Me' and similar) frustrated with her low-pay job, her charity-shop wardrobe and her grotty bedsit in a flatshare with strangers. She's friendless and has recently called off her marriage to a man she didn't love and is drifting aimlessly... until she gets seduced by an older couple and drawn into their sex-party group.
I found Violet unconvincingly naive for a 26 year old - the ever-receding job offer that finally just drops out of the story, the neediness as she wants to be mothered, coddled and rescued from her own life; just the idea of a 26 year old going on holiday with a group of 40-50 year olds takes some believing. Even the ending is just a variation, somewhat out of the blue, of an old-fashioned rescue where Violet never really has to grow up or take responsibility.
The much vaunted sex is pretty clinical and all those descriptions of mechanical body parts with no passion just became boring to the point that I started skimming them. Will Violet keep up her orgy life-style now that she's found true love? If not, it feels a bit sensationalist rather than genuinely exploring alternative sex lives. Big issues of eating disorders, grief, assault almost appear as tick-box items - they make their appearance then are forgotten about.
The narrative voice is that generic one that appears in chick-lit-style books: self-deprecating, dropping designer names, full of cute little victimising anecdotes of how the narrator is wearing drab, holey, smelly clothes... yet, somehow, this doesn't stop everyone desiring her.
Yet there are interesting things going on as well and I'd like to have seen this redrafted to have placed more emphasis on the toxic inequalities in Violet's relationships, and some kind of stronger resolution to her aimlessness in life and job, rather than love coming along as her rescuer. And there are some funny lines that made me grin: 'the only vaguely artistic thing about Alan is that he looks like what would happen if Gilbert ate George' - ha!
March 26, 2024
’What would happen if I let myself dream, instead of simply trying to stay out of trouble?’
Insatiable delves into the intricate labyrinth of human desires, offering readers a profound and thought-provoking exploration of what drives us to constantly seek fulfillment. Through a captivating narrative and rich character development, Buchanan invites readers to examine the multifaceted nature of longing, consumption, and the insatiable hunger that drives us all.
At the heart of the novel are characters who are all grappling with their own desires, whether it be for love, success, validation, or something else entirely. Buchanan skillfully portrays their inner conflicts and external struggles, immersing readers in a world where the pursuit of satisfaction often leads to unexpected consequences.
One of the novel's greatest strengths lies in its nuanced portrayal of desire. Buchanan doesn't shy away from depicting the darker aspects of human nature. Yet, she also explores the beauty and complexity of desire, showing how it can be a driving force for growth, connection, and self-discovery.
The prose is lyrical and evocative, drawing readers into the world of the novel with vivid imagery and immersive storytelling. Keen observations and sharp wit add depth and complexity to the narrative, while also infusing moments of humor and levity.
A must-read for anyone interested in delving into the depths of the human psyche.
Highly Recommend.
Insatiable delves into the intricate labyrinth of human desires, offering readers a profound and thought-provoking exploration of what drives us to constantly seek fulfillment. Through a captivating narrative and rich character development, Buchanan invites readers to examine the multifaceted nature of longing, consumption, and the insatiable hunger that drives us all.
At the heart of the novel are characters who are all grappling with their own desires, whether it be for love, success, validation, or something else entirely. Buchanan skillfully portrays their inner conflicts and external struggles, immersing readers in a world where the pursuit of satisfaction often leads to unexpected consequences.
One of the novel's greatest strengths lies in its nuanced portrayal of desire. Buchanan doesn't shy away from depicting the darker aspects of human nature. Yet, she also explores the beauty and complexity of desire, showing how it can be a driving force for growth, connection, and self-discovery.
The prose is lyrical and evocative, drawing readers into the world of the novel with vivid imagery and immersive storytelling. Keen observations and sharp wit add depth and complexity to the narrative, while also infusing moments of humor and levity.
A must-read for anyone interested in delving into the depths of the human psyche.
Highly Recommend.
March 3, 2021
Oh dear lord. Where to begin. I've never had such a visceral dislike for a book. This was touted as such a searing millennial novel and was instead just clunky, stereotypical and transparent. I couldn't care one bit about a single one-dimensional character - least of all the protagonist who has less charisma than my toenail and is just the latest in a dull trope of 'hedonistic' 20 somethings. Stick with Sally Rooney or Raven Leilani. Quite honestly, the only reason I finished this was because I resented the hours I'd already put in.
June 10, 2021
What I am about to say may come as a surprise – it certainly would surprise Daisy Buchanan, the author of this book, whose parents really did name her that*. It is this: porn needs editing too.
*Turns out this is a self-chosen pen-name, to which I can only say: holy cow, are you for real?
If the concept of a story about a frustrated and entitled ‘Millennial’ – in scare quotes a) because I find this generational concept inherently flawed and b) Violet, the MC, isn’t a Millennial, she’s a fucking Gen X-er – who in fleeing various responsibilities stumbles (literally) into an orgy club and proceeds to have badly-written orgies rings your bell, press on! You don’t need to know anything more about this book. If, however, you’re also seeking either a well-written story or a well-written piece of erotica … don’t.
The problem with discussing porn and erotica – which, for the sake of clarity, I mean the film format and the written format of sex stories – is that there really is a binary. You’re either wholly disgusted and appalled, or you’re on the fast train to orgasm town. The fact that a spectrum of quality in the works exists, and is noted by consumers, is not something that is easy to discuss in certain company. The satisfaction to be gained from reading a quality piece of erotica, one that turns your particular dials and does so in a way that is also compelling from a literary point of view, is not so different from reading a quality piece of science-fiction or history. What I’m trying to say is the satisfaction exists on two levels: one, ‘ooh these people are having sex and I like to read about that’ (for which you can sub in ‘spaceships’ or ‘Tudor beheadings’) and two, ‘aside from my love of sex/spaceships/Tudor beheadings, this is executed well’. The first does not necessarily lead to, nor automatically create, the other.
So the thing about fanfiction that is and remains true, even now that it’s edging into the mainstream (lol edging), is that it is mainly porn. I’d be happy to debate how qualitatively it differs from, say, your average Pornhub offering, or even ‘mainstream’ published erotica, but quantitatively? It’s porn. Or pr0n. Back in Ye Olde Internete Days, this didn’t present a problem, because no one in fandom linked their fandom identity to their real-world identity. You could write the filthiest smut imaginable – which Buchanan, bless her cotton socks, doesn’t even get within an ass’s roar of – and do so surrounded by other people who Got It, never having to explain yourself.
I read a lot of it. I have read every kind of porn scenario. Although orgies, polyamory, and threesomes are not My Trash, I’ve read a considerable amount of them all the same. I can’t even say it was in service of expanding my sex writing vocabulary, like the way I voluntarily read Philip Roth. It’s not something I thought about at the time, but I did also spend nearly a decade learning out to sift out what a good sex scene was from a bad one. This was aided by the fact that fandom hosted debates on the topic. You could find lists of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ words to use. No-nos included ‘moist’, any euphemism for penis that wasn’t ‘cock’ or ‘dick’, and all flower similes. Which all leads me to the conclusion that the person who hasn’t performed their due diligence in sex writing is Daisy Buchanan. This is further strengthened by her acknowledgement page, which pays tribute to Jilly Cooper. Now, I’m a fan of Jilly Cooper. I particularly salute her grasp of a saga-esque approach to storytelling. She also has a lot of sex scenes in her books, but if you think Jilly Cooper is erotica, you just haven’t read any erotica. It’s as simple as that.
Buchanan commits several unspeakable crimes against sex writing in this book. The first is unsexy word choice. Crotch. ‘Swell and trickle’. ‘Squeeze my muscles.’ I guess this is because she’s aiming for a Sally Rooney audience – another committer of crimes against sex scenes – rather than a Harry Potter NC-17 on AO3 tag audience. It’s still not excusable.
The second is organisation. I’ll give proof below, but at several points I was pulled out of an already excruciatingly unsexy sex scene by wondering how someone’s legs got there, or where their head was at this moment, or how they moved from A to B. Fight scenes are coordinated, on page and screen, because seeing a single static viewpoint of two people whaling on each other is not interesting. There’s increasing acknowledgement that intimate scenes need the same amount of forethought and planning. This has passed Buchanan by completely.
The third problem is that you can’t have your cake and eat with erotic protagonists. In the same way that Buchanan tries to shoehorn social commentary in between breathless descriptions of eye-watering wealth, she’s got a faffy, incompetent individual who’s constantly spitting on people or spilling things on her garments, bursting into tears, describing the cheap material of her ‘sexy’ lingerie, and worrying about her muffin-top, while simultaneously expecting me to segue seamlessly into visualising this same person as a sex-kitten centre of an orgy pile. Er, no. This does not scan. In the non-sex parts of this book, Violet is the Bella Swan-Bridget Jones hybrid absolutely no one wanted. Buchanan simply doesn’t grasp that you can’t bring that kind of vibe to a sex scene. In real life, people might be worried about how they look naked or feel their basque is itchy or what the fuck ever. In an erotic scene – whose purpose is to arouse the reader - you cannot do that. It’s unfair, and it’s also incompetent.
Examples of terrible sex writing:
“With his other hand, he puts a finger to my lips. The ones on my face.”
“I crawl towards her and she reaches for me, pulling my face between her thighs. As I start to stroke her sticky skin, I realise that my legs are in the air again, and someone […] has started to fuck me.”
UGH STICKY. Also, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out how any of this was possible, anatomically. Violet must be bent in a backwards L.
“I’m horrified by the pleasure brought about by the sensation of having a predator tear into my flesh.”
UGH TEAR. Also, tag your vore, Daisy, for fuck’s sake.
“I slide down Lottie’s thigh, I have no control of any of the muscles in my legs. I feel like a stuck pig rolling in mud, but I don’t care.”
I’m glad you don’t care, Lottie, but I do. Honestly, how dare this metaphor be included in a sex scene? How dare?
Outside of the sex, the rest of the book is also bad. At least Buchanan is consistent. Violet spends a lot of money she doesn’t have then complains about her shitty flat. She ditches her fiancé at the altar and expects sympathy for her lack of moral courage at any earlier point in the relationship. Every time someone points out a very reasonable flaw of Violet’s that has directly hurt them, Violet flares up and attacks them back. Wow mature. Much adult.
“Not for the first time, I decide that I am haunted by a sort of spiritual shabbiness. If my soul has fingernails, they are ragged, and the polish is chipped.”
This is page FIVE. My notes say ‘christ, I hope at some point she’s going to tell me why I should care’. Spoiler: she does not.
“[…] she’s coy, yet shrewd, part Cínema Vérité ingenue and part Dame Judi Dench.”
This is a description of Lottie, Violet’s main love interest for most of the book. Violet spends the book outlining that Lottie is the most beautiful and irresistibly sexy person in the known universe. Now, I have a lot of respect for Judi Dench, but christ on a bike, would she be your first thought for a comparator in this situation?
Lottie offers Violet a job. Violet has an amorphous career running ‘social’ for ‘contemporary art apps’, which, I’ll believe that’s a job because I have no evidence to the contrary, but it sounds like news so fake even Donald Trump wouldn’t buy it. Violet goes to a business meeting with Lottie that ends with Lottie French-kissing her on the street. Violet’s response?
“It’s weird. Or rather, it should be weird. But it’s quite comforting. It’s making me feel dreamy and expansive, and there’s a new sensation I can’t quite put my finger on – a yearning for something I didn’t know I wanted.”
This is page 33, and it’s where the book lost any shred of sympathy I might have had for Violet as a character. Also, she’s drunk. In the middle of the day. At a business meeting.
“Obviously this is an orgy. It has to be. What else could she mean?”
Surely this is something you should make ABUNDANTLY CLEAR on issuing an INVITE?
“One of the walls is lined with reassuringly battered books, orange Penguin classics and heavy, glossy Phaidons.”
It says everything about this book that Violet is more interested in the publisher of these books than their contents.
Mark and Max are two very similar characters in this story, with very similar names. PICK ANOTHER NAME.
“When we were in Ibiza, we could be chatting away about trashy books or crisps or crap telly, and you’d be making all of these insightful comments without realising.”
I’m so glad I got to READ THOSE COMMENTS while they WERE HAPPENING oh wait. We never see Violet doing or saying anything clever, let alone anything art-related. I presume this is a reflection upon her creator, to which I say: just make the protag dumb and don’t land her with a career in an area of which you are wholly ignorant. Simples.
The book ends with Violet HEA-ing with a person with whom she has no chemistry and who is interchangeable with any of the three other main female characters. She says of this, “I feel beautiful. Not because she told me to.” Nah, fam, it’s totally because she told you that. You have no independent thought.
Conclusion: this experience was as erotic as eating dry cardboard. Pick your kink and search it on AO3 instead. You’re welcome.
*Turns out this is a self-chosen pen-name, to which I can only say: holy cow, are you for real?
If the concept of a story about a frustrated and entitled ‘Millennial’ – in scare quotes a) because I find this generational concept inherently flawed and b) Violet, the MC, isn’t a Millennial, she’s a fucking Gen X-er – who in fleeing various responsibilities stumbles (literally) into an orgy club and proceeds to have badly-written orgies rings your bell, press on! You don’t need to know anything more about this book. If, however, you’re also seeking either a well-written story or a well-written piece of erotica … don’t.
The problem with discussing porn and erotica – which, for the sake of clarity, I mean the film format and the written format of sex stories – is that there really is a binary. You’re either wholly disgusted and appalled, or you’re on the fast train to orgasm town. The fact that a spectrum of quality in the works exists, and is noted by consumers, is not something that is easy to discuss in certain company. The satisfaction to be gained from reading a quality piece of erotica, one that turns your particular dials and does so in a way that is also compelling from a literary point of view, is not so different from reading a quality piece of science-fiction or history. What I’m trying to say is the satisfaction exists on two levels: one, ‘ooh these people are having sex and I like to read about that’ (for which you can sub in ‘spaceships’ or ‘Tudor beheadings’) and two, ‘aside from my love of sex/spaceships/Tudor beheadings, this is executed well’. The first does not necessarily lead to, nor automatically create, the other.
So the thing about fanfiction that is and remains true, even now that it’s edging into the mainstream (lol edging), is that it is mainly porn. I’d be happy to debate how qualitatively it differs from, say, your average Pornhub offering, or even ‘mainstream’ published erotica, but quantitatively? It’s porn. Or pr0n. Back in Ye Olde Internete Days, this didn’t present a problem, because no one in fandom linked their fandom identity to their real-world identity. You could write the filthiest smut imaginable – which Buchanan, bless her cotton socks, doesn’t even get within an ass’s roar of – and do so surrounded by other people who Got It, never having to explain yourself.
I read a lot of it. I have read every kind of porn scenario. Although orgies, polyamory, and threesomes are not My Trash, I’ve read a considerable amount of them all the same. I can’t even say it was in service of expanding my sex writing vocabulary, like the way I voluntarily read Philip Roth. It’s not something I thought about at the time, but I did also spend nearly a decade learning out to sift out what a good sex scene was from a bad one. This was aided by the fact that fandom hosted debates on the topic. You could find lists of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ words to use. No-nos included ‘moist’, any euphemism for penis that wasn’t ‘cock’ or ‘dick’, and all flower similes. Which all leads me to the conclusion that the person who hasn’t performed their due diligence in sex writing is Daisy Buchanan. This is further strengthened by her acknowledgement page, which pays tribute to Jilly Cooper. Now, I’m a fan of Jilly Cooper. I particularly salute her grasp of a saga-esque approach to storytelling. She also has a lot of sex scenes in her books, but if you think Jilly Cooper is erotica, you just haven’t read any erotica. It’s as simple as that.
Buchanan commits several unspeakable crimes against sex writing in this book. The first is unsexy word choice. Crotch. ‘Swell and trickle’. ‘Squeeze my muscles.’ I guess this is because she’s aiming for a Sally Rooney audience – another committer of crimes against sex scenes – rather than a Harry Potter NC-17 on AO3 tag audience. It’s still not excusable.
The second is organisation. I’ll give proof below, but at several points I was pulled out of an already excruciatingly unsexy sex scene by wondering how someone’s legs got there, or where their head was at this moment, or how they moved from A to B. Fight scenes are coordinated, on page and screen, because seeing a single static viewpoint of two people whaling on each other is not interesting. There’s increasing acknowledgement that intimate scenes need the same amount of forethought and planning. This has passed Buchanan by completely.
The third problem is that you can’t have your cake and eat with erotic protagonists. In the same way that Buchanan tries to shoehorn social commentary in between breathless descriptions of eye-watering wealth, she’s got a faffy, incompetent individual who’s constantly spitting on people or spilling things on her garments, bursting into tears, describing the cheap material of her ‘sexy’ lingerie, and worrying about her muffin-top, while simultaneously expecting me to segue seamlessly into visualising this same person as a sex-kitten centre of an orgy pile. Er, no. This does not scan. In the non-sex parts of this book, Violet is the Bella Swan-Bridget Jones hybrid absolutely no one wanted. Buchanan simply doesn’t grasp that you can’t bring that kind of vibe to a sex scene. In real life, people might be worried about how they look naked or feel their basque is itchy or what the fuck ever. In an erotic scene – whose purpose is to arouse the reader - you cannot do that. It’s unfair, and it’s also incompetent.
Examples of terrible sex writing:
“With his other hand, he puts a finger to my lips. The ones on my face.”
“I crawl towards her and she reaches for me, pulling my face between her thighs. As I start to stroke her sticky skin, I realise that my legs are in the air again, and someone […] has started to fuck me.”
UGH STICKY. Also, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out how any of this was possible, anatomically. Violet must be bent in a backwards L.
“I’m horrified by the pleasure brought about by the sensation of having a predator tear into my flesh.”
UGH TEAR. Also, tag your vore, Daisy, for fuck’s sake.
“I slide down Lottie’s thigh, I have no control of any of the muscles in my legs. I feel like a stuck pig rolling in mud, but I don’t care.”
I’m glad you don’t care, Lottie, but I do. Honestly, how dare this metaphor be included in a sex scene? How dare?
Outside of the sex, the rest of the book is also bad. At least Buchanan is consistent. Violet spends a lot of money she doesn’t have then complains about her shitty flat. She ditches her fiancé at the altar and expects sympathy for her lack of moral courage at any earlier point in the relationship. Every time someone points out a very reasonable flaw of Violet’s that has directly hurt them, Violet flares up and attacks them back. Wow mature. Much adult.
“Not for the first time, I decide that I am haunted by a sort of spiritual shabbiness. If my soul has fingernails, they are ragged, and the polish is chipped.”
This is page FIVE. My notes say ‘christ, I hope at some point she’s going to tell me why I should care’. Spoiler: she does not.
“[…] she’s coy, yet shrewd, part Cínema Vérité ingenue and part Dame Judi Dench.”
This is a description of Lottie, Violet’s main love interest for most of the book. Violet spends the book outlining that Lottie is the most beautiful and irresistibly sexy person in the known universe. Now, I have a lot of respect for Judi Dench, but christ on a bike, would she be your first thought for a comparator in this situation?
Lottie offers Violet a job. Violet has an amorphous career running ‘social’ for ‘contemporary art apps’, which, I’ll believe that’s a job because I have no evidence to the contrary, but it sounds like news so fake even Donald Trump wouldn’t buy it. Violet goes to a business meeting with Lottie that ends with Lottie French-kissing her on the street. Violet’s response?
“It’s weird. Or rather, it should be weird. But it’s quite comforting. It’s making me feel dreamy and expansive, and there’s a new sensation I can’t quite put my finger on – a yearning for something I didn’t know I wanted.”
This is page 33, and it’s where the book lost any shred of sympathy I might have had for Violet as a character. Also, she’s drunk. In the middle of the day. At a business meeting.
“Obviously this is an orgy. It has to be. What else could she mean?”
Surely this is something you should make ABUNDANTLY CLEAR on issuing an INVITE?
“One of the walls is lined with reassuringly battered books, orange Penguin classics and heavy, glossy Phaidons.”
It says everything about this book that Violet is more interested in the publisher of these books than their contents.
Mark and Max are two very similar characters in this story, with very similar names. PICK ANOTHER NAME.
“When we were in Ibiza, we could be chatting away about trashy books or crisps or crap telly, and you’d be making all of these insightful comments without realising.”
I’m so glad I got to READ THOSE COMMENTS while they WERE HAPPENING oh wait. We never see Violet doing or saying anything clever, let alone anything art-related. I presume this is a reflection upon her creator, to which I say: just make the protag dumb and don’t land her with a career in an area of which you are wholly ignorant. Simples.
The book ends with Violet HEA-ing with a person with whom she has no chemistry and who is interchangeable with any of the three other main female characters. She says of this, “I feel beautiful. Not because she told me to.” Nah, fam, it’s totally because she told you that. You have no independent thought.
Conclusion: this experience was as erotic as eating dry cardboard. Pick your kink and search it on AO3 instead. You’re welcome.
June 24, 2024
i’ve heard bad things about this and it was better than expected!
definitely strange in places and the ending threw me off but overall i’m not sure what all the fuss is about?!
it was sexy with enough depth in other areas it didn’t feel pointless/flat
just a girl in her 20s, struggling with her career, friendships, love life and her sexuality
something i’ve definitely read before but that doesn’t diminish this one
another perfect holiday book
definitely strange in places and the ending threw me off but overall i’m not sure what all the fuss is about?!
it was sexy with enough depth in other areas it didn’t feel pointless/flat
just a girl in her 20s, struggling with her career, friendships, love life and her sexuality
something i’ve definitely read before but that doesn’t diminish this one
another perfect holiday book
March 23, 2021
I read this quickly purely to get it over with. Characters had no substance, the writing was simple and it made me cringe. Violet is not believable, charismatic, interesting, relatable or likeable. I was shocked when there were obviously crafted moments to help Violet realise she was fun, witty, charismatic, intelligent and fun - she was none of those things.
Major issues and themes were raised such as eating disorders, assault, coercive abuse ect. but mentioned so briefly it was almost offensive. What was most frustrating is the plot had potential to explore these issues and make each character incredibly complex and allow readers to feel equal parts frustration/anger/love/empathy for them. But instead I felt nothing but uncomfortable.
The sex was disappointing to read and ultimately boring, repetitive and between people I felt nothing for. I hate how much I hated this book.
Major issues and themes were raised such as eating disorders, assault, coercive abuse ect. but mentioned so briefly it was almost offensive. What was most frustrating is the plot had potential to explore these issues and make each character incredibly complex and allow readers to feel equal parts frustration/anger/love/empathy for them. But instead I felt nothing but uncomfortable.
The sex was disappointing to read and ultimately boring, repetitive and between people I felt nothing for. I hate how much I hated this book.
April 5, 2021
My GOD Violet is an idiot, but she’s my idiot. By the end I was totally rooting for her. The last few pages realllllyyy had me holding my breath as to whether she was gonna make *that* massive mistake. No spoilers here though.
I was a bit unconvinced at the beginning but think everyone can identify with Violet’s feelings of displacement and dissatisfaction, especially in your twenties. Seeking to take control of her own agency and desire, this book is filthy (threesome in the fifth chapter, hello) but also an accurate representing of wanting more. More love, more inspiration, more sex, more money, more everything. Teetering between a toxic past and enchanting, but potentially catastrophic, future, Violet explores her desires. Funny at times, tragic at times, Buchanan has delivered an intriguing, if slightly excessive, debut. I would, however, like to know how far into her overdraft Violet is from buying all these new bloody dresses.
A love story for greedy girls indeed.
I was a bit unconvinced at the beginning but think everyone can identify with Violet’s feelings of displacement and dissatisfaction, especially in your twenties. Seeking to take control of her own agency and desire, this book is filthy (threesome in the fifth chapter, hello) but also an accurate representing of wanting more. More love, more inspiration, more sex, more money, more everything. Teetering between a toxic past and enchanting, but potentially catastrophic, future, Violet explores her desires. Funny at times, tragic at times, Buchanan has delivered an intriguing, if slightly excessive, debut. I would, however, like to know how far into her overdraft Violet is from buying all these new bloody dresses.
A love story for greedy girls indeed.
February 26, 2021
Read it, that's all I have to say. Insatiable is absolutely delicious, and such a joyful experience. I love the new movement of contemporary fiction; women writing women, female authors creating female characters who actually represent how we really think, feel, and behave, as opposed to how men have depicted us for hundreds of years. Women are able to write messy, complicated, and multi-layered characters with interesting stories that are so rewarding, and comforting to read; women with ladders in their tights, and unpleasant living arrangements. This book is an extraordinary treat in so many ways, and I highly recommend it. I was totally engrossed, and couldn't put it down, after struggling to concentrate on reading for the last few months, I was absolutely gripped.
April 12, 2021
If Dolly was a nympho
May 25, 2023
Jesus christ
May 27, 2021
Again, I’m at my limit of books about twenty something chicks with low level admin jobs living beyond their means in major cities who go on sex adventures. It was all very peak Tumblr nonsense. This book was so improbable it was hard to take it seriously. First of all: she just happens to meet a hot couple into swinging and she has AMAZING sex with all the people involved all the time?? She’s poor and a mess but everyone finds her irresistible? She manages to procure a high paying prestigious job even tho she’s constantly making a fool of herself? She constantly burns bridges but everyone forgives her? Give me a break.
The ending was not the queer twist it thought it was, it was lazy, didn’t really make sense and was gross, considering these are all middle aged people creeping on a twenty six year old.
The ending was not the queer twist it thought it was, it was lazy, didn’t really make sense and was gross, considering these are all middle aged people creeping on a twenty six year old.
August 4, 2022
This is literally so terrible lol
March 9, 2021
warning: very mixed feelings ahead!!
so. this started out, to me, as one of those whiny, middle-class millennial narratives. violet, our narrator, is unfulfilled in sex and work, has recently broken off an engagement and is really just floating through life. i have read soooo many of these books recently and was seriously considering just putting it down, because these narrators quickly piss me off.
but, i'm sooo glad i kept going!
violet, infatuated by a rich young couple, is welcomed into a world of millionaires and swingers which turns her life upside down. there are some pretty explicit sex scenes here so enter with caution if you're not an erotica fan! at this point, i didn't really know where the narrative was gonna go from here. but some interesting revelations in the last third of the book really changed everything for me. it was actually pretty emotional, touching on some unexpectedly dark subjects and it was interesting to see violet attempt to deal with them. she is undoubtedly naive, and sometimes pretty annoying because of it, but she felt like a real character, caught up in something bigger than her.
one thing i do love about the 'contemporary millennial female' genre (that's not too catchy, huh?) is the rawness. it is genuinely refreshing to read gritty, candid narratives about female sexuality, love, friendships, mental illness, abuse and loss. and that is definitely something this book offered, i just couldn't really see it at first through all the sex and fanfare.
three stars seems about right for a book that i only really got into as it was winding down. but the latter third was so powerful that it is definitely worth the read. also, i know i shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but i love this one <3
so. this started out, to me, as one of those whiny, middle-class millennial narratives. violet, our narrator, is unfulfilled in sex and work, has recently broken off an engagement and is really just floating through life. i have read soooo many of these books recently and was seriously considering just putting it down, because these narrators quickly piss me off.
but, i'm sooo glad i kept going!
violet, infatuated by a rich young couple, is welcomed into a world of millionaires and swingers which turns her life upside down. there are some pretty explicit sex scenes here so enter with caution if you're not an erotica fan! at this point, i didn't really know where the narrative was gonna go from here. but some interesting revelations in the last third of the book really changed everything for me. it was actually pretty emotional, touching on some unexpectedly dark subjects and it was interesting to see violet attempt to deal with them. she is undoubtedly naive, and sometimes pretty annoying because of it, but she felt like a real character, caught up in something bigger than her.
one thing i do love about the 'contemporary millennial female' genre (that's not too catchy, huh?) is the rawness. it is genuinely refreshing to read gritty, candid narratives about female sexuality, love, friendships, mental illness, abuse and loss. and that is definitely something this book offered, i just couldn't really see it at first through all the sex and fanfare.
three stars seems about right for a book that i only really got into as it was winding down. but the latter third was so powerful that it is definitely worth the read. also, i know i shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but i love this one <3
March 9, 2021
annoying characters, unbelievable story (not in a good way), and disappointing sex scenes
August 15, 2022
if “we saw you from across the club and we really dig your vibe” was a book.
March 23, 2024
Obligatory TW: Eating disorder and body image issues mention on page 149-150, 163, 245-246 and 318, assault with some good old victim blaming on page 252-255, rape with gaslighting on 257-259. Infant loss as a background theme throughout the last third of the book but nothing graphic.
-
I started this book in the middle of reading another one because I was on holiday and it seemed like a good beach read, and was surprised by how suddenly it went from "funny broke girl having orgies in fancy house" to deep psychological reflection, social commentary on power, age, class anxiety, and themes ranging from loss to emotional abuse.
The poetic writing style with wordy, elaborate descriptions was exactly my jam. Imagine Nina LaCour for slightly older girls, Dolly Alderton for slightly younger girls, or Sally Rooney for people who aren't acutely suicidal (or those who want to at least read about a character who isn't). There's a more hopeful and excitable tone throughout the book while not lacking the same sharp, self-critical observations.
Like the above-mentioned authors, Daisy Buchanan has also made her protagonist a feminist and #sjw in every way. Violet says it like it is when she speaks out about the shame surrounding sex and bodies that we were taught since childhood. Her story explores people-pleasing, boundaries and confidence, poverty and the longing for human connection, jealousy, the closeness of friendship and what it's like to grow apart, and missing someone while slowly realising how awful they really were.
She never directly says "capitalism is bad" because she doesn't have to. Seemingly glorifying the "rich people's world" at first, it quickly becomes clear that she is being taken advantage of.
This book is what Naoise Dolan was trying to write when she wrote "Exciting Times". Although "Insatiable" seems to be less popular for whatever reason, it properly gets to the point without being boring.
As for the writing style, it was an easy read with the casual slang, unusual metaphors, funny and sarcastic comments. Every sentence was inspiringly detailed, honest, and philosophical.
What also made a difference was the rather large font size (13? 14?) that was chosen, which made it more pleasant and motivating to read. I immediately got into it and couldn't stop reading because it was so easy to concentrate on.
The main character is likeable because of how openly she displays her imperfections to the reader while desperately trying to conceal them from everyone else in the book. She's the typical naive "hot mess" just trying to get by, living small while dreaming big, and it's quite endearing.
We follow her through the little relatable moments, the desperation and loneliness of being in your twenties, with magical moments such as eating Reduced To Clear birthday cakes for dinner because you're broke, contemplating the importance of dresses, or writing stream of consciousness journals at the office pretending you're working.
I really liked her character arc, although I thought the ending felt a bit rushed but maybe I'm just mad that it had an ending at all.
Here are some of my favourite quotes:
"Everyone's life has a self-destruct button. Surely we've all walked over a bridge, or looked through a window, or just crossed a road and thought, Shall I fuck it up? I could ruin everything, forever! Usually, the moment passes, the mood fades, we resist temptation like ex-smokers turning down cigarettes, bolstering a resolve that has been softened by a second glass of wine. But the second you start to touch the button, once you have traced its outline with your fingertips, imagined the weight of the click, the feeling of release, and imagined letting go of everything, surrendering all your power and letting your life spin entirely out of control as you walk away from it... that's when you become a kid in the cockpit, frozen to the spot as your plane falls out of the sky."
- p. 21
"I hate that at least once a day something will make me forget what happened, and then I have to remember it all over again. The shock is worse than the sadness. It's violent."
- p. 45
"Maybe there are thousands of people who have threesomes with their colleges all the time, and I'm the prude for wondering whether it's odd. I've spent so much of my life being good, worrying and questioning every single desire I've had. Perhaps other people go off and explore these great, strange, voluptuous bloomings, and then go home and wash their faces and go to sleep and go to work and manage to keep everything wholly discrete."
- p. 64
"I take a sip (definitely proper champagne) and decide the in the unlikely event that I see a framed slogan that tells me what to do and how to feel about it, I'm going back to Streatham. I can deal with a dungeon, but not a sign to 'Keep calm and carry on spanking.' "
- p. 71
"From the start, Mark and I cast each other in awkward caricatures, exaggerated roles - and then contorted ourselves to complement this distorted version of The Other, bending and twisting into shapes that bounced between our wrongly reflected selves, a haunted hall of mirrors. I suggested that we go to the farmers' market because I thought I wanted to be the sort of woman who was prepared to spend several of her precious weekend hours deciding whether or not to spend thirty pounds on a jar of honey. Mark, I think, liked the legitimacy of it."
- p. 108
"There is something deeply arousing about objectifying myself - I can see what he sees, and it gives me respite from the constant noise in my head. It is liberating to let myself become two dimensional for a moment, albeit with tits that are indisputably 3D."
- p. 129
"I will never, ever do anything bad again if I can just pretend that reality is suspended in this one room. Bloody hotels. They make you feel safe enough to be dangerous. They trick you into believing that nothing you do inside them could possibly count outside, afterwards."
- p. 132
"When I started uni, I'd fantasised about reinventing myself. I wasn't going to be the nerd who always puts her hand up before the teacher had finished the question. I wasn't going to be the breathless, enthusiastic, chubby, mockable girl any more. I could be enigmatic, sophisticated, restrained. The trouble was that I'd always been a little bit too much to compensate for my crippling shyness. Shutting up didn't make me feel sexy or mysterious - it only served to reinforce my awkwardness."
- p. 148
"I had grown up believing that a female body was a problem to be solved. I had to emphasise its most narrow points and conceal the widest ones."
- p. 150
"I feel like I'm gambling, and I'm scared that if I throw everything into the idea of this new job and new life, I might end up with no jobs at all. I have become emotionally incontinent, and what I really need is a condom for my heart."
- p. 155
"I hear so much unspoken pain in that unfinished sentence. Mimi's beauty and status does not protect her from the hell of womanhood - constantly searching for clues and costumes that will allow us to work out exactly who we should be."
- p. 162
"I remember wondering what was wrong with me, whether I had won some sort of life competition, whether being sad was simply an inevitable tax on being safe, whether I should think myself lucky, lucky, lucky."
- p. 188
"I wish I loved my body, like the adverts told me to. I'd love to embrace body positivity, but it makes me feel as though the rug has been pulled from under me. When I was growing up, every single message I heard about beauty and being a woman made me feel as though I looked all wrong. Now, I'm told that my brain is wrong too - if I can't love my body, I'm failing at feminism."
- p.228
"Perhaps Lottie and Simon just don't understand that they're dangling a life-changing opportunity in front of me, because they can't imagine how it feels to live a life that needs to be changed so badly."
- p.228
"There's a moment when I'm half dozing on a lounger, and I'm just aware of Sasha tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before balancing a straw hat on my head, and something tender is stirred up inside for a second, but I shift, and it goes away. It's a mental mistake, a bit of faulty wiring confusing one kind of touch for the other. It's a little bit like the never-not-depressing experience of coming home, being bewitched by other people's cooking smells and realising you have to try to make dinner out of some sour milk and half a fluffy lemon. Surely Sasha isn't home, she is just someone steady in a sea of strangeness. I'm tired and bewildered and I can't trust anyone to say what they mean. I can't trust myself to understand them."
- p.250
"I want it to feel good. I want this to be hot. The trouble is, I am suddenly realising, is that average sex can be terrible. If there's a moment when it takes me out of my body, even partly, and returns me to my head, the place I'm constantly trapped in during real life, I feel itchy and grumpy, distracted, resentful."
- p. 269
"And I could have backtracked, pretended that the message was sent in error, or that I'd come down with food poisoning in the last twenty seconds, but when I commit to doing something stupid, I like to see it through. Especially when the stupid thing is happening in a place that sells alcohol and is situated within five miles of my flat."
- p. 279
"I had wondered what it would be like to touch him again, whether some old muscle memory would take over and I'd throw myself into his arms, finding him as revoltingly irresistible as the smell of fried food.
It isn't like that. Right now, being with Mark feels like seeing an old picture taken during the school holidays. He's a centre parting, a silly hat, a sweet squint and sunburn. I feel affection, confusion, but no real nostalgia. The longing is missing."
- p. 281
"Once again, I thought of my mum and dad, and their reaction to our engagement. At the time, I'd badly wanted to believe they were happy for me. Now, I realise that for them it held the same meaning as my A level results day. They were relieved that I hadn't let them down. I was doing my job as a young woman, which meant that no one could accuse them of not doing theirs properly.
Then I would have children, and Mark would be their father, and I'd repeat the process, holding my breath and waiting for everything to go wrong, crossing my fingers that exams were passed, curfews were observed, experiments with drugs and alcohol were kept to a minimum and that teen years were pregnancy-free.
What did I want? What would I do if I could do what I liked? What would happen if I let myself dream, instead of simply trying to stay out of trouble? Was there a world in which I didn't become a wife, a mother, my mother? Where I didn't feel guilty about everything from hangovers to coming into the office at ten past nine to not ironing my bed sheets? (...) I make such a mess of things when I'm trying to be good - if I did what I really wanted, cities would probably fall into the sea."
- p. 292
"I have been giving all of my power away, on purpose, because the alternative - taking charge - was terrifying, and I was exhausted from running away. But I think I might be ready to acknowledge my power, and use it for good."
- p. 311
"I can put up with a lot of loneliness, a lot of slammed doors and silences, if it means I can briefly belong. My heart aches for a drop of love. It doesn't need much."
- p. 323
"I wonder whether she can truly love anyone, or whether she just uses one strong feeling to distract herself from another. Just like I do. (...) Sometimes I wonder whether I am mourning something that has yet to happen to me. Maybe I'm like them. Maybe I can't love the way the other people love, and I just need to find enough to rescue myself, to protect myself from that which does not nourish me or make me strong.
I used to believe that life was something it was possible to protect yourself from. I thought everyone else knew the rules and if I watched what they did for long enough, I'd be safe. I wouldn't feel left out any more. I would do anything if there was a chance it might have made me feel real, or just included. Now I know that we're all just idiot children in the dark. There is no plan for me."
- p. 328
-
I started this book in the middle of reading another one because I was on holiday and it seemed like a good beach read, and was surprised by how suddenly it went from "funny broke girl having orgies in fancy house" to deep psychological reflection, social commentary on power, age, class anxiety, and themes ranging from loss to emotional abuse.
The poetic writing style with wordy, elaborate descriptions was exactly my jam. Imagine Nina LaCour for slightly older girls, Dolly Alderton for slightly younger girls, or Sally Rooney for people who aren't acutely suicidal (or those who want to at least read about a character who isn't). There's a more hopeful and excitable tone throughout the book while not lacking the same sharp, self-critical observations.
Like the above-mentioned authors, Daisy Buchanan has also made her protagonist a feminist and #sjw in every way. Violet says it like it is when she speaks out about the shame surrounding sex and bodies that we were taught since childhood. Her story explores people-pleasing, boundaries and confidence, poverty and the longing for human connection, jealousy, the closeness of friendship and what it's like to grow apart, and missing someone while slowly realising how awful they really were.
She never directly says "capitalism is bad" because she doesn't have to. Seemingly glorifying the "rich people's world" at first, it quickly becomes clear that she is being taken advantage of.
This book is what Naoise Dolan was trying to write when she wrote "Exciting Times". Although "Insatiable" seems to be less popular for whatever reason, it properly gets to the point without being boring.
As for the writing style, it was an easy read with the casual slang, unusual metaphors, funny and sarcastic comments. Every sentence was inspiringly detailed, honest, and philosophical.
What also made a difference was the rather large font size (13? 14?) that was chosen, which made it more pleasant and motivating to read. I immediately got into it and couldn't stop reading because it was so easy to concentrate on.
The main character is likeable because of how openly she displays her imperfections to the reader while desperately trying to conceal them from everyone else in the book. She's the typical naive "hot mess" just trying to get by, living small while dreaming big, and it's quite endearing.
We follow her through the little relatable moments, the desperation and loneliness of being in your twenties, with magical moments such as eating Reduced To Clear birthday cakes for dinner because you're broke, contemplating the importance of dresses, or writing stream of consciousness journals at the office pretending you're working.
I really liked her character arc, although I thought the ending felt a bit rushed but maybe I'm just mad that it had an ending at all.
Here are some of my favourite quotes:
"Everyone's life has a self-destruct button. Surely we've all walked over a bridge, or looked through a window, or just crossed a road and thought, Shall I fuck it up? I could ruin everything, forever! Usually, the moment passes, the mood fades, we resist temptation like ex-smokers turning down cigarettes, bolstering a resolve that has been softened by a second glass of wine. But the second you start to touch the button, once you have traced its outline with your fingertips, imagined the weight of the click, the feeling of release, and imagined letting go of everything, surrendering all your power and letting your life spin entirely out of control as you walk away from it... that's when you become a kid in the cockpit, frozen to the spot as your plane falls out of the sky."
- p. 21
"I hate that at least once a day something will make me forget what happened, and then I have to remember it all over again. The shock is worse than the sadness. It's violent."
- p. 45
"Maybe there are thousands of people who have threesomes with their colleges all the time, and I'm the prude for wondering whether it's odd. I've spent so much of my life being good, worrying and questioning every single desire I've had. Perhaps other people go off and explore these great, strange, voluptuous bloomings, and then go home and wash their faces and go to sleep and go to work and manage to keep everything wholly discrete."
- p. 64
"I take a sip (definitely proper champagne) and decide the in the unlikely event that I see a framed slogan that tells me what to do and how to feel about it, I'm going back to Streatham. I can deal with a dungeon, but not a sign to 'Keep calm and carry on spanking.' "
- p. 71
"From the start, Mark and I cast each other in awkward caricatures, exaggerated roles - and then contorted ourselves to complement this distorted version of The Other, bending and twisting into shapes that bounced between our wrongly reflected selves, a haunted hall of mirrors. I suggested that we go to the farmers' market because I thought I wanted to be the sort of woman who was prepared to spend several of her precious weekend hours deciding whether or not to spend thirty pounds on a jar of honey. Mark, I think, liked the legitimacy of it."
- p. 108
"There is something deeply arousing about objectifying myself - I can see what he sees, and it gives me respite from the constant noise in my head. It is liberating to let myself become two dimensional for a moment, albeit with tits that are indisputably 3D."
- p. 129
"I will never, ever do anything bad again if I can just pretend that reality is suspended in this one room. Bloody hotels. They make you feel safe enough to be dangerous. They trick you into believing that nothing you do inside them could possibly count outside, afterwards."
- p. 132
"When I started uni, I'd fantasised about reinventing myself. I wasn't going to be the nerd who always puts her hand up before the teacher had finished the question. I wasn't going to be the breathless, enthusiastic, chubby, mockable girl any more. I could be enigmatic, sophisticated, restrained. The trouble was that I'd always been a little bit too much to compensate for my crippling shyness. Shutting up didn't make me feel sexy or mysterious - it only served to reinforce my awkwardness."
- p. 148
"I had grown up believing that a female body was a problem to be solved. I had to emphasise its most narrow points and conceal the widest ones."
- p. 150
"I feel like I'm gambling, and I'm scared that if I throw everything into the idea of this new job and new life, I might end up with no jobs at all. I have become emotionally incontinent, and what I really need is a condom for my heart."
- p. 155
"I hear so much unspoken pain in that unfinished sentence. Mimi's beauty and status does not protect her from the hell of womanhood - constantly searching for clues and costumes that will allow us to work out exactly who we should be."
- p. 162
"I remember wondering what was wrong with me, whether I had won some sort of life competition, whether being sad was simply an inevitable tax on being safe, whether I should think myself lucky, lucky, lucky."
- p. 188
"I wish I loved my body, like the adverts told me to. I'd love to embrace body positivity, but it makes me feel as though the rug has been pulled from under me. When I was growing up, every single message I heard about beauty and being a woman made me feel as though I looked all wrong. Now, I'm told that my brain is wrong too - if I can't love my body, I'm failing at feminism."
- p.228
"Perhaps Lottie and Simon just don't understand that they're dangling a life-changing opportunity in front of me, because they can't imagine how it feels to live a life that needs to be changed so badly."
- p.228
"There's a moment when I'm half dozing on a lounger, and I'm just aware of Sasha tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before balancing a straw hat on my head, and something tender is stirred up inside for a second, but I shift, and it goes away. It's a mental mistake, a bit of faulty wiring confusing one kind of touch for the other. It's a little bit like the never-not-depressing experience of coming home, being bewitched by other people's cooking smells and realising you have to try to make dinner out of some sour milk and half a fluffy lemon. Surely Sasha isn't home, she is just someone steady in a sea of strangeness. I'm tired and bewildered and I can't trust anyone to say what they mean. I can't trust myself to understand them."
- p.250
"I want it to feel good. I want this to be hot. The trouble is, I am suddenly realising, is that average sex can be terrible. If there's a moment when it takes me out of my body, even partly, and returns me to my head, the place I'm constantly trapped in during real life, I feel itchy and grumpy, distracted, resentful."
- p. 269
"And I could have backtracked, pretended that the message was sent in error, or that I'd come down with food poisoning in the last twenty seconds, but when I commit to doing something stupid, I like to see it through. Especially when the stupid thing is happening in a place that sells alcohol and is situated within five miles of my flat."
- p. 279
"I had wondered what it would be like to touch him again, whether some old muscle memory would take over and I'd throw myself into his arms, finding him as revoltingly irresistible as the smell of fried food.
It isn't like that. Right now, being with Mark feels like seeing an old picture taken during the school holidays. He's a centre parting, a silly hat, a sweet squint and sunburn. I feel affection, confusion, but no real nostalgia. The longing is missing."
- p. 281
"Once again, I thought of my mum and dad, and their reaction to our engagement. At the time, I'd badly wanted to believe they were happy for me. Now, I realise that for them it held the same meaning as my A level results day. They were relieved that I hadn't let them down. I was doing my job as a young woman, which meant that no one could accuse them of not doing theirs properly.
Then I would have children, and Mark would be their father, and I'd repeat the process, holding my breath and waiting for everything to go wrong, crossing my fingers that exams were passed, curfews were observed, experiments with drugs and alcohol were kept to a minimum and that teen years were pregnancy-free.
What did I want? What would I do if I could do what I liked? What would happen if I let myself dream, instead of simply trying to stay out of trouble? Was there a world in which I didn't become a wife, a mother, my mother? Where I didn't feel guilty about everything from hangovers to coming into the office at ten past nine to not ironing my bed sheets? (...) I make such a mess of things when I'm trying to be good - if I did what I really wanted, cities would probably fall into the sea."
- p. 292
"I have been giving all of my power away, on purpose, because the alternative - taking charge - was terrifying, and I was exhausted from running away. But I think I might be ready to acknowledge my power, and use it for good."
- p. 311
"I can put up with a lot of loneliness, a lot of slammed doors and silences, if it means I can briefly belong. My heart aches for a drop of love. It doesn't need much."
- p. 323
"I wonder whether she can truly love anyone, or whether she just uses one strong feeling to distract herself from another. Just like I do. (...) Sometimes I wonder whether I am mourning something that has yet to happen to me. Maybe I'm like them. Maybe I can't love the way the other people love, and I just need to find enough to rescue myself, to protect myself from that which does not nourish me or make me strong.
I used to believe that life was something it was possible to protect yourself from. I thought everyone else knew the rules and if I watched what they did for long enough, I'd be safe. I wouldn't feel left out any more. I would do anything if there was a chance it might have made me feel real, or just included. Now I know that we're all just idiot children in the dark. There is no plan for me."
- p. 328
March 23, 2021
3.5 Stars | INSATIABLE BY DAISY BUCHANAN went down a treat like a delicious glass of red after a long day at work. I was a bit wary going in as i’d seen some mixed reviews but i’m so glad to find that it worked for me!
Our narrator is Violet, a 20-something working a job she doesn’t love and trying to move past a broken engagement and lost friendships. Things change for her when she meets Lottie, a dazzling woman who walks into her life like a dream. Soon enough, their meeting takes an unexpected turn as Lottie and her husband start to invite Violet to attend numerous sex parties.
The book is told purely through Violet’s internal monologue - a writing style which grabbed me from the start. It reminds me of Dolly Alderton’s voice which makes sense as this novel has been heavily endorsed by her. This is probably pretty obvious, but there’s lots of sex in this one - and i mean LOTS. So if you do decide to pick it up, don’t tell me you haven’t been warned! The way Violet uses sex as a coping mechanism reminds me of Jena from A Lonely Girl Dangerous thing - a book i read last year that i highly appreciated. I saw this comparison on @elishas.library’s review and definitely agree, particularly when it comes down to the more sexual content, as the other themes that they tackle are quite different. I love both Buchanan and Tu’s exploration of female desire through their flawed characters and the fact that the line between this desire vs the simmering loneliness, sadness and desperation underneath is blurred.
Sure, if we want to be more critical we can say that the premise is a little far-fetched and the ending too neat. It’s also easy to be put off by Violet’s self-indulgence and more obnoxious qualities - but i was happy to take the book for what it was and enjoyed the wild (and unexpectedly thought-provoking) ride. Just because Violet’s traits are not ones i’d identify with, doesn’t mean i dislike reading about it - and i’m sure we’re all familiar with this concept by now as it’s becoming more and more commonplace in recent releases.
Our narrator is Violet, a 20-something working a job she doesn’t love and trying to move past a broken engagement and lost friendships. Things change for her when she meets Lottie, a dazzling woman who walks into her life like a dream. Soon enough, their meeting takes an unexpected turn as Lottie and her husband start to invite Violet to attend numerous sex parties.
The book is told purely through Violet’s internal monologue - a writing style which grabbed me from the start. It reminds me of Dolly Alderton’s voice which makes sense as this novel has been heavily endorsed by her. This is probably pretty obvious, but there’s lots of sex in this one - and i mean LOTS. So if you do decide to pick it up, don’t tell me you haven’t been warned! The way Violet uses sex as a coping mechanism reminds me of Jena from A Lonely Girl Dangerous thing - a book i read last year that i highly appreciated. I saw this comparison on @elishas.library’s review and definitely agree, particularly when it comes down to the more sexual content, as the other themes that they tackle are quite different. I love both Buchanan and Tu’s exploration of female desire through their flawed characters and the fact that the line between this desire vs the simmering loneliness, sadness and desperation underneath is blurred.
Sure, if we want to be more critical we can say that the premise is a little far-fetched and the ending too neat. It’s also easy to be put off by Violet’s self-indulgence and more obnoxious qualities - but i was happy to take the book for what it was and enjoyed the wild (and unexpectedly thought-provoking) ride. Just because Violet’s traits are not ones i’d identify with, doesn’t mean i dislike reading about it - and i’m sure we’re all familiar with this concept by now as it’s becoming more and more commonplace in recent releases.
December 12, 2021
This is literally the worst book I've read in my life. What was billed as a fleabag-esque book on desire and relationships in your 20s turned out to be 50 Shades for middle-aged women who own "this is what a feminist looks like" t-shirts from Next. Poorly edited, poorly written, boring plot. One of the key revalations? Instagram isn't an accurate reflection of people's lives. Groundbreaking social commentary - 10 years ago, maybe. A 26 year old in London who works at an art start-up wearing Primark ballet flats (described as not unfashionable??), enviously describing a Michael Kors handbag and Karen Millen dress? In 2021? The author is clearly closer to 40 and hasn't bothered to find out what a mid 20s woman's life actually looks like. that's made clear by the piss poor clumsy attempt of making bad porn into lots of mini badly realised or 10 years too late social commentaries and missing the mark by miles each time. I just don't know who the target audience for this is meant to be. As a mid 20s white woman working in the arts, supposedly akin to her character, it definitely isn't me.
May 20, 2022
this book SHOULD NOT be marketed as queer literature. it's violently heterosexual and the characters are so two-dimensional that i really didn't care what happened to any of them. glad i got it for free
November 25, 2021
“She watches me savour a spoon of salted caramel ice cream and nudges me. ‘Lottie said you were a greedy girl’.”
This book is one that seems to causing much of a divide in this space and I can totally understand why. Did I love this book? Well no. Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I guess so. I think I am finding myself stuck with a case of mixed feelings…
Our narrator is Violet, a 28 year old living in London, who hates her job, is overcoming a broken engagement, has alienated herself from those closest to her, someone who is clearly longing for more from life & is desperate to prove herself & to be liked. I loved that the writing style was all an internal monologue, being inside Violet’s head was so interesting & at times totally infuriating - you just want to shake her & help her make better decisions. The story truly kicks off when Violet is dazzled by the beautiful & shiny Lottie, soon finding herself sucked into Lottie’s world, marriage, sex parties & a once in a lifetime job offer.
At times I felt like we are seeing Violet unravel, it’s clear she has serious mental health issues that she is coasting over - never taking time to stop & face the situation she finds herself in. Whilst it was very clear prior to reading this novel that there is a lot of sex in this one, & well I can confirm there is A LOT of sex - I felt that Buchanan really skimmed the surface of Violet’s story, there was so much more depth that would have been really interesting to explore. Now please do not get me wrong, I’m all for some unapologetic female pleasure, yet I kept wondering when I would see more. Themes explored included grief, rape, eating disorders. The ending felt somewhat rushed & very tidy, yet on the other hand I felt happy for Violet.
Now all that said, I went into this one knowing that it had mixed reviews & I chose to just ‘see for myself’. Whilst this one left me wanting more, I did actually enjoy reading it! At times Violet is incredibly funny & you cannot help but just root for her, hoping she will make better decisions & that things would work out for her. Best way I can recommend this book is to just enjoy it for what it is & for me it was a rather wild ride. Further to that, I thoroughly enjoyed Buchanan’s writing, sharp & witty - impressive for a debut.
This book is one that seems to causing much of a divide in this space and I can totally understand why. Did I love this book? Well no. Did I enjoy it? Yeah, I guess so. I think I am finding myself stuck with a case of mixed feelings…
Our narrator is Violet, a 28 year old living in London, who hates her job, is overcoming a broken engagement, has alienated herself from those closest to her, someone who is clearly longing for more from life & is desperate to prove herself & to be liked. I loved that the writing style was all an internal monologue, being inside Violet’s head was so interesting & at times totally infuriating - you just want to shake her & help her make better decisions. The story truly kicks off when Violet is dazzled by the beautiful & shiny Lottie, soon finding herself sucked into Lottie’s world, marriage, sex parties & a once in a lifetime job offer.
At times I felt like we are seeing Violet unravel, it’s clear she has serious mental health issues that she is coasting over - never taking time to stop & face the situation she finds herself in. Whilst it was very clear prior to reading this novel that there is a lot of sex in this one, & well I can confirm there is A LOT of sex - I felt that Buchanan really skimmed the surface of Violet’s story, there was so much more depth that would have been really interesting to explore. Now please do not get me wrong, I’m all for some unapologetic female pleasure, yet I kept wondering when I would see more. Themes explored included grief, rape, eating disorders. The ending felt somewhat rushed & very tidy, yet on the other hand I felt happy for Violet.
Now all that said, I went into this one knowing that it had mixed reviews & I chose to just ‘see for myself’. Whilst this one left me wanting more, I did actually enjoy reading it! At times Violet is incredibly funny & you cannot help but just root for her, hoping she will make better decisions & that things would work out for her. Best way I can recommend this book is to just enjoy it for what it is & for me it was a rather wild ride. Further to that, I thoroughly enjoyed Buchanan’s writing, sharp & witty - impressive for a debut.
April 20, 2021
Creepy, grubby book about creepy, grubby people having lots and lots of really boring sex with each other. The MC reminded me of Bella Swan from Twilight. She has a difficult relationship with her parents, who sound emotionally abusive, so she 'falls in love' with an older married couple and joins them in their grim-sounding sex parties. Basically it was just a load of sex scenes that sounded like they'd been written by a fifteen year old boy whose entire understanding of sex derives from watching really cheap porn, held together with a plot with holes you could drive a tractor through, populated by a cast of characters I could have cheerfully punched. There was a mildly redeeming bit at the end and if it wasn't for that I would have given it one star. Not recommended.
May 16, 2021
I don’t know what I’ve just read...V confused?! Did I like it, did I not? I honestly cannot tell you right now. It feels like chunks of the narrative are missing???? Am I missing something?
August 7, 2022
i loved it and i don’t care who knows it
July 21, 2022
The main character is the most naive person you’ll ever meet. She doesn’t care about herself or others. Some of the sex scenes in this feels physically impossible?? Without any warning she rambles on about her ed & sa like it meant nothing to her.
The concept is very interesting, and I would love to read a book about artsy people having sex parties, but this was just about rich stuck-up people with severe mental problems having decent 15-minute orgies :)
The concept is very interesting, and I would love to read a book about artsy people having sex parties, but this was just about rich stuck-up people with severe mental problems having decent 15-minute orgies :)
April 22, 2021
Wow I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, what a fantastic surprise.
I saw the cover of this and was immediately sold. This is possibly one of my favourite covers of all time. I didn't even know what the book was about, I just knew I needed it.
Violet is 26, has recently ended her engagement, is living in a questionable flat with noisy housemates she doesn't know and hates her job. She feels stuck and is struggling to figure out what to do next or where she belongs.
Then, she meets the incredibly beautiful and sexy Lottie and her David Gandy like husband Simon. They are the most beautiful people Lottie has ever seen and immediately she is captivated and taken in with both them and the exciting job opportunity they are presenting. Quickly Violet realises she is being invited into much more than a new job when she attends one of their Friday night sex parties and soon she becomes hooked on Lottie, Simon and their friends.
Could they be giving her everything she wants? Or just everything she thinks she wants?
I absolutely flew through this book. Daisy Buchanan's writing reminds me of Dolly Alderton's style, an author I adore so within a couple of pages I knew this would be right up my street. Buchanan had me laughing out loud several times, my eyes popping out my head other times and feeling sad at some stages too. Whilst I consider this to be quite a light hearted read, it covers some important topics and I couldn't help but see myself in some of Violet's thoughts and decisions (I said some!!). One minute I was applauding Violet and her choices, the next I was screaming at her, frustrated at the decisions she was making.
The ending was probably a little too nicely finished if you know what I mean, but it really didn't detract from how much I loved Insatiable.
Yes it is FILTHY, however it is so much more than that. It is about loneliness, self acceptance, self worth, mental health and so much more.
I have seen very mixed reviews and was a little apprehensive going into this, but honestly I adored it, truly adored it - a witty, clever and relevant read.
I saw the cover of this and was immediately sold. This is possibly one of my favourite covers of all time. I didn't even know what the book was about, I just knew I needed it.
Violet is 26, has recently ended her engagement, is living in a questionable flat with noisy housemates she doesn't know and hates her job. She feels stuck and is struggling to figure out what to do next or where she belongs.
Then, she meets the incredibly beautiful and sexy Lottie and her David Gandy like husband Simon. They are the most beautiful people Lottie has ever seen and immediately she is captivated and taken in with both them and the exciting job opportunity they are presenting. Quickly Violet realises she is being invited into much more than a new job when she attends one of their Friday night sex parties and soon she becomes hooked on Lottie, Simon and their friends.
Could they be giving her everything she wants? Or just everything she thinks she wants?
I absolutely flew through this book. Daisy Buchanan's writing reminds me of Dolly Alderton's style, an author I adore so within a couple of pages I knew this would be right up my street. Buchanan had me laughing out loud several times, my eyes popping out my head other times and feeling sad at some stages too. Whilst I consider this to be quite a light hearted read, it covers some important topics and I couldn't help but see myself in some of Violet's thoughts and decisions (I said some!!). One minute I was applauding Violet and her choices, the next I was screaming at her, frustrated at the decisions she was making.
The ending was probably a little too nicely finished if you know what I mean, but it really didn't detract from how much I loved Insatiable.
Yes it is FILTHY, however it is so much more than that. It is about loneliness, self acceptance, self worth, mental health and so much more.
I have seen very mixed reviews and was a little apprehensive going into this, but honestly I adored it, truly adored it - a witty, clever and relevant read.
February 13, 2021
Insatiable follows Violet, a naive, vulnerable 26 year old who is lost in terms of her career, friendships and relationships. Violet meets Lottie and is instantly obsessed with her and seduced by Lottie's life, her husband, her £2.8 million London townhouse and luxurious lifestyle. She's even further seduced by the sex parties, group holidays, the newness of the 'relationship' and once in a lifetime job offer.
There were things I did like about this book, but also things I didn't. I found the ending too convenient and Violet was a really annoying character. I found Violet to be very 'woe is me' and wanted to give her a good shaking, her decisions were not sensible and she seemed to be in pure self destruct mode throughout the book. It seems the main appeal of this book is that it is described as being 'sexually woke' and 'revolutionary' which it's not really, yes there is a lot of sex, which is graphic. But this isn't the first book of its kind. The sex also all comes from a toxic and manipulative relationship...
I think Insatiable portrayed a variety of toxic and manipulative relationships well and the naivety and vulnerability you feel when you are in those, especially when you don't realise it.
I've seen this described a few times as a light read, which it's certainly not. It's quite a heavy read involving rape, sexual assault, manipulative relationships, grief and bulimia.
There were things I did like about this book, but also things I didn't. I found the ending too convenient and Violet was a really annoying character. I found Violet to be very 'woe is me' and wanted to give her a good shaking, her decisions were not sensible and she seemed to be in pure self destruct mode throughout the book. It seems the main appeal of this book is that it is described as being 'sexually woke' and 'revolutionary' which it's not really, yes there is a lot of sex, which is graphic. But this isn't the first book of its kind. The sex also all comes from a toxic and manipulative relationship...
I think Insatiable portrayed a variety of toxic and manipulative relationships well and the naivety and vulnerability you feel when you are in those, especially when you don't realise it.
I've seen this described a few times as a light read, which it's certainly not. It's quite a heavy read involving rape, sexual assault, manipulative relationships, grief and bulimia.
February 18, 2021
Pure drivel. Horrendous characters and a meandering plot.
November 7, 2022
this made me so uncomfortable... idk what else to say... i just wanna... forget...
January 28, 2021
I finished this on the 5th of January, is that too early to find what I think will be my favourite book of 2021 already? I wish I could give it more than 5*?
The main character, Violet, wants more: she’s stuck in a job in London where no one takes her seriously, she’s ran away from her engagement, she’s broke and her best friend isn’t speaking to her anymore. Soon she meets Lottie, a glamorous older woman, who promises Violet everything she thinks she needs to get out of her rut. With Lottie comes along her husband, and a group of friends with a strange dynamic.
This is an excellent debut from Buchanan, it was so so good and I truly loved it - when I finished it I felt dazed. Her writing is fresh, honest and clever, I couldn’t put it down. It was funny and reflective, without being cringey. (very, very important.)
Violet is gullible but aware, she scoffs at things like £40 Dyptique candles yet is completely seduced by them. This perceived agency contributes to her vulnerability and results in her being constantly used and manipulated.
I ended up really rooting for Violet in the end. Consumed by desire and wanting - there is a huge disconnect between her logical thoughts and her actions, causing a consistent internal tension. She is so scared of never feeling anything, that she’s willing to compromise for “one second of heaven for every hour of hell”. It’s an excellent exploration of putting other people’s lives on a pedestal, she really pins all her hope on what she sees as a couple having made it, one that has everything, being the solution to her problems.
I really resonated with themes in this book (not so much the orgies) and I loved the way Buchanan is able to perfectly capture feelings of being displaced in your 20s, the feeling that everyone else knows their place, and the desire to have someone to aspire to be, something to mould yourself into!!
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Big thanks to Little Brown & NetGalley for the eARC I received in exchange for an honest review.
The main character, Violet, wants more: she’s stuck in a job in London where no one takes her seriously, she’s ran away from her engagement, she’s broke and her best friend isn’t speaking to her anymore. Soon she meets Lottie, a glamorous older woman, who promises Violet everything she thinks she needs to get out of her rut. With Lottie comes along her husband, and a group of friends with a strange dynamic.
This is an excellent debut from Buchanan, it was so so good and I truly loved it - when I finished it I felt dazed. Her writing is fresh, honest and clever, I couldn’t put it down. It was funny and reflective, without being cringey. (very, very important.)
Violet is gullible but aware, she scoffs at things like £40 Dyptique candles yet is completely seduced by them. This perceived agency contributes to her vulnerability and results in her being constantly used and manipulated.
I ended up really rooting for Violet in the end. Consumed by desire and wanting - there is a huge disconnect between her logical thoughts and her actions, causing a consistent internal tension. She is so scared of never feeling anything, that she’s willing to compromise for “one second of heaven for every hour of hell”. It’s an excellent exploration of putting other people’s lives on a pedestal, she really pins all her hope on what she sees as a couple having made it, one that has everything, being the solution to her problems.
I really resonated with themes in this book (not so much the orgies) and I loved the way Buchanan is able to perfectly capture feelings of being displaced in your 20s, the feeling that everyone else knows their place, and the desire to have someone to aspire to be, something to mould yourself into!!
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Big thanks to Little Brown & NetGalley for the eARC I received in exchange for an honest review.
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