Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

56 reviews

leanneymu's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

What the hell did I just read?! This book is gruesome, dark, and in some places genuinely pretty upsetting. That being said, I read it in two days and I found it a compelling story. I feel like the author might be trying to say something deeply profound about generational trauma, but the visceral violence in the book is so acute in places that I found it a bit difficult to stomach. Content notes for a lot of animal cruelty, animal death, and child death, amongst many many other things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, and Vomit

ab1gail_g's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cartimandua's review against another edition

challenging dark 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

beitidh_flitcroft's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.75

horrifically graphic in places, but utterly captivating. 

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Content Warnings

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

saintgroovy's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.5

This is a uniquely dark and detached story, and taking the journey throughout daily life and memory with Frank gives insight into the psychopathic mind. You’ll find yourself confronted with the most monstrous of human behavior, while tackling Franks complete apathy towards his own actions. At times it’s funny how easily Frank justifies doing something terrible, and the roundabout ways he explains the need for cruelty.
I think the themes of gender identity and masculinity lead to such a complicated conclusion, not only for our narrator but for us. Do you hold sympathy for a person who is incapable of feeling any themselves? 
This is a story of both a victim and a perpetrator, who in the end holds no deep feelings about anything at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Violence, and Dysphoria

I think there’s so much to be said about Frances and how she thinks about herself and how she justifies murdering people with her own victimhood. Ultimately it’s no different than the thousands of reasons she gives us during the book, it’s just the best reason she could have been given. It’s shown over and over that she enjoys herself the most when she’s perceived to be the victim of tragedy, because she gets sympathy without any effort. But in the end- Her father was always as deeply a monster as her, and her brother. What a messed up story, I love how much it’s made me think

mark_74's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

This is a very dark story. Take heed of the content warnings as they probably don't do justice to how vicious and grotesque this is in places. At the same time though I couldn't stop reading it, it is as fascinating as it is disturbing. I've actually read this three times now, leaving a long gap between each so I can recover, and I still love it and loathe it as much as I did the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

azrealz's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

A pretty dark, but interesting book. I like Ian Banks's writing style, and he did a good job with keeping me hooked, and having well done reveals. But not an easy book to read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

readerofdafuk's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Hot damn this was a fucked up little book of a fucked up kind and family and Jesus christ I never want to meet this kid in an alley. Like the twist at the end was interesting, but idk if that really explains everything about the fucked up little mind that Frank has in his head

The part with the wasp factory was probably the most disturbing part 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

kelsiepixler's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Transphobia and Forced institutionalization

hollowfran's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Violence