The Wasp Factory

Iain Banks

I read the front and back covers of this book. I read the reviews in Amazon. I read the Rev's review. I read the book itself. And all the time I had one nagging question in my head. What on earth made Bonnie pick this one up and want to read it? What made you do it Bonnie?

It's mostly about a sadistic teenager obsessed with killing and mutilating animals. Yeah, right up your street Bonnie, I don't think.

The teenager is Frank. He lives a morose Scottish sort of life on an island with his father. Just the two of them. Most of his other relatives he has either secretly killed or driven away. His other surviving brother, Eric, is locked up in some sort of psychiatric prison. Just how mad Eric must be, if Frank the bunny strangling fratricidal maniac is supposed to be the saner half of the family, is one of the exquisite puzzles of the book.

Except that Eric has escaped from the asylum and is heading for home. This gives the book some of its structure. Frank's routine of dysfunctional meals with his father and wasting various animal species is interrupted periodically by phone calls from Eric announcing his imminent return.

To find out what happens when Eric finally reaches home and to learn what the (frankly daft) plot twist is ... well you'll have to read it.

One last thing. Dogs, petrol and matches. If you prefer your fiction intake not to contain these three items in the same sentence, do not read this book.