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    The Insect Farm
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    The Insect Farm
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    The Insect Farm
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Insect Farm

    Written by Stuart Prebble

    Narrated by Peter Noble

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Brothers Jonathan and Roger Maguire each have an obsession. For Jonathan, it is his girlfriend Harriet. For Roger, it is the elaborate universe he has constructed in a shed, populated by millions of tiny insects. But when their lives are abruptly shattered by a sudden and violent death, Jonathan is drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with the police. Does Roger know more than he is letting on?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateOct 1, 2015
    ISBN9781510011182
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Insect Farm

    3.5/5

    27 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Meh. There's not much there there. The limited plot may have been better served as a short story or novella.
    • 4/5
      *This book was provided to me as an advanced readers copy through Goodreads giveaways.

      Character driven novel set in 70's era. You grow very attached to the characters in this book and thus when the tragedy/pain comes it hits you hard. Very fast read that you will be thinking about for days after. Never read any of Stuart Prebble's work but will check out more.
    • 1/5
      The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble is another book that proves how important a synopsis is in finding the right audience. When a reader goes into The Insect Farm one might expect a psychological thriller or something of the sort. The description does mention two brothers who are obsessed, what I wish that I knew going in is that the dysfunctional relationships are the mainstay. The murder and suspense take a backseat and only appears towards the end.

      There are a lot of pointless scenes that I kept waiting to show purpose, but they never happened. The majority of the book was spent with Jonathan and his annoying girlfriend, and there was less time spent on the equally non important scenes with Roger. There were small amounts of important insight that added to the outcome, and it was only much later in the story that it became more conducive to what I expected based on the synopsis, a thriller...But it was still none too thrilling.

      The conclusion felt like an attempt at two big twists, one predictable, and one so out of left field that it wasn't believable. I don't wish to give anything away to those who haven't read it, so I will just ask those who have read the book: What was up with that letter that Jonathan received near the end? Did that seem like any kind of believable? As if!

      The Insect Farm, had it been culled of all of the pointless dribble, could have had a Hitchcock feel and would have been better written as a thirty minute television screenplay. Now that would have been worth my time.
    • 4/5
      "If you have been lucky enough to be able to tell the truth for most of your life, you probably cannot imagine how exhausting it is to spend forever living a lie."If this is true, then Jonathan Maguire is one tired man, and his brother, Roger, isn't exactly wide-awake either. Stuart Prebble's debut novel, The Insect Farm, is a study of these two men - of their strange, insular relationship that trumps all else and of their strange, all-consuming obsessions. For Ralph, the older of the two brothers (yet, clearly, the younger in terms of mental maturity), little else matters apart from his brother, Jonathan, and his insect farm. Roger spends his hours cultivating any number of mail-order specimens from around the world in handmade habitats that he has, surprisingly, designed on his own. For Jonathan, the younger brother entrusted with the care of his mentally challenged older brother, he has little concern for anything other than his brother, Roger, and the love of his young life, his musically-inclined, much-lusted-after,wife, Harriet. Unfortunately, Jonathan is forced to leave both Harriet and his studies at university to care for Roger upon the death of their parents in a tragic (and suspicious) house fire. With distance between the two young lovers, Jonathan's jealous nature has an opportunity to flourish and grow unbound. Will the two brothers' singular obsessions disrupt the harmony of their coexistence? I don't know what it is about mentally challenged, male characters, but they can really tug at my heart-strings like none other (think: Of Mice's Lenny and The Sound's Benji). Poor Roger - his goofy breakfast routines, his ability to deep-sleep like a child, his uncanny ability to converse almost philosophically about insects - it all just broke my heart. I found both brothers to be extremely emphatic, but Roger really spoke to my maternal instincts; I understood Jonathan's duty and need to protect him. As much as I loved Roger and Jonathan, I hated Harriet's would-be suitor Brendon Harcourt. If there is something about mentally-challenged men that makes my heart melt, there is something about red-headed men that almost instantly repulses me. (Side note: sorry (not sorry) to all the ginges out there. The only exception to my rule seems to be Prince Harry, and maybe his royal blood cancels out the otherwise icky ginger vibes. I don't know. I only speak the truth). Very slight spoiler alert: I loved how the prologue firmly set this book up as a psychological thriller with the tease of the two unidentified bodies. The rest of the book was shrouded in a haze of mystery that I could not wait to unravel.A highly-recommended read due out in less than a month, The Insect Farm hits the shelves on July 7, 2015.