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The Wasp Factory
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
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The Wasp Factory
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Summary
The Wasp Factory is a bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath - one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels.
"Two years after I killed Blyth, I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage that I was going through."
Enter - if you can bear it - the extraordinary private world of Frank, just 16, and unconventional, to say the least.
Critic reviews
"One of the most brilliant first novels I have come across." (The Telegraph)
"One of the top 100 novels of the century." (The Independent)
"Brilliant...irresistible...compelling." (New York Times)
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What listeners say about The Wasp Factory
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- nick
- 04-06-19
Both mesmerising and aweful
A remarkable book that both mesmerises and horrifies the listener.
Working on multiple levels it is both a physical and philosophical tale of deceit, destruction and rebirth.
And wasps.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Miss B Jackson
- 29-04-15
Shaking
It's not a novel I'll easily forget. The violence in it is very real and balanced by the voice of the narrator. I'm not sure I would've persevered if Peter Kelly's voice hadn't taken some of the edge off, and seemingly embodied the protagonist.
The rituals and the setting of the island remain riveting throughout.
If you've heard about it, give it a try. But don't expect to be bowled over by the ending and I think you'll have a better experience of it than I have.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-07-23
Just wow
Gripped from start to finish, beautifully written,beautifully performed, the nonchalant way the violence is described is horrifying and funny at the same time, this book will not be easily forgotten, Brilliant stuff
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hm&Pd
- 09-09-19
thourally enjoyable!
loved it!
great story, not predictable. fantastically read I just couldn't stop listening. Highly recommend
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kirsty
- 03-04-23
Disturbing
A highly disturbing book, however although I enjoyed the book and the performance I feel it would have enjoyed it more as a physical book than audiobook
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- WG
- 29-05-23
Fantastic
I read this book many years ago and loved it. The audiobook is brilliant. The narrator’s tone is just right for this twisted tale. Highly recommend.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- D. C. Newitt
- 18-10-23
very descriptive, weird, but not my thing
found the whole book a bit of a struggle to keep me interested. it's very descriptive, but it's an odd story, a delinquent young adult forms the centre of the story... but apart from describing his exceptional oddities and a plot twist, I wondered what the point of the whole story was for.
Excluding the long descriptional passages, I could summarise the whole book within a minute.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- William Stewart
- 12-10-11
Well adapted for audio.
A supurb story, have heard it before, and always worth another go.
Iain Banks at his best.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sonya1811
- 06-05-18
Perfectly Read!
Kenny manages to make Frank the fascinating, abhorrent yet somehow likeable character that Banks intended. I will always wonder what the heck happened to Banks that he could conceive of some of the facets of this novel!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- chris lowther
- 20-07-22
Absolutely not what I expected!!
The narrator is a little bit giddy and high pitched at times...a warning for those wearing earphones. The novel itself is quite intriguing and runs along at a good pace. However the ending could have been massively expanded upon. Its like the author got an idea and wanted it all on paper at once, wrote his notes and then forgot to add the 'filler' material.
Does make you think a bit though and some portions of the novel do tend to make you stop, take stock and reflect a little.
Certainly worth a read, but if you just ha e one credit....there is better things to purchase.
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