Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

178 reviews

archivegf's review

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This book was recommended to me from horror booktok and this is not a horror book for sure but that’s not the reason why it wasn’t good the reason that I did not finish was that it was simply boring. The narration drag on, the plot seemed to have been going nowhere and honestly it was just flat the book gave me nothing. The reason so many people recommend this book was because it’s disturbing but the only disturbing thing about it is the amount of talk about killing animals and if that makes you uncomfortable then obviously that would be something you would classify as a fucked up book but when you take that factor out of the book the plot is just insanely boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

kayleyb's review

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

dmsullivan's review

4.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 So, I think I enjoyed this...as much as one can enjoy a book that includes graphic descriptions of murder, animal cruelty, and genital mutilation.

Frank is not someone you want to be around, but it was interesting getting into his mindset, his daily routines and the rational of why he would do the things that he did (as terrifying and gruesome as they were).

This is a pretty short book, but at times it did feel a little too long with some of the descriptions of the mundane parts of his day. I wish the author would have used some of that space to give a little more background on the "twist" ending, which felt a bit rushed. And while Eric was terrifying, I personally wanted some sort of "answer" by the end, which we really didn't get. (I kept looking to see how many pages were left and wondering if we were going to get any answers by the end). However, this is the first book I've read by Banks (not the last) and this is possibly his writing style. Stories don't necessarily have to have an "end" to be thought-provoking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Torture, Murder

americattt's review against another edition

2.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism

keerak's review

4.5

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

_egg_wash's review against another edition

2.25

dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Alcohol

Moderate: Misogyny, Gaslighting

thomasdj's review

4.25

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny

indiaautumn's review

3.5

dark tense

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Moderate: Misogyny

smolpye's review

5.0

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Animal death, Gore

carlyalynnsia's review

1.0

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If you like or can cope with books narrated by psychopaths, you might really enjoy this one. It came to me highly recommended and I’ll grant that the main character is certainly interesting. 

I was curious to find out more about Frank’s internal logic, but ultimately, his calculated killing of animals, including three children, became too disturbing and put me off. I put the book down.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Murder