Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Wasp Factory

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

107 reviews

anapauggarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved it!
It is so scary just to be in the kid's mind!
I am so glad I got to read this book, it has been by far one of my favorite horror books I've ever read.
First, let's talk about the main character: Frank. OMG, he is scary! He is a kid and young adult, and a psycho in the same mind. The beliefs he holds in his head and the obsession he has with every single aspect of his life just scared me so much.
I was more scared to be in his mind that to read what was going on around him.
It scared me so much the line that took the story, from making us disgusted with this kid to actually understanding him. It was such a great story, I have never enjoyed that much being in the villain's mind.
Then his brother...OMG he is also scary! Every telephone call they have I will just get super scared. I was so tense until they hung up. The way the brother spoke made him sound even more unstable than Frank, and all we knew was that he was coming our way.
The only complaint I will have would be that the book kind of makes us think that the story will be about the encounter between Frank and his brother Eric. So during the entire book, I was waiting for these scenes to happen, and the resolution to this feels kind of rushed and super short. I was expecting more from this plotline.
But it was also interesting to get such an immersive sight of the protagonist's life. As I said before, it was impressive how we started hating him and then we understood.
I wasn't expecting such a good plot twist. I thought the story was going to go in another direction, but WOW. It really changed my perspective toward the main character and made me question if someone could really get that evil for the same reason as he did.
It was a great book. My mind was completely blown away. I give it 5 stars easily.

Content Warnings

laurengeorgia's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-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

2.5

Content Warnings

iwb's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A bizarre, disturbing story; yet, uncanny in that I was compelled to keep reading. For a first novel it's just incredible.

Book CW: Animal cruelty--not super graphic but nonetheless descriptive enough to cause potential distress or discomfort. Had I known this prior to reading, I likely never would have read it; but I did, and I'll get over it.

Content Warnings

abithoughtful's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The first person voice is remarkable, even as Frank is utterly psychopathic he's also strangely sympathetic, and the prose is disarmingly lovely. I had a great time with this novel, it was blackly funny and vivid and horrible and handled it's themes deftly and cleverly. I found myself a little frustrated by the last few pages, which felt a little too explanatory for my taste (like 'this book is ending soon, let me tell you what it was really about just in case you haven't worked that out for yourself yet') but on the whole this was immensely enjoyable.

Content Warnings