Bug Sprayed

Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory, 1984
This novel apparently caused controversy when first published in 1984. Either reviewers couldn't handle its sadism and gore (because they clearly were not aware of a genre called "horror" until this book landed on their desks) or they thought Banks was a brand new Scottish voice that needed to be heard.

A teenage boy lives on a deserted island with his father, disconnected from the Scottish mainland and civil society. The boy, Frank, has an older brother locked away in a mad house, and a history of mysterious deaths in his family's past. As a narrator, he's a typical teenage boy, with obsessions of all kinds: weapons, violence, punk music and sex (or the lack of it). But can he be believed? None of the reviews I've read seem to have picked up on the general absurdities in Frank's narrative, to the point where it makes it hard to separate what is real and what is exageration, bravado. It's a shame, too, that the main plot twist in the end (and the book's original selling point) is so obvious for any modern reader used to western life. It doesn't help that Frank feels the need to explain the plot twist either, taking away the surprise's intended punch and deflating what could have been a neat slice of horror.