Finished: The Wasp Factory (Banks) Probably the most disturbing book I've read to date, and I found Lord of the Flies very disturbing! I read reviews that Wasp Factory was very dark, yet it was also among the top 100 books to read on a British book list. Anywayyyyyy....it was very, very disturbing, and thankfully not too long. Frank is a 17 year old living on a remote Scottish island with just his eccentric father. He spends his time killing small animals, constantly building small pipe bombs, supplying his leftover WWII bunker on the island, or putting wasps through his "wasp factory". Frank narrates the story and lets us know that when he was 5, he killed his cousin, 10 year old Blythe, because his cousin set fire to his and older brother Eric's rabbit hutches, killing their pets. When Frank was 8, he killed his 5 year old brother, Paul, because even though he loved him and played with him all the time, he could see Paul becoming someone who would eventually crowd him out. Then, when he was 9 he killed his 4 or 5 year old cousin, Esmerelda, because he needed to even out the killing between boys and girls. He built a huge kite made of tarp, and had her put her hands through the nylon loops of the string, and let go of her off the windy Scottish coast. She was never seen again. His old brother Eric is gifted smart, but while in medical school, takes care of a baby who is basically a vegetable and Eric goes absolutely crazy one day when he lifts up the babies head to feed it and day old maggots have been eating the baby's brain. Eric goes back home where he, formerly so gentle, begins setting dogs on fire and shoving maggots at the local town children. He is committed to an asylum, but has just escaped at the time of the book. Frank has only one friend in town because he is so weird and because of his "disability". It ends up, when Frank was 3, his genitals were bitten off by the family bulldog, Saul, on the same day his little brother was born. His mother left the family, only coming back to give birth to Paul, who wasn't even his father's child. Then, she left Paul with Frank's father! One of the reasons Frank ended up killing Paul was he couldn't believe his father named him Paul, after going out and killing Saul for mauling Frank. Saul's old creepy skull is one of the things that Frank keeps in his bunker. He puts candles in it and consults it when he's got a problem and needs to figure out what to do. Frank's wasp factory is a huge old clock face that used to be on the outside of the Bank of Scotland. Frank has rigged up little tunnels that go from the round circle in the center to each of the twelve Roman numerals that indicate time. At the end of each tunnel, he's rigged a little door that will trap the wasp and each number has a different manner of death for the was, from fire, which he has to help with using a lighter, to being eaten by ants, to being drowned in urine, to being caught by a spider, to being shot with an air gun, etc. Frank also captures wasps to put in the wasp factory when he needs answers to things. The main thing he needs answered right now is what is Eric going to do? Is he coming back to the island? Should he embrace his brother or be very afraid? Frank has spent his life as a eunuch, never able to achieve puberty, and he knows every inch of the island. He would love to have his older brother back, but knows he's lost him to his mental illness. At the climax of the book, Eric does come back and try to blow up his old house, first setting fire to all the sheep on his way. Needless to say, the latest wasp had "chosen" death by fire, so it's just creepy. Meanwhile, Frank has finally been able to get into his father's study, which has remained locked his whole life. In the study, he finds a specimen jar with a tiny set of male genitalia floating in it. :-( He also finds a box of tampons and vials of male hormones!! Frank freaks out and confronts his father and discovers that he's not a boy at all, but a girl. He was, in fact, bitten by the bulldog, but it just left a little bit of scaring. His father has been feeding him male hormones all his life, keeping him home for homeschooling, etc. because he didn't want the influence of another rotten female in his life! He even constructed a fake set of tiny male genitalia to put in the jar in case Frank ever began to question things. And the tampons were in case Frank's body ever rejected the male hormones.  omg, it's awful! The next morning, Frank goes for one of his long walks out to the dunes. He contemplates his life and how part of him always thought he took those three young lives because he knew they would grow up and have things he'd never have. They'd grow up to be normal. If he'd not been tampered with, perhaps he never would have killed them. He also grew up thinking women were worthless, and now he is one. He comes across Eric, laying in the dunes sleeping. He sits down by him and Eric wakes up briefly, put his head in Frank's lap, and goes back to sleep. Franks sit with his brother and wonders what Eric will think when he wakes up and realizes he has a sister instead of a brother. The End. Uggggg, as I said, one of the most disturbing books I've read! I definitely need a palate cleanser!