What a disappointment. A book full of severely exaggerated characters and stereotypes who meander through a "plot" that is clearly a collection of lazy thoughts and drink or drug fuelled "great ideas" aimed purely at producing a feeling of “horror” in us all.

A 16 year old child who lights rabbits on fire, burns wasps, severs heads off of animals and other drivel. It has to be the most asinine book I've ever read.

#sorrynotsorry if you love this book.

I do not recommend.

Eric fled the hospital and is on his way back home. It's about his younger brother Frank and their father. What is wrong with Eric? What has he done? When Frank is telling the family story shivers will run down your spine. It's a tale of murders, cruelty against animals, bomb making activities and more. What is the secret of the Wasp Factory? Why is it a perfect metaphor of life and death? What is Frank celebrating on his strange altar in the barn? This is one of the most disturbing books about ...

3 " I completely get if you rated it 1, 2, 3, 4 or even 5" stars !! For the first time ever (in the history of my reading life) I would understand completely any rating for this book. I thought long and hard and for me it was a strong three star that could have been a four star but wasn't for a number of factors. First of all the writing is terrific. Vivid and robust and hyper-masculine prose with dialogue and thought patterns that zing and sing. I was able to see in my mind's eye what was occur...

"What are you reading?""Ehum, a book I bought at Gatwick airport last week!""Do you like it?""No.""What is it about?""Psychopaths talking about the microscopic details of their murderous actions, explaining them away with even worse psychopathic deeds that they fell victim to, watered down to banal cause-and-effect psychology!""What? Who would read that kind of book? Sounds hard?""Well, on the pro side, the language is simplistic, the plot is absurd, and it is short, so I think it caters to youn...

”Of course, I know how small a piece of land my island is; I’m not a fool. I know the size of the planet and just how minuscule is that part of it I know. I’ve watched too much television and seen too many nature and travel programmes not to appreciate how limited my own knowledge is in terms of first-hand experience of other places; but I don’t want to go farther afield, I don’t need to travel or see foreign climes or know different people. I know who I am and I know my limitation. I restrict m...

Rating: 4.95* of five, rounded up because it's really 5 stars but so insalubrious that I had to acknowledge that somehowThe Publisher Says: Frank--no ordinary sixteen-year-old--lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; & his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violenc...

Iain Banks tries to turn routine of a day-to-day life into a cool chiller… It’s hardly possible to write a book shittier than The Wasp Factory.Sometimes the wasps will fly, or crawl upside down on the bottom of the circle of glass, sometimes they stay a long time by the closed-off hole in the centre through which they enter, but sooner or later they all choose a hole and a door which work, and their fate is sealed.Most of the deaths the Factory has to offer are automatic, but some do require my ...

a gentle coming-of-age tale set in rustic scotland, depicting the charming misadventures of a precocious lad and his idiosyncratic older brother as they struggle to understand themselves and each other.this is some hard stuff, and by "hard" i mean Hard Like the Marquis de Sade Is Hard. do not read this if you cannot stomach depictions of animal torture. do not read this if you cannot stomach the murder of children. this one was hard for me to read at times, and i read some pretty terrible things...

Now we all know that dating a fictional psychopath or a sociopath can be a lot of fun. While it is true that these individuals rarely make viable candidates for a long term commitment, short term relationships have been shown to have some real upside. For example, dating a psychopath can be a “breath of fresh, adventurous air” following the end of a stale, boring and unsatisfying relationship as they are much more “uninhibited” and willing to experiment than the typical person. In addition, ...

Huh, what? Oh no – tell him I'm out. It's the guy who rang last week – no, I don't want to speak to him, no---HI IAIN!! Great to hear from you. Yeah, yeah. How's it hanging? Yeah. So. What can we do you for today? Well yes, you told me that last week. You've written a novel, great. Oh yes, ha ha, that's what we do here, we publish books. Yes but – you know, first novels are not that easy to sell. You have to have an angle. What's that? You've got an angle? Great. Great. Listen, er ---- oh what? ...