Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this book if you have a history of depression.
Review: I couldn't finish it. It was too effective at evilly insinuating itself into my world-view. I'll acknowledge that Iain Banks is a master at what he does and possibly one of the most important writers in the past three or four decades, but I don't believe I'll be reading anything else by him. In the words of a programmer friend of mine, "He's written a computer virus for the mind."
Rating:
Summary: HORRIFYING -- FASCINATING -- COMPELLING
Review: The reader might note that, as I enter the fray with my own comments about this controversial novel, there are, below mine, 77 other reviews posted. All of this for a book that many people have never heard of -- one that has obviously stirred radically conflicting feelings and opinions amongst its readers, and which has been both lauded as genius and derided as drivel by its critics. The same could be said of many works that have retained their character and individuality -- and their ability to stir controversy -- for many years after they first appeared.To state the inescapable conclusion: this book is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. That being said, I think it's also safe to say that, once read, it will never be forgotten. Iain Banks has produced here, like it or not (and there are few opinions that inhabit the no-man's land between these two extremes), a little masterpiece of psychological horror, and a pretty compellingly-told mystery as well. Even if, as some reviewers maintain, the ending is not a surprise, this novel is still a firghtening, vivid read -- a look into a mind that is twisted (from within and without) to the breaking point, with hell to pay for almost everyone in the general vicinity of the young Frank Cauldhame, Banks' unforgettable protagonist with the very appropriate surname. Take Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES, Burgess' A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, McGrath's SPIDER, Russell Banks' RULE OF THE BONE -- and any other well-written portrait of alienated and abused youth, and you might have the beginnings of Iain Banks' disturbingly maladjusted Frank, playing out his fantasies of just deserts in his head and in his world. There is unimaginable cruelty at work here -- on and by the youngster at the center of this literary maelstrom. The pace of the story is never rushed, but the reader is incresingly unable to put the book down as it travels unflinchingly to its climax. Love it or leave it -- it will return to haunt you again and again.
Rating:
Summary: The Wasp Factory
Review: I had to read a novel for school. I chose this as a friend suggested it to me. After i had read it I found out it is set very near to where i live. Anyone who is a bit older may think this book is not suitable for someone my age but i disagree. It has a compelling plot and has a very...erm...interesting twist at the end. Iain Banks uses excellent characterisation in this novel and despite the three murders Frank has comitted the reader is inclined to feel sympathetic for him. This book is the one of the best I have read and the essay I'm to write is going to be very long indeed as the plot and themes will take a while to put across. Hopefully with this book I'll get a good grade?! BRILLIANT BOOK
Rating:
Summary: A Cautionary tale of misogynism
Review: What a book. Highly confronting in its content. You will be asking yourself - why am I reading this? Stick with it. The motives for the young person's actions will become apparent as you reach the most startling conclusion to any novel I have read for some time. Bank's first novel is truely unique.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent >> But Not For the Squeamish
Review: I don't know what's in the Scottish water, but it seems like all the fiction I've read from there is messed up (in a good way). This particular book is another in line, as a glance at the Library of Congress Cataloging data for this book shows: "Fathers and sons-- Scotland-- Fiction, Serial murders-- Scotland-- Fiction, Teenage boys-- Scotland-- Fiction, Psychopaths- -Scotland-- Fiction, Murders-- Scotland-- Fiction." That pretty much tells you all you need to know. It's a first-person account by an insane 17 year-old detailing his life with his father, as well as telling about the three murders he staged as accidents. It's totally sick and messed up, especially if you're squeamish about animal cruelty (and I mean real cruelty). There's a further stunning "twist" at the end, but by then you're prepared to accept pretty much anything that happens... Well written.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: This book is an adventure. I sat down and read it in one night. I couldnt put it down. This book was very entertaining
Rating: 
Summary: So-so
Review: After reading an excerpt of Wasp Factory in an anthology, I was pretty excited to buy the book and find out what else it had in store. Although at times it was compelling in terms of painting a scenario, there was something two dimensional about the main character/narrator. Banks seemed to not have a fully realized sense of this narrator, hiding that fact by bombarding us with the extremity of "his" circumstances and actions. Banks described the world of his character at times rather beautifully-- but ultimately that's just being artful and doesn't make the grade to being a truly developed novel. The real difficulty in writing a good novel is that it leaves us with a lasting sense of this fictional person/s. With this I felt like I was coldly observing someone's very dangerous choices (I know the narrator has that detached tone but as a reader I feel I shouldn't have that detachment), and some peripheral family dysfunction that becomes rather montonous. When the big bad secret comes out at the end I was bored and dissatisfied.
Rating:
Summary: Shockingly Fascinating
Review: The Wasp Factory is a candidly shocking story of deception, confusion, friendships, and experiments (cruel albeit intriguing)and how they affect the life of what can be best stated "a person." The story unfoils rather slowly but when it does, it grabs hold of the imagination, perversion and cruelty aside. The friendships that are bonded, and destroyed (one should hope), lend the reader to think about the consequences of one's actions, one's beliefs, one's perception, and how reality can play a factor in one's life---once discovered, that is. For this reader the book was read in one night, as it grasped my imagination with its wording and how it grabbed hold of my attention to find and resolve the main conflict of the story: experimentation and perception. A masterful storyteller and written in the true mode of a psychological thriller, Mr. Banks has a true winner with this book. The last paragraph will truly make the reader gasp.
Rating:
Summary: Good read...(provided no-one has given away the ending!)
Review: I have been recently introduced to Iain Banks' work by a number of associates of mine. Unfortunately they raved about it a bit too much and basically gave me too much information. I therefore could pretty much work out how the finale was going to evolve by about midway through the book. This in turn ruined what could have been an excellent book. Verdict: A great read, but only if you know absolutely nothing about the subject beforehand or you could be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: An amazingly disturbing book.
Review: This book easily should be included in the same sentance as The Clockwork Orange. The story pulls you in in with a sureal atmosphere and completely shatters evreything with a very good twist at the end. Highly reccommended.
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