The Wasp Factory: A Novel

I actually enjoyed this more than I expected to, although I possibly didn't "get" it.

I enjoyed it a lot. Worth the read for sure.

It was good. A unique story, interesting characters but... while it was good, I didn’t like it. It’s one of those books that feels...nasty. So it was good, but disturbing

It was memorable (not in a good way), and there's a lovely, genuine friendship in it. The 3-star rating is because as utterly terrible as it was, the story will definitely haunt your nightmares.

I may simply be burnt out on reading supposedly-great novels that hinge violence and misogyny, but this book fits comfortably into the strange, "realistic" fiction novels of the 1980s. The protagonist is obsessed with violence, murder, and ritual, as well as casually hating women at every turn. A violent teenager is pent up on a remote Scottish island with their crazy father, while getting phone calls from their brother who recently escaped from the asylum. Be prepared for graphic descriptions of animal cruelty and murder. This book left me tired. I'm tired of the fact that there are still authors writing this kind of thing, and it's still getting published.

Very strange book about a very strange kid. Writer did a good job of making the main character sympathetic and revolting at the same time. Confrontation at the end was a little too typical, and the twist was nifty, if perhaps unnecessary. But the twisted psychology present in the book is very engaging.

That ending ...

Safe to say, I didn't see it coming. Not even a little.

I'm not even sure how to review this. While it certainly wasn't as shocking to me as it may have been to readers back in the '80s when it was first published, there were definitely scenes that made me quite squeamish (such as "reveal" as to why Frank's older brother, Eric, has gone insane). It's definitely a disturbing and bizarre novel, but it's hard not to look away.

Why, yes, this was the very copy of the Wasp Factory I purchased with the same book token I used to buy that copy of One Hundred Years Of Solitude. Well spotted.

By all accounts this caused a bit of a storm when it first came out, as witnessed by the infamous Irish Times review, now used as a blurb of pride, though not on my edition. It can't be the murders or the paganism or the dysfunctional family or the gruesome bit or the cruelty to animals, because there was nothing there that you couldn't have found in horror fiction in one form or another over the years. I imagine what rankled was the language and the realism and the psychological acuity, not to mention the literary packaging. Nowadays, from that point of view, it seems relatively tame. Still packs a bit of a wallop, though.

Frank lives with his father on a small island in Scotland. He mounts animal skulls on poles, embeds wasps in candle wax, hunts rabbits with a flame thrower and keeps the skull of his enemy, Old Saul, in a bunker. The island is his domain and he rules it like a god. Now his brother, Eric, who sets dogs on fire, has escaped from his asylum and is on his way home.

Frank's a monster, a fledgling serial killer who capriciously decided on a different career track after his first three victims. His rituals and his ceremonies and his totemic objects make sense of the world and make sense of his own mind. His voice is sane, articulate, witty and intelligent. He uses it to describe his odd activities, makes them seem strange, unhealthy, perhaps, but essentially harmless. Then he seamlessly uses that same voice to describe catapulting small animals into river mud, the murder of his brother and two cousins or his attitude to women. One clings to the voice as a sign of potential redemption, but redemption is something you do, not something you are, and Frank is utterly aware of what he is and of what he has done. Or so he thinks.

A familiar pattern of secrets, ideas, family circles, social lives and horrible accidents and bizarre occurrences marks this as the proto-Banks novel, but for a debut it springs fully formed with voice, attitude and gleeful cunning intact and ready to rip it up through the twin worlds of literary and science fiction.

Sixteen year-old Frank Cauldhame lives an unusual existence on a small island in Scotland. As far as Frank knows a childhood injury sets him apart from others – he considers himself half a man. His father, the only other inhabitant of the island, is brilliant and perhaps insane. The same can be said of Frank’s brother, Eric, who is currently on his way back to the island after escaping from a mental institution. Eric is known for settings dogs afire and putting worms in children’s mouths. Actually, Frank is cut from the same cloth.Frank has an active, if disturbing, life on the island, full of rituals, secrets and routines. In fact, there are many secrets in the story, most released in dribs and drabs, as Banks sees fit. As Eric approaches home – and calls Frank to let him know – the tension, both on the island and in the story – mounts. And the secrets are revealed. And the madness is revealed. There’s a ton of madness packed into this story.

The reason for my rating is completely personal. It doesn't tell how great this book is or how well it is written. I couldn't make myself to give more because this book disturbed me. But apart from that, it is more than great. It is probably somewhere between 4 or 5 stars.

If you want to read this book because some people consider it a horror, then you can skip it. This is not a horror story, though here you can find the most disturbing scene I've ever read (the incident with the smiling child).

Quite honestly, one of the funniest books I have ever read.

Great prose and the conceit of writing from the POV of a killer doesn't bother me, but at the same time it's about what you'd expect. Presumably this was more shocking back in 1984? It's more vivid than American Psycho, but lacks the comedic hyperbole and satiric attacks. The final reveal feels very much of its time and has aged poorly.

Perhaps Oates' book Zombie is a better choice for the disturbing confessions of a killer microgenre?

Nunca dê nota antes de acabar um livro, as últimas 20 páginas podem piorar e muito.

I read this book under protest for the Dark Forces reading group in Austin, Texas, at Book People, headed by the great Rick Klaw. It was dark and disturbing, and over a decade later, it still sticks with me. The darkness of the father and son, the evil committed by the son, are all starkly portrayed and all too real. Give me vampires and werewolves any day over these human monsters!

A fantastically well written book but I'm glad it's over and I will definitely not be reading it again.

amazing story, even re-reading it for the umpteenth time - although it has lost it's original shock factor.
very strong images in the book, especially in what happened to Eric, all weirdly believable.
you can easily feel yourself in an airless loft, with the clock face of the Factory, and from there, the little details on the process (damming, kites, etc) all pull you into the story.
brilliant - although I can't remember now if I read this or The Bridge first - but started me on a lifelong Banks habit.

This is a very dark book. Beautifully written and bizarre, cruel and witty, it was very difficult to put down. There are some haunting images that will stay with me. Not to be undertaken likely, but this is a very good novel.

Iain Banks is a fine writer, but I can't honestly say I liked this book because its characters are so distasteful. They're at least warped, if not psychopathic. Furthermore, I didn't find them very convincing. The narrator's brother has suffered a psychotic break which turns him into a monster who seems to carry none of the vestiges of his former self. As far as the narrator himself goes . . . Well, animal torturer, murderer of his younger family members, for which the great "reveal" doesn't really add up.

I don't know to whom I would possibly recommend this book. Perhaps to a professional psychologist to see whether these characters sound plausible to him.

DNF. If I wanted to experience animal cruelty, I can go to the"meat aisle" at the grocery store. F*cked up characters.

Wow. Books that make you challenge your assumptions can often be hard hitting, but a book that leads you to challenge all the assumptions you built up while reading, in the final chapter? This blew my mind.

"The Wasp Factory" is a completely disturbing work of fiction that offers much to analyze and debate about the behavior patterns of the main characters.

It is not a book with bloody scenes. However, the content is powerful enough to leave sensitive readers in shock.

Frank, the protagonist, is a lonely young man who, at his age, has lived much more than any of his peers. Devastating experiences make up his history. He lives with his father, who, in addition to protecting him, always monitors his diet. He also has a brother who is away from home and at some point intends to return. The three of them experience extreme situations, creating a story that is hard to digest and forget.

It is a very well-written book, with many literary resources. However, it is difficult to recommend because it is not for every reader. (Translated from Spanish)

I would rather give it 2 ½ stars if I could – I’m a bit ambivalent about this one – there were good sections and ones that made me leave the book for a few days because I got annoyed with it and there were points that I was about to give up on it.

Dark and deeply disturbing. It seems fluffy until the end.

Worth the read. Needs a re-read to catch all the symbolism, etc.

A very strange, somewhat disturbing book. But so well written! It won me over early on when Frank was discussing the relative merits of a slingshot versus a gun for killing little bunnies (my words, not his) and I found myself not only agreeing,but somewhat impressed with his rationale.

Well, despite its abrupt and somewhat wild ending, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I like this writer; I had only read his science fiction. Recommendable. (Translated from Spanish)

Mad Scottish bastard owning a Scottish Island! Immediately thought of the wars of the one-eyed woman. The MacDonalds and MacLeods negotiating a truce with the marriage of a daughter to a son. After a year Margaret had somehow lost an eye and was landed back on Skye and sent to Dunvegan sitting backwards on a one eyed horse, accompanied by a one eyed servant and a one eyed dog. And the wars started again.

However much torture and abuse Iain Banks stuffs into his tale - the historical reality of life in the Highlands and Islands can trump it. I don't really enjoy the details of the gothic horror but give him another half star for the brilliance of the telling of this story.

There are a couple of short reviews out here that sum up this book perfectly - one is 'horrible, I couldn't put it down'. That pretty much sums it up!

This is the story of Frank who has a mentally ill brother, Eric. The story centers on the life of Frank and his father on a small Scottish island. Eric has escaped from a secure institution and is threatening to return.

Parts of the book reflect on Frank and Eric's childhood and parts on their present day. The whole story is filled with psychological horrors that basically made me feel that the whole family needed to be locked up!

This is not my favorite Banks' novel - but it is very good. A multiple murderer in rural Scotland who has killed his brother, his cousin, and an area boy must await the return of his brother after his having escaped a mental institution. The family is hiding a secret - but once you find it out - it seems anticlimatic after all the senseless murders. I think it is a good book from an amazing writer - but it was his first - if he wrote it now I think he would give the reader more of a conscience surrounding the deaths than he did. It seemed that he almost tried to explain it or justify it - which I found grating.

Agh. Will need a day or two to process this one I think!

Captivating and unsettling.

I saw a review that called this book a mix between American Psycho and Lord of the Flies.
If you don't like those books you wont like this. Go back to your Paulo Coelho and Stephenie Meyer.

I was going to give it 5 stars until I read the last chapter, which was not only a poorly-explained twist, but horribly written too. Sad, because until then the novel was absolutely brilliant.