The Wasp Factory reviews
"The Wasp Factory is a first novel not only of tremendous promise, but also of achievement, a minor masterpiece perhaps. There is no label. It is an obsessive novel, a bad dream of a book. Death and blood and gore fill the pages, lightened only by the dark humour, the surreal touches, and the poetry of the thing. There is something foreign and nasty here, an amazing new talent.”
Punch
"It is a sick, sick world when the confidence and investment of an astute firm of publishers is justified by a work of unparalleled depravity. There is no denying the bizarre fertility of the author’s imagination; his brilliant dialogue, his cruel humour, his repellent inventiveness. If the story of two mad and vicious half-siblings appeals, then the contrived hermaphrodite condition of one will add further salacious value to the fantasy. The majority of the literate public, however, will be relieved that only reviewers are obliged to look at any of it."
Irish Times
“A first novel of such curdling power and originality that whether you like it or not – and you may hate it – the arrival of its author Iain Banks must mark the literary debut of the year. It’s astonishing, unsettling and brilliantly written.”
Cosmopolitan
"As a piece of writing, The Wasp Factory soars to the level of mediocrity. Maybe the crassly explicit language, the obscenity of the plot, were thought to strike an agreeably avant-garde note. Perhaps it is all a joke, meant to fool literary London into respect for rubbish."
The Times
“Iain Banks has written one of the most brilliant first novels I have come across for some time. His study of an obsessive personality is extraordinary, written with a clarity and attention to detail that is most impressive. One can only admire a truly remarkable novel.”
Daily Telegraph
"A silly, gloatingly sadistic and grisly yarn of a family of Scots lunatics, one of whom tortures small creatures - a bit better written than most horror hokum but really just the lurid literary equivalent of a video nasty."
Sunday Express
“No masterpiece and one of the most disagreeable pieces of reading that has come my way in quite a while, but scoring high for pace, narrative control and sheer nasty inventiveness. Iain Banks must be given credit for a polished debut. Enjoy it I did not.”
Sunday Telegraph
“What of this bloodstained tome? Is it loathsome? Certainly it contains a more extensive and detailed catalogue of carnage than even the average horror novel. There is much torture, a lot of killing, a lot of slavering foulness. Yet the book is in no sense either corrupting or remotely pornographic. For one thing there is a note of manic, utterly over-the-top humour about even the worst of the violence that effectively robs it of its power to sicken. You can’t laugh and throw up at the same time. Secondly, it could not be said that the violence is casual or unnecessary. But there is nothing to force you, having been warned, to read it; nor do I recommend it.”
The Scotsman
"The surest way to make an impact with a first novel, if not the most satisfactory, is to deal in extremes of oddity and unpleasantness: so in The Wasp Factory, we have some ghoulish frivolity and a good deal of preposterous sadism. Unfortunately the novelist’s satiric intention is overwhelmed by his relish for exorbitant brutalities. A literary equivalent of the nastiest brand of juvenile delinquency: inflicting outrages on animals."
TLS
"If a nastier, more vicious or distasteful novel appears this Spring, I shall be surprised. But there is unlikely to be a better one either. You can hardly breathe for fear of missing a symbol, or a fine phrase, or a horror so chilling that your hair stands on end. Infinitely painful to read, grotesque but human, these pages have a total reality rare in fiction. A mighty imagination has arrived on the scene."
Mail on Sunday
“A repulsive piece of work and will therefore be widely admired. Piles horror upon horror in a way that is certain to satisfy those readers who subscribe to the currently fashionable notion that Man is vile.”
Evening Standard
“Any resumé is bound to read like a cross between Charles Addams and the d.t’s but there’s a potential here when the author has starved and wormed it”
Observer
“If you are squeamish or easily frightened, then leave The Wasp Factory severely alone. It is about a Scottish family in a remote village – a real bunch of sadistic nutters... the novel is saved from sheer beastliness by its black humour and its message. Read it if you dare.”
Daily Express
“A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality. It is macabre, bizarre and impossible to put down. There is a control and assurance in the book, an originality rare in established writers twice the author’s age. This is an outstandingly good read.”
The Financial Times