The Wasp Factory
Finished On: - 16th March 2008
This is one of the best modern horror novels I’ve read in some time - given that this is a debut, its all the more stunning for its realisation of isolation and parental manipulation however subtle. The more I read, the more I became engrossed - such is the power and emotiveness of the writing that you begin to root for the protaganist Frank, who by his own admission (repeated in the blurb) has killed three people by the age of 17.
The quality of the writing is excellent at all times, and not once does the story appear tired or fall on standard horror cliches. Instead a series of inventive set pieces add to the gently disturbing sense of claustrophobia and angst experienced by Frank building up to a crescendo at the end of the book.