Helpful Score: 10
I got this book without even knowing what it was about. I just heard that is was very disturbing and disgusting, so I had to check it out. Well besides being both of those it is also a very good book. The plot is very interesting and the end surprised the heck out of me. And disturbed or not the maine character is brilliant in his own warped way. The Wasp Factory he created is a pretty amazing piece of gadgetry even if it does torture the wasp.
Helpful Score: 8
This was indeed a very strange read going into the mind of a seriously disturbed young person who spends his time carrying out boyish rituals including murder of young family members and killing animals. Some very shocking scenes are spread throughout the novel and a surprising twist at the end. I have to admit that Frank was very creative in how he did away with his young relations - very macabre. Some would-be mystery writers could take some lessons from Banks! The book definitely keeps your interest and is very well-written; however, it seemed a little over the top and I'm not sure that I would recommend this one to others.
Helpful Score: 7
From the reviews I've read, I discovered that readers either hate or love The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Written in the early 80's, The Wasp Factory reveals the first person narrative of a teen-aged serial killer, Frank Cauldhame, who never gets caught (that's not a spoiler; the reader is aware from the start that the teenager's murders have never been traced back to him).
Using bizarre religious ceremony and imaginative contraptions, Frank has an insatiable appetite for killing rodents and insects. He sees nothing wrong with blowing up rabbits or incinerating wasps, yet is appalled when his brother, who is equally psychotic, burns dogs alive. After a few chapters, the dark humor and hypocrisy of Frank's evil habits are amusing.
The Wasp Factory is a twisted tale guaranteed to give the reader the creeps, but also a chuckle or two. It's also less than 200 pages, so it makes for a good afternoon of reading a complete story.
Using bizarre religious ceremony and imaginative contraptions, Frank has an insatiable appetite for killing rodents and insects. He sees nothing wrong with blowing up rabbits or incinerating wasps, yet is appalled when his brother, who is equally psychotic, burns dogs alive. After a few chapters, the dark humor and hypocrisy of Frank's evil habits are amusing.
The Wasp Factory is a twisted tale guaranteed to give the reader the creeps, but also a chuckle or two. It's also less than 200 pages, so it makes for a good afternoon of reading a complete story.
Helpful Score: 6
"Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons that I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Emerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through." - Frank, in The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
**
This is, beyond the gruesomeness, really an entertaining story. It is rich with black humor and interesting character development.
While contemplating the author's sanity and humanity, I was reminded of a time when Ken and I were discussing the whole idea of "write what you know". He took the stand that you could write about anything and do it well with enough talent and imagination and he backed up his idea by writing a poem from the point of view of a serial killer. The poem was so intensely disturbing that I asked him to destroy it, lest homicide detectives (coming across the poem on his computer under some sort of odd and coincidental circumstances) zeroed in on him as their main suspect.
I am sure Banks did much the same when writing this book about a family of sociopaths. He just had the nerve to see it published.
**
This is, beyond the gruesomeness, really an entertaining story. It is rich with black humor and interesting character development.
While contemplating the author's sanity and humanity, I was reminded of a time when Ken and I were discussing the whole idea of "write what you know". He took the stand that you could write about anything and do it well with enough talent and imagination and he backed up his idea by writing a poem from the point of view of a serial killer. The poem was so intensely disturbing that I asked him to destroy it, lest homicide detectives (coming across the poem on his computer under some sort of odd and coincidental circumstances) zeroed in on him as their main suspect.
I am sure Banks did much the same when writing this book about a family of sociopaths. He just had the nerve to see it published.
Helpful Score: 2
Creepy book, great narrator!
