From Robert Essig, author of Death Obsessed, In Black and People of the Ethereal Realm, and Jack Bantry, author of The Lucky Ones Died First and editor of Splattepunk Zine.

For some of the punks, it was just another night at a local gig.

Partying with crazy people after gigs was nothing new, but on this night there was something in the air. Was it all the tequila and weed? Something was turning the locals into maniacs . . . deviants. Something was giving them an INSATIABLE sexual appetite!

For Megan it was another late night at the lab, but when she needed another cup of coffee what she discovered in the break room would shock her to the core.

And that was just the beginning…of the end of the world!

Punk rockers, secret labs, sexy cops and animal rights activists. INSATIABLE will take you to hell and back!

Insatiable is an ultra-violent exploitation horror, where the infected suddenly develop an uncontrollable violent craving for sex. Acting on impulse and without consideration for their victims, like zombies only they don’t crave brains, they lust only for sexual gratification and take what they want with force.

The story takes place over one night and moves between the various characters whose individual stories begin to overlap as the effects of the outbreak continues to spread. Moving at a frantic pace as it moves from one scene to to the next with little respite between the action.

You can instantly gather from the eye watering opening chapter what to expect, as it wastes no time in portraying both the sexuality and violence of the book in hand. Although be forewarned as violent and gory as the start may be you soon find that as it gradually goes on it slowly becomes more extreme.

With the continuous pace and nonstop action, it doesn’t give enough time to really develop the characters past their personalities and how they try to cope with the outbreak. With the scientists it is all about finding a cure and a way to stop the epidemic, whilst for the punks it is more about finding a way to cope with situation. A temporary solution which can generally be found with a joint or at the bottom of a tequila bottle. Normally I would like to have seen the characters developed more, but with the frantic b-movie style of the execution it probably would have slowed down the pace of the book.

It is not surprising with the theme that there is a lot of sexualised violence which leads to some unrelenting rape scenes are intentionally disturbing. These moments make for some uncomfortable reading and may put some readers off. On several occasions you are expecting someone to step in at the last minute and stop the attacks, but more often than not they don’t. The rape takes place and we are forced to follow the events from start to finish, with the aggressor’s acting without empathy and often with unnecessary malice.

Despite the level of violence which occurs there are a few scenes where you felt as though the writers actually held back, especially when it came to some of the main characters. One particular penetration in which both the events of the scene and the characters was swiftly turned around, is one example where the story could have opened up to the extreme. However unlike many of the earlier rape scene, his arse was saved at the last minute. The fact they failed to follow through during this and some of the other moments was actually surprising, especially when you consider the severity with some of the other attacks.  

With the continued violence and rape, it would have been easy for the story to have moved into the realm of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road with a continuous fear of violence and melancholy. However, the twisted humour from writers Robert Essig and Jack Bantry give the book a surprisingly dark comical tone. Delivered with an over the top tongue-in-cheek gore, with some inappropriate and often untimely dialogue from some of the punks. The humour will not be for everyone and where the tone quickly shifts between disturbing moments to the comedy, you do question whether you should be laughing.

Whether you see undertones of the book as a variation on a zombie outbreak, or the introduction of a new sexually transmitted disease that has a disastrous and widespread effect. Insatiable does take a unique look at an epidemic and with the execution manages to maintain the balance between the dark comedy and uncomfortable violence.

In a book where the term every hole is a goal can bring several images to mind for very different reasons, it is not for the faint hearted and will probably only appeal to those with a strong stomach and a twisted sense of humour.

Philip Rogers

Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!