Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

18 reviews

ronnir's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

karaboureview's review against another edition

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Incest, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

This might be just a me thing, but the chapter titled

"What Happened to Eric" really redefines body horror, in my book,

and deserves a content warning all its own. Also, this isn't a tag option, but:

mutilation of animals both dead and living, and the (implied and actual) mutilation of people.

lizardgod's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

• I really can't decide if I hate this book or not, on some aspects, the trans representation is decent for the book's genre yet the only reason Frank is trans in the first place is due to trauma. It is interesting that the view of not aligning to the gender he was raised and the struggles with masculinity is more accurately depicted than most books written by actual trans authors. This book is honestly really good to me and my written summary does not do the book justice. It does take effort to start but it escalates very quickly once you realize what's going on. Also it starts with a lot of cryptic symbolism however all of it makes sense by the end instead of having to figure it out based on personal interpretation/author inference, a feature I personally enjoy in books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, and Incest

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

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

andrea96's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Xenophobia

kawooreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

2.0

Its been awhile since I rated something 2 stars...this book...it is insanely graphic and obscene one minute and borderline boring the next. Essentially Frank, the protagonist lives a hermetic lifestyle on his family's small island in Scotland with his father. At the beginning they learn that Frank's older brother Eric has escaped an institution and is making his way back to the island.  As Frank awaits his inevitable arrival, he divulges the frightening reasons as to his brother's incarceration. Frank admits that he himself has a dark secret, that he killed three of his child relatives in his youth, including his little brother. The rest of the book is Frank nonchalantly describing the grisly ways in which they died while roaming around the island, engaging in intense animal cruelty and performing psychotic rituals with his "Wasp Factory". I held out to the end for 2 reasons, 1) its relatively short, just under 200 pages and 2) every dang person on tiktok said this is one of their favorite disturbing horror books and I'm trying to read Spooky for October...I do not recommend this book to anyone unless someone just wants to indulge in torture stories and relishes a read that will make them regret the time they wasted. Its an extremely disturbing story that had no redeeming qualities and quite a bizarre and lackluster ending. But maybe these kinds of stories just aren't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

grimfrown's review against another edition

dark medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis