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Roger Maguire is mentally challenged, probably somewhere on the Autism spectrum, and as an adult, his childhood obsession with an ant farm grows into a full-blown insect farm housed in buckets, crates and aquariums filling the backyard garden shed. His younger brother Jonathan also has an obsession, his girlfriend Harriet, a musician.
Jonathan knows he will eventually have to take care of Roger, but when his parents die in a house fire, that responsibility comes much sooner than expected. Jonathan and Harriet marry quickly but she remains at college, and they maintain a difficult, long distance relationship, which grows more complicated when Jonathan realizes that another musician is after his wife.
Things come to a head with Harriet, who ends up dead with Jonathan covered in her blood. He has no memory of the murder, but goes into panic mode, hiding the body and plotting ways to throw blame elsewhere. Roger remains in his own world, and Jonathan continues to care for him as events unfurl around them.
This book starts out super creepy, but quickly morphs into an extremely compelling story about brothers. A compelling read.
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8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE INSECT FARM by Stuart Prebble. Mulholland Books (July 7, 2015). ISBN 978-0316337366. 320p.
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