The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

Seventeen year old Frank is a killer. He kills birds, mice and other small animals. Fortunately, he doesn't kill people any more - it was just a passing phase, when he killed Blythe, Paul and Esmeralda (not all at once, mind you). Frank's brother Eric is also deeply unhinged, with a penchant for burning dogs, and his father isn't entirely playing with a full deck either. The Wasp Factory is a strange book. The plot, such as it is, follows Frank on his isolated Scottish Island as he prepares for the imminent arrival of his half-brother Eric, who has escaped from a secure mental institution. However, that's not really the main point of this rather short ...  Read the complete review

“Sick”. “Disturbing”. “Disgusting”. Just glancing through some of the other reviews of Iain Banks’s debut novel, The Wasp Factory, these seem to be the most commonly used words. But I think they’ve missed out the most important one: FUNNY. The Wasp Factory is described on the front cover as “a gothic horror”, and sure, it does contain a lot of gore, violence and killing. However, when I read this book I found it funny more than anything. It’s black humour, certainly, probably as black as it gets, and definitely quite shocking in parts. But there was nothing “scary” or particularly disturbing about it, at least not to me anyway! Maybe I’m just a ...  Read the complete review

I won a copy of The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks on a local radio station recently, I remembered the book caused a bit of a furore when it was first published in the 80's but it's not the kind of book that would have ever appealed to me so the controversy went in one ear and out of the other. I was drawn in by the words 'Gothic Horror' which is emblazoned on the front cover and while I found the novel quite difficult to get into at first I quickly became enthralled and couldn't devour the words quickly enough! It's hard to tell you much about the story as this is a book of secrets and the paced way in which these secrets are revealed to the reader makes the ...  Read the complete review

The Wasp Factory is Iain Banks debut novel. The story opens pretty graphically with Frank topping up his sacrifice poles, these contain the bodies and skulls of animals he has previous killed. These sacrifice poles are used to protect the territory that Frank and his father live on; a small island. We hear early on about Frank's older brother Eric who has escaped from a mental home and is on his way home, much to his father's disapproval. Throughout the book Frank receives regular phone calls from Eric informing him of his whereabouts, he tries to pretend that he is talking to someone else on the phone to keep the news away from his father. Frank and his ...  Read the complete review

Iain Banks has warped my fragile little mind. Seriously, this book even comes with hints of subtle warnings in the press quotes that alert you that what you may come across might be a little too weird. All the more reason to read it I say, as it's just one of those great books that most people have read, and those who haven't should. Even daring Dahl fans (not Sophie). I plumped into choosing this book, because of the interesting title, the synopsis, and the full thumbs up set of reviews here on this book; and partly as a challenge to jillmurphy - see it's not Murakami now is it? =) And I'm glad I bought it, as apart from ...  Read the complete review