Changes

|title=The Insect Farm

|sort=Insect Farm, The

|publisher=Alma Books

|date=March 2015

|summary=A beautifully-plotted tale of two brothers, one obsessed with a woman and the other with his insect farm, and what happens after obsession turns into violence.

}}

I was predisposed to enjoy this book before I'd even opened the cover. It set me in mind of [[The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams]] - another tale of a challenged person who finds refuge in an obsession with insects. But where [[The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams|The Behaviour of Moths]] focuses on two warring sisters, ''The Insect Farm'' has two brothers as the central characters: Roger, who has special needs, and his devoted younger brother Jonathan. Both boys develop an obsession, Roger with his insect farm and Jonathan with a woman, Harriet. When obsession eventually leads to the violence of destruction, other behaviours come into play: feelings of guilt quickly switch to the fear of capture and the sly acts of a man keen to lay the blame elsewhere.