Rating: 
Summary: Exaggerated hype
Review: According to The Independent, "The Wasp Factory" ranks among the top 100 novels of the century, as claimed on the cover of this paperback edition. Does this mean "The Wasp Factory" was the best novel to be published during the year of its release, 1984? At first it might seem that way. By the year 1800, the world population had reached 1 billion individuals, and during the 19th century this figure increased to about 1.5 billion. From the years 1900 to 2000, however, our species increased in number by over 400%. This increase, as you likely know, did not progress linearly but on a more or less positive exponential curve. The point here is that, if an equal proportion of a given population writes novels nondependent on group size, the volume of ranking novels written in the year 1900 will be significantly smaller than the volume written a century later. Furthermore, as technology advances within a culture, a greater portion of that technology's population must be acquainted with such knowledge, which results in an overall increase in the amount of learning per person and therefore an increase in the amount of potential writers. Based on these presumptions, if the writers of The Independent were more bold as to fix a shorter time span their message might be interpreted as, "'The Wasp Factory' ranks among the top 16.6 novels of the 1980's." Nevertheless, I agree with neither statement. I believe this is a very fine novel and worthy of much praise, but there are an estimated three to five thousand languages spoken today, and a great many of them have literary forms.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Book!
Review: I picked this book as part of a list that was recommended to me. I do not regret it one bit. As someone said on an earlier review you'll either love it or hate it. It is not as graphic as some people make it out to be. I am sure its controversy stems more from the time it was first released, nowadays your typical movie is much more graphic than this. I read the book in 3 days and thats because I could not read it at work or it would have been less time. It is awesome to get into the mind of the young character, thats what I found most interesting, and I think its the only way to truly understand why he does all the things he does in the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: shocking, gross and well-written
Review: 'The Wasp Factory' is by all measures an unforgettable reading experience, and this is not perhaps a good thing. This is especially true if reading graphic accounts of sadistic animal cruelty and the murdering of small children is viewed as offensive to the reader. I suppose I would have tolerated all this gruesume stuff if it served a useful purpose but, having just finished 'The Wasp Factory', I'm not sure it did.Well the story itself is very strange. An isolated Scottish family with one very wicked teenager who creates a strange little world for himself. This world is populated with various dead insect (including wasps, naturally) and animal parts. His brother is a horribly disturbed young man too, with a particularly nasty urge to burn dogs alive. Lovely. ;) The only salvation to this book is that it is indeed well-written, and it has a fairly good ending. But I really don't think it was worth the journey. Bottom line: gratuitously disgusting. Iain Banks has written better.
Rating: 
Summary: (Omits spoilers) Excellent book
Review: All I will say about this book is that it is narrated by a sixteen year old, it is one of the best books I have read, the writer has taught himself to write well, and the book is a bit on the macabre side but funny too. I did write a longer careful review of this book, which took me ages, but I am deleting it and replacing it just with this because to say anything more about this book will spoil it for people who haven't read it. So, that will have to do. Go buy the book if you haven't read it (not for the squeamish). Read it without knowing more about the contents from any information on this site. Almost all the reviews here are very positive about it. You will either love it or hate it. Probably you will love it. Either way, it will have an effect on you.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal efficiency
Review: It's not the violence itself that is shocking, but the cold, ruthless calculating which Frank does in planning his murders. If he were somehow transported to the island in Lord of the Flies, he'd be the only one left alive at the end of the book. In the end, I was more angry with Frank's father than with Frank. Read it to find out why.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, this book will disturb you.
Review: After I read this book I have to say I wasn't sure if I loved it or hated it. I was quite glad to be done with it, and yet the whole while I could not put it down. It definintley had a train-wreck-esque quality. One question I was left with after enduring all the gruesome dark humor was: what was the author trying to say? Of course its nihilistic, but is that all? I've yet to come up with a deeper meaning and would be curious to hear what others who have read it have to say, once the shock value subsides. I actually picked up this book becasue of the title. I was hoping it would be some sort of dark political commentary on the status quo. In any case, the story follows the life of an anti-social Scottish teenager, who murders his relatives in horrfic ways, just for the sheer hell of it. He has a psychotic brother (literally) who is in a mental asylum, and a pretty normal (comparatively) dwarf for a best friend. The process of mutilating or murdering is cathartic for our protagonist. He is compelled to wreack havoc, it's like it's in his blood. I can't say I didn't find some of the tortuous ways of disposing of relatives somewhat amusing. Although, I did feel sick to my stomach afterwards, partially because I found it funny and partially because it was just so damned gross. Overall I would recommend this book to those with an iron stomach and a taste for the blackest of humor. Don't expect any deep message but be prepared to be awed by the author's bizarre imagination. One plus (or minus, depending on your perspective) is that this book is indeed memorable.
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I could give this book 0 stars
Review: This book is clearly intended to launch the author into fame-through-controversy by pushing people's buttons in a gross and meaningless way. The story has no redeeming value and deals with topics that are just disgusting. I read this book entirely because I wanted to understand the title, but now I wish I had read some reviews warning me away from it. I can understand causing a ruckus to make a point, or trying to offend to draw attention to a cause, but this book has no purpose or message behind it other than to offend. I find it unfortunate that so many people give this book 4 or 5 stars, since disgusting topics do not a worthwhile book make.
Rating:
Summary: ( chuckling )
Review: Quite fascinating. I have only read a small amount of books in this genre, but this stands out already as one of the better ones. Banks uses a variety of techniques that really take you into the main character's world (I forget his name). First, it gives you a "seeing-glass," per se, of the life on this island off the coast of Ireland (I believe). To make a long story short, this fiction (I hope) novel has changed my views on great writing. FYI: Yes, the first chapter is the most disturbing one in the book, excepting the last one.
Rating:
Summary: The wasps made me do it...
Review: The horror-novel genre has been pushed and stretched to all kinds of lengths and angles in recent years, but, this having been said, a great horror novel remains what it always was: one that psychologically intimidates the reader and not one that relies on the gory effects and new ways to depict death, one that involves brilliant writting, one where the characters are engaging you into the plot the more you go along, oh, and one that has a tremendous plot, or more specifically, a tremendously disturbing plot to go with it.
The Wasp Factory has all of the above in strong dosages.
While this book has been written almost 20 years ago, I don't see why it wouldn't spawn the kind of "noise" it did if it came out today. It's that good.
The story sets its epicenter around Frank, a teenager who lives with his father on a remote Scottish island and who seems to be living in a world of his own that resembles a dimly lit nightmare.
Frank has been "taking out" young-aged members of the family since he was a kid himself, particularly the ones that annoy his sense of order of things. Frank seems to also have a shining future as a murderer because he endulges in the art of the perfect crime early and perfectionises it as he goes along, making the 3 murders on his account all look like very unfortunate accidents.
But Frank is not as "simple" as that. Murder might be his way of solving "problems" but he's also got a philosophy about it, or to be more precise, a whole self-constructed world to base his actions upon, a world where decisions are not really his per se but they are actually taken by his very own miniature Delphi oracle: the wasp factory.
What exactly is the wasp factory? Well since the author chooses to build up the atmosphere of the book and only reveal 3/4s of the way what it exactly is I wont spoil the surprise for those that havent read the book yet.
Furthermore, and as if all this wasn't, uhm, peculiar enough, Frank's life seems to be one big web of complications: his brother Eric has been locked up in an asylum for the lunatics (even though the average reader will, justifiably think that this is where Frank belongs too) but he's now escaped and is "coming home" in a process that has "showdown" written all over it. Then there's Frank's father, a rather mysterious figure, who seems to notice nothing strange at all going on, ever, and who goes about everyday life chores as if he's the only normal person left in Frank's immediate environment. Frank's also got a thing about rabbits and frogs with whom he has some type of secret war going on complete with weapons, strategic plans, bases, territories and domains etc. It's a merciless war at that too as you'll find out by reading the Wasp Factory.
So where does this all lead to, what is it all culminating to? To a stunningly surprise ending not like the proverbial icing on the cake but something less innocent than that, a secret that has been the impetus in Frank's life which will more than likely blow a fuse in your mind as you reach the conclusion of the story.
Written in first person with a stunning immediacy and with the imagination factor notched very high up, a claustrophobic atmosphere no doubt helped by the secluded environs of the small island Frank lives on, and encompassing you almost trapping you in its atmosphere of surreal almost hallucinatory narratings the Wasp Factory is nothing less than a masterpiece in its genre.
Ranks, along with the American Psycho and the Underground Hero, amongst the best horror novels I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Attention grabbing debut
Review: Apparently when this was published it was reviled as much as it was lauded, with detractors pointing out the scenes of mutilation and violence above all. To be honest I didn't see what was so contraversial about the novel, there's a good amount of brutal stuff in it and some of that is depicted in a fairly detailed fashion but it's nothing overly horrifying and unless all you've read are Little House on the Prairie books, you won't find anything too stomach churning. Perhaps it was more shocking in 1984 but after nearly twenty years of authors in all genres pushing the envelope it just isn't that shocking anymore, if it ever was. The worst thing in my opinion was the incident that triggered Eric's madness and even that was well done, it made me feel sick but it made the character feel sick as well, which was the point. So Banks first appeared with this novel, introducing a new voice onto the literary scene and arriving with a decidedly different subject for a novel, the main character Frances is two steps on the wrong side of being a psychopath and the book is narrated by him, adding to the fun. And yet Banks never goes for the easy route and make him a raving lunatic, nor does he make him an overly erudite Hannibal Lecter type either, he's a normal kid who happens to have killed a few people and has a very, very twisted worldview. Banks' imagination here, which would perhaps emerge more with his SF novels, is in full force, with references to Bomb Circles, Sacrifice Poles, and of course the Wasp Factory, all of which play big parts in Frances' life. The writing itself borders on brilliant, getting the reader into Frances' head and even making you like the guy just a little bit by the end. Even the violence, while brutal, is mostly played for dark humor, it's both absurd and shockingly realistic at the same time, adding a surreal edge to the book. What the book fails on is the plot, which rambles a bit and comes across as unfocused . . . leaving the reader to ask what the point of the book is. Stuff happens, Frances goes about his life, we learn about him and his family . . . and yet the climax of the book is a bit of letdown and the big revelation is perhaps slightly surprising but at the same time a bit irrelevant, I had to ask myself "Who cares?" when I found out the big secret. So what the book succeeds with is atmosphere and tone, Banks gets us inside the mind of a person who isn't all that normal and does so in a believable fashion, not an easy trick to do and certainly notable in a first novel. It may not be one of the top 100 novels of the century (as the Independent claims) but I would rank it as one of the top 50 debuts and fortunately Banks didn't fade from view as so many promising authors do after a decent first novel, but continued to publish and get better by leaps and bounds. You may not like this, but I can guarentee he's written something else you'd like. A good start for him, though, and certainly tons better than a lot of other debuts. He could have done worse.
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