The WASP FACTORY: A NOVEL

Disturbed my cat. I suppose for good reason.I found it to be an interesting dive into the disturbing psychology of a rather young killer as he prepares for the return of his deranged brother, Eric, in a pretty bizarre way.For a time, I did find it a bit boring, but I am very happy I continued through till the end because the double twist was completely unexpected.

It's hard to know what to say about The Wasp Factory. I've been on a quest lately to find and read as many of the most disturbing books as I can find. This novel regularly appears on lists of disturbing fiction others have compiled, but after having read it, I have to say that, while it is certainly bizarre and memorable (certain scenes, in fact, would be incredibly difficult to forget), it's not really disturbing in any deep emotional sense.Let's begin with the positive. The writing is superb and blends the mundane, the humorous, and the macabre seamlessly into a mixture that will definitely keep the reader intrigued and turning the pages through what ends up being a rather quick read. In terms of character development, only the narrator is fleshed out at all, but the look behind the curtain of his rather disturbed mind is fascinating and well-written if not entirely believable.On the down side, though, the plot (such as it is) never really goes anywhere. Despite events happening around the narrator, his character never really changes, and the story ends up being more of a collection of vignettes from a troubled life than a self-contained narrative. As vignettes go, some of them are quite good, but the reader is left grasping for some unifying structure to bring meaning to the story.Whether one loves it, hates it, or is entirely indifferent to it, one can easily see why this book courts controversy. It's relatively few pages are filled with mayhem, destruction, violence (including children murdering other children), animal torture, and so on, and so on. It's not fair to criticize the book for the inclusion of these things because they're rather the point of the entire affair. However, final pages of the novel deliver an ending that, while certainly surprising, and certainly controversial, is not at all satisfying. Several portions of the book are implausible (though in most cases justifiably so), but the ending comes completely out of left field and leaves the reader less shocked than wondering how the author thought such a thing would make either for a believable narrative or an emotionally affecting conclusion.Ultimately, I can't decide whether I enjoyed this book or not. It certainly didn't satisfy my desire for a disturbing book, but so few titles manage to do so that I can't hold that particularly failure against it. And I did find the bizarre narrative interesting, but I also didn't find it particularly satisfying. Many have compared it to The Catcher in the Rye, and I think that might be the best framework through which to view it. Like The Catcher in the Rye, I could easily see myself having enjoyed this book a lot more in my late teens when I was more interested in shock value for its own sake than in deeply affecting literature. But also like The Catcher in the Rye, having read it in my adulthood, while I can't say I hated it, I just found it to fall a little flat.

I kind of have a love/uninterested relationship with this work. It starts out really grabbing your curiosity as the narrator, who is also the book’s protagonist, begins inadvertently explaining his own mental illness as he points out the strange idiosyncrasies of his father and his elder brother’s own mental illness.The author seems to somewhat use a “shock value” approach but not quite in a careless or purposeless way, though you don’t really get this confirmation until the very end. As the narrator takes you through the violent and disturbing hobbies which entertains the protagonist and takes up virtually all of his time and life purpose, you begin to get bored with the same daily rituals of the protagonists life you are taken through day in and day out.What was first pretty interesting and bizarre and somewhat shocking (i.e. killing animals, severing their heads and putting them on poles, torturing animals, having homicidal thoughts, etc.), becomes pretty mundane as you become accustomed to the protagonists “habits”.But you are never really given anything fresh to keep you entertained throughout the story. For the first couple of chapters I was glued to the pages. Then I found myself becoming very bored and wondering when this was going to end until the author writes, very very briefly, about each of the deaths which takes place in the book, and then back to boredom until the last two pages of the book.In about the final two pages of the book the reason for all the madness, or lack of reason for all the madness, more like, is revealed and is quite surprising. I definitely would have never imagined the ending being as it was.I do think the author managed to successfully and very clearly leave the reader with the message that small things we may do to other people which may be seemingly harmless can have absolutely drastic and grim effects on the lives of others. I don’t know if the author was going for that or not, but it’s what I got from it.I’m glad I read it, I’m glad I stuck with it, but I do feel the author missed many opportunities to give the reader so much more. Worth the read, certainly, since it’s so short. But the author never really manages to tie everything together and really give you a satisfying story. It’s more like you’re just watching a brief section of a random persons life which has no overall meaning.That, in fact, may have been what the author was going for. In any event, give it a read.

Let me start first by saying that this book definitely needs to come with trigger warnings, for the vast amount of animal/torture and child abuse it has. I adore all animals and kids, and this was a bit tough to stomach at times, though I carried on, as it is only fiction. Whereas I read a lot of extreme horror/Splatterpunk, and can happily read or watch people being tortured, I fall to pieces and am a complete mess if it happened to an animal or child, but I persevered, and boi, was I glad I did. This is a phenomenal book, which is a cult classic from 1984, and it centres around 16 year old Frank, who is also the narrator. Now Frank is a very disturbed kid, who lives a kinda sheltered life with his father, on an island off the coast of Scotland. He spends his days surveying the land and checking on his ‘Sacrifice Poles’, which he has erected all around the outskirts of the island, which he believes will protect it. These ‘sacrifice poles’ have heads placed on top from animals/birds which Frank has killed, rabbits, crows, etc. He also has an older brother called Eric who has been incarcerated in a sanitarium for a crime which is hinted at throughout but we don’t get to find out until later on in the book. But one day, the police arrive with news that Eric has escaped, and might be headed home...dun, dun, dun!!It’s quite clear these boys have some serious mental health issues, with Frank being obsessed with ‘The Wasp Factory’ which he has created.This book does seem a tad drawn out, with long chapters, and the author tends to describe every little thing in minute detail, and which isn’t really relevant to the story. This book is awesome, and I believe it spawned a movie, though I don’t think I could watch it, as it would be a helluva slow burn to the point of being boring. But the book is far from ‘yawn material’ with a complete doozy of a twist at the end.I highly recommend this, though beware of the TW if you are easily upset with animal/child abuse, and which would have been a 5 star read, but I deducted a star because of this.A good solid 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this for a book club so wasn’t one I would have chosen. However it was a gripping read, I found myself racing through the pages even though sometimes it was pretty hard going (upsetting/macabre). An interesting and clever ending that I ruined for myself by trying to see how many pages the book has - don’t do that yourself, it’s 244! Overall im glad I read it but wouldn’t be searching out for any other Iain Banks books really

Iain’s writing style is quite his own. He tells the story in a first person narrative and the way he does so is clever and easy to read. But a cleverly written book does not necessarily make for an enjoyable book. The story, such as it was, unfolded very gradually. So gradually that when I got to the end I felt I had been short changed. Essentially, for me, there was no story. It was an account of the main character’s feelings and frustrations. The ending came quite quickly and I was disappointed.

Fantastic story. In this novel Iain Banks demonstrates a level of creativity and wit that few authors are cut out for and that many fail to imitate.How Banks manages to weave together a story so simultaneously vile yet, notoriously intriguing is what makes The Wasp Factory a modern classic.I loved everything about this story and still I can't decide weather to call the main character an anti-hero or just a plain villian but yet you get so wrapped up in his internal commentary that you ending siding with him nonetheless.A particular section of this book managed to detail possibly one of the most disturbing and sad murder scenes I have ever read in a novel and then has the guts to be creatively hilarious once the main character is romanticising about the event afterwards, I think that is something that takes immense talent to successfully put to paper.I won't give away too much but after finishing this book I had to put it down and spend quite a while simply thinking about a major explanation of our main character's motivations towards the end.Excellent read. Providing that you can accept that the story is dark, grim and disturbing then you might realise that there is an important lesson at the heart of The Wasp Factory.I will never forget the line 'Eunuch but unique.'

I am continuing to save a five star rating for something I can't yet imagine, but only just with this one. I first read this excellent book over a year ago, following several others by Iain Banks, all of which I enjoyed, if that's the right word for some of them. Frank, a teenager, lives on an isolated Scottish island with his father. A clearly seriously disturbed youngster, he is anticipating the arrival of an even more disturbed older brother who has escaped from a secure hospital. Horror is to some extent, balanced with dark humour and always realistic. If you haven't yet read any Iain Banks I can only warn: handle with care. But don't let anyone put you off.