A review by kieracaspall
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

challenging slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The preface of this book (written by the author) begins with him saying that he never wanted to write books like The Wasp Factory. But was in fact much more interested in writing sci-fi books. This really shows. So much of this felt like it was written just for the ‘shock-factor’. It was received controversially when it was first published and it is easy to understand why. Animal abuse, torture, and murder galore (the blurb does not allude to this element of it at all so it really is very shocking and disturbing, had I known this would have been one of the major and prevalent themes of the book I would never have picked it up). Can’t really tell you why I even bothered to finish this, but felt like it may pick up a bit or live up to its alleged CLASSIC status. Spoiler - it didn’t.

Would not recommend 🙃