Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Fábrica de Vespas by Iain Banks

62 reviews

robin345's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Violence, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Misogyny

lainerly's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

huh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Moderate: Racism, Ableism, and Transphobia

tysuckz's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I rate as I go, usually and it started at around a 3.25.... it was just a bit slow at the start. It slowly just got better. Truly one of my favourite books at the moment. 

Completely and utterly bizarre. Not the ending I at all anticipated. One of the weirdest families I have EVER had the uncertain pleasure to read about. Not sure the wasp factory was an apt name considering the minimal amount it was actually spoken about... but this book really surprised me in terms of how much I enjoyed it. 

I was sitting there with my eyes wide open rapidly reading the last 3 chapters. It got so tense!!! So dramatic!!! So many twists and turns. Wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, and Murder

kayleyb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

_egg_wash's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Misogyny and Gaslighting

carlyalynnsia's review against another edition

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

1.0

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, Murder, Animal death, and Child death

iwb's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death

abithereader's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Misogyny, Violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Medical content, Blood, Gore, and Medical trauma

hkantarek's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Quickly, you get immersed into the violent mind of a budding psychopath. The flashbacks are the highlights of the book with the main story being repetitive and monotonous when it isn't being gruesome or shocking. Perception of the book largely depends on the reader's ability to find the comical in violence and sexism.

The ending was intriguing yet largely out of left field with the rest of the book. I found Paul's death to be the most upsetting part of the book yet one of the most redeeming in terms of writing. Also, the maggot brain incident will not be forgotten.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

possumpages's review against another edition

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

This book is heralded as an extreme horror classic, with lots of praise piled onto it for its writing and themes. However, I felt that the twist at the very end of the book spoiled any minor enjoyment I had had up until that point. I recognize as a book written in the 80's by a scottish man you cannot expect

transgender issues

to be handled well; however, how hamfistedly it was handled when, in fact, the twist could have been done SO WELL wrecked it for me, personally. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Mental illness, and Fire/Fire injury