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Dead River Series #1
Off Season
A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River—off season—awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1980
1817 people are currently reading
34986 people want to read
About the author
Jack Ketchum
198 books3,010 followersDallas William Mayr, better known by his pen name Jack Ketchum, was an American horror fiction author. He was the recipient of four Bram Stoker Awards and three further nominations. His novels included Off Season, Offspring, and Red, which were adapted to film. In 2011, Ketchum received the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award for outstanding contribution to the horror genre.
A onetime actor, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk, Ketchum credited his childhood love of Elvis Presley, dinosaurs, and horror for getting him through his formative years. He began making up stories at a young age and explained that he spent much time in his room, or in the woods near his house, down by the brook: "[m]y interests [were] books, comics, movies, rock 'n roll, show tunes, TV, dinosaurs [...] pretty much any activity that didn't demand too much socializing, or where I could easily walk away from socializing." He would make up stories using his plastic soldiers, knights, and dinosaurs as the characters.
Later, in his teen years, Ketchum was befriended by Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, who became his mentor.
Ketchum worked many different jobs before completing his first novel (1980's controversial Off Season), including acting as agent for novelist Henry Miller at Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
His decision to eventually concentrate on novel writing was partly fueled by a preference for work that offered stability and longevity.
Ketchum died of cancer on January 24, 2018, in New York City at the age of 71.
A onetime actor, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk, Ketchum credited his childhood love of Elvis Presley, dinosaurs, and horror for getting him through his formative years. He began making up stories at a young age and explained that he spent much time in his room, or in the woods near his house, down by the brook: "[m]y interests [were] books, comics, movies, rock 'n roll, show tunes, TV, dinosaurs [...] pretty much any activity that didn't demand too much socializing, or where I could easily walk away from socializing." He would make up stories using his plastic soldiers, knights, and dinosaurs as the characters.
Later, in his teen years, Ketchum was befriended by Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, who became his mentor.
Ketchum worked many different jobs before completing his first novel (1980's controversial Off Season), including acting as agent for novelist Henry Miller at Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
His decision to eventually concentrate on novel writing was partly fueled by a preference for work that offered stability and longevity.
Ketchum died of cancer on January 24, 2018, in New York City at the age of 71.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,388 reviews
October 7, 2011
CANNIBALISM: A MORE BALANCED PERSPECTIVE
While I really liked this book, I feel compelled to make a few introductory remarks before I discuss the specific merits of the story. I will give Mr. Ketchum the benefit of the doubt and say that I do not believe it was his intention in writing this book to come across as a snobby, elitist, “anti” cannibal bigot. However, the fact remains that this novel is yet another example of popular media perpetrating the negative stereotype of cannibalism. I feel it's long past time to give a more balanced view of the subject in the hopes of fostering greater understanding of this alternative lifestyle.
As far as the specific plot elements of Ketchum's story, I thought they were fine. I find cannibalism, graphic torture and human dismemberment just as funny and amusing as the next guy and thought that the author did a nice job of providing an authentic and detailed representation of the practices discussed. While I do not currently practice cannibalism, I did experiment with the lifestyle for a time in college. During this time I learned a lot about the “Same Species Sustenance” Community and met a lot of wonderful people, several of whom I still count among my close friends (as long as I am armed). Thus, defending the rights and the dignity of the cannibal community is something about which I have strong feelings.
I believe that cannibalism, practiced in moderation, has the potential to be a very positive influence. For example, it's an excellent way to bring families closer as it provides a wonderful mechanism for siblings to spend "quality time" together. This can help to further strengthen bonds among family members and promote the forming of more “intimate” attachments with one another. This last quality is very important for families living alone in remote rural areas. In fact, statistics confirm that families that practice cannibalism, even if only once a week, are 7 to 10 times more likely to remain together across multiple generations.
In addition to strengthening family bonds, cannibalism is also a very effective way to stay in shape, especially if one makes a conscious effort to do their own stalking, trapping and dismembering. The fact is that obesity among cannibals is less than 1/10th of what it is in the general population. Plus, for those unable to participate in family hunting trips, there are excellent "home workout" vidoes for that can produce very positive results.
Finally, I believe it's critical to recognize that cannibalism is an excellent way to make a positive contribution to the environment. In addition to using very few fossil fuels or other products damaging to the environment, consumers of humans also help prevent ecological damage that can arise in areas with excess population growth. They are one of the most ecologically conscious consumer groups and have long been associated with the “Green” movement.
Plus, once processed through the digestive system, humans make a phenomenal natural fertilizer which provides further benefit to Mother Earth.
I hope the above makes clear that despite the ill-informed, slanted view of cannibals at times portrayed in this book, this community has many positive qualities and deserves to be treated fairly and with respect. I just wish the author would have made the brave choice and not pandered to the more powerful "anti" cannibal segment of the population.
PLOT SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
Despite my above gripes, let me say again that I really liked this book. While there are some graphic scenes and some very disturbing imagery, the book kept my interest from the very first page and I basically read it straight through in a single sitting. Well written, well paced, high levels of tension and some very memorable scenes (disturbing, yes… but memorable).
The story concerns a close knit family of cannibals living a very “green” existence in a remote area of Maine. The book starts off great with a group of the younger family members out at night and cleverly fooling a passing female motorist to stop for them. This is a very exciting and suspenseful scene as it quickly becomes evident that the children are hungry but you have no idea whether they are going to be able to catch the woman who, thinking only of herself, flees into the forest. Well, I won’t give away what happens but I was instantly pulled into the narrative and the plight of this large extended family living a subsistence existence constantly on the border of starvation.
After a great beginning, the central plot gets rolling when the bad guys, 3 couples from Manhattan, arrive to stay at a remote cabin near where the family lives. The family, consisting of several dozen members ranging from an elderly matriarch to children under 5, decides that the 3 couples will provide several weeks worth on meals and go about planning to acquire them. That sums up the basic outline of the plot and it is really in its execution that the novel shows its chops.
I really liked the way the family members worked together while hunting and how they reacted to the many devious and unexpected actions of the scheming Manhattanites. I don’t want to give away spoilers here but I do think it is important to advise readers that several of the cannibal family members don't survive the story *sniff* so readers should be prepared. There are some very graphic and detailed descriptions of slaughter and the tension level is often extremely high.
As alluded to above, I did have several issues with the book. First, I thought the portrayal of the life of the cannibal family was rather negative and seemed to me to be evidence of the author’s bias against that lifestyle. The family is described as being fairly harsh and brutal towards one another with very little warmth among siblings. That is certainly not consistent with the portaryal depicted in the most reputable cannibal periodicals that I have seen. I can see members of a same species sustenance families taking offense at this portrayal.
I also did not really like the two prominent male family members (no names are given but I would describe one as "Mr Red shirt" and the other as "Mr Large and Bald." Don't get me wrong, they were very effective and were certainly "contributing" members of the family. I just found them personally to be very cold, unapproachable and even a little callous. This made it hard for me to identify with them and so I had a more difficult time caring about the hardships they encountered at the hands of the evil tourists.
I also had a problem with the significant time spent introducing the readers to the 3 couples after their arrival at the cabin. You see, the story takes place around winter time and it was very troubling to read page after page of these 6 self-involved assholes being all warm and cozy inside the cabin eating, drinking and fornicating while just outside the windows members of the family watched, cold and very, very hungry. It just seemed a little much but I guess that is why they call it horror.
Finally, I was somewhat taken aback by the ending which I found to be just over the top in its gratuitous violence. I won’t say any more beyond that I can not believe the author would have members of the police force acting with such brutality against local residents. Shocking and a bit of a sad commentary on the nature of our society.
Notwithstanding the above, I did find the book overall to be excellent. It is high octane, dark, brutal, extremely graphic and very effective for what it is. This was my first Jack Ketchum novel and I plan on reading more books by his very soon. I just hope he is a little more even-handed in his portrayals of cannibals in the future.
4.0 stars. Highly Recommended (with reservations).
While I really liked this book, I feel compelled to make a few introductory remarks before I discuss the specific merits of the story. I will give Mr. Ketchum the benefit of the doubt and say that I do not believe it was his intention in writing this book to come across as a snobby, elitist, “anti” cannibal bigot. However, the fact remains that this novel is yet another example of popular media perpetrating the negative stereotype of cannibalism. I feel it's long past time to give a more balanced view of the subject in the hopes of fostering greater understanding of this alternative lifestyle.
As far as the specific plot elements of Ketchum's story, I thought they were fine. I find cannibalism, graphic torture and human dismemberment just as funny and amusing as the next guy and thought that the author did a nice job of providing an authentic and detailed representation of the practices discussed. While I do not currently practice cannibalism, I did experiment with the lifestyle for a time in college. During this time I learned a lot about the “Same Species Sustenance” Community and met a lot of wonderful people, several of whom I still count among my close friends (as long as I am armed). Thus, defending the rights and the dignity of the cannibal community is something about which I have strong feelings.
I believe that cannibalism, practiced in moderation, has the potential to be a very positive influence. For example, it's an excellent way to bring families closer as it provides a wonderful mechanism for siblings to spend "quality time" together. This can help to further strengthen bonds among family members and promote the forming of more “intimate” attachments with one another. This last quality is very important for families living alone in remote rural areas. In fact, statistics confirm that families that practice cannibalism, even if only once a week, are 7 to 10 times more likely to remain together across multiple generations.
In addition to strengthening family bonds, cannibalism is also a very effective way to stay in shape, especially if one makes a conscious effort to do their own stalking, trapping and dismembering. The fact is that obesity among cannibals is less than 1/10th of what it is in the general population. Plus, for those unable to participate in family hunting trips, there are excellent "home workout" vidoes for that can produce very positive results.
Finally, I believe it's critical to recognize that cannibalism is an excellent way to make a positive contribution to the environment. In addition to using very few fossil fuels or other products damaging to the environment, consumers of humans also help prevent ecological damage that can arise in areas with excess population growth. They are one of the most ecologically conscious consumer groups and have long been associated with the “Green” movement.
Plus, once processed through the digestive system, humans make a phenomenal natural fertilizer which provides further benefit to Mother Earth.
I hope the above makes clear that despite the ill-informed, slanted view of cannibals at times portrayed in this book, this community has many positive qualities and deserves to be treated fairly and with respect. I just wish the author would have made the brave choice and not pandered to the more powerful "anti" cannibal segment of the population.
PLOT SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
Despite my above gripes, let me say again that I really liked this book. While there are some graphic scenes and some very disturbing imagery, the book kept my interest from the very first page and I basically read it straight through in a single sitting. Well written, well paced, high levels of tension and some very memorable scenes (disturbing, yes… but memorable).
The story concerns a close knit family of cannibals living a very “green” existence in a remote area of Maine. The book starts off great with a group of the younger family members out at night and cleverly fooling a passing female motorist to stop for them. This is a very exciting and suspenseful scene as it quickly becomes evident that the children are hungry but you have no idea whether they are going to be able to catch the woman who, thinking only of herself, flees into the forest. Well, I won’t give away what happens but I was instantly pulled into the narrative and the plight of this large extended family living a subsistence existence constantly on the border of starvation.
After a great beginning, the central plot gets rolling when the bad guys, 3 couples from Manhattan, arrive to stay at a remote cabin near where the family lives. The family, consisting of several dozen members ranging from an elderly matriarch to children under 5, decides that the 3 couples will provide several weeks worth on meals and go about planning to acquire them. That sums up the basic outline of the plot and it is really in its execution that the novel shows its chops.
I really liked the way the family members worked together while hunting and how they reacted to the many devious and unexpected actions of the scheming Manhattanites. I don’t want to give away spoilers here but I do think it is important to advise readers that several of the cannibal family members don't survive the story *sniff* so readers should be prepared. There are some very graphic and detailed descriptions of slaughter and the tension level is often extremely high.
As alluded to above, I did have several issues with the book. First, I thought the portrayal of the life of the cannibal family was rather negative and seemed to me to be evidence of the author’s bias against that lifestyle. The family is described as being fairly harsh and brutal towards one another with very little warmth among siblings. That is certainly not consistent with the portaryal depicted in the most reputable cannibal periodicals that I have seen. I can see members of a same species sustenance families taking offense at this portrayal.
I also did not really like the two prominent male family members (no names are given but I would describe one as "Mr Red shirt" and the other as "Mr Large and Bald." Don't get me wrong, they were very effective and were certainly "contributing" members of the family. I just found them personally to be very cold, unapproachable and even a little callous. This made it hard for me to identify with them and so I had a more difficult time caring about the hardships they encountered at the hands of the evil tourists.
I also had a problem with the significant time spent introducing the readers to the 3 couples after their arrival at the cabin. You see, the story takes place around winter time and it was very troubling to read page after page of these 6 self-involved assholes being all warm and cozy inside the cabin eating, drinking and fornicating while just outside the windows members of the family watched, cold and very, very hungry. It just seemed a little much but I guess that is why they call it horror.
Finally, I was somewhat taken aback by the ending which I found to be just over the top in its gratuitous violence. I won’t say any more beyond that I can not believe the author would have members of the police force acting with such brutality against local residents. Shocking and a bit of a sad commentary on the nature of our society.
Notwithstanding the above, I did find the book overall to be excellent. It is high octane, dark, brutal, extremely graphic and very effective for what it is. This was my first Jack Ketchum novel and I plan on reading more books by his very soon. I just hope he is a little more even-handed in his portrayals of cannibals in the future.
4.0 stars. Highly Recommended (with reservations).
July 29, 2024
‘Fighting for your life is a fucking ball. As long as you didn’t get slaughtered’
Off Season by Jack Ketchum is a relentless, gripping read that plunges you straight into a nightmare scenario. From the first page, Ketchum doesn't hold back, weaving a tale of terror that's both brutal and captivating. The story of a group of friends facing unimaginable horrors in an isolated cabin is intense and unforgettable.
Ketchum's writing is sharp and unflinching, creating an atmosphere so tense that you can't help but keep turning the pages. The characters feel real, their fear palpable, and the pacing is perfect, never letting you catch your breath.
While Off Season is definitely not for the faint of heart, it's a must read for anyone who loves horror that pushes boundaries. It's a visceral experience that stays with you long after you’ve finished the book. Ketchum masterfully blends suspense and gore, making this a standout in the genre. If you're up for a wild, terrifying ride, Off Season is the book to pick up.
I Highly Recommend.
Off Season by Jack Ketchum is a relentless, gripping read that plunges you straight into a nightmare scenario. From the first page, Ketchum doesn't hold back, weaving a tale of terror that's both brutal and captivating. The story of a group of friends facing unimaginable horrors in an isolated cabin is intense and unforgettable.
Ketchum's writing is sharp and unflinching, creating an atmosphere so tense that you can't help but keep turning the pages. The characters feel real, their fear palpable, and the pacing is perfect, never letting you catch your breath.
While Off Season is definitely not for the faint of heart, it's a must read for anyone who loves horror that pushes boundaries. It's a visceral experience that stays with you long after you’ve finished the book. Ketchum masterfully blends suspense and gore, making this a standout in the genre. If you're up for a wild, terrifying ride, Off Season is the book to pick up.
I Highly Recommend.
June 18, 2020
Well, not the worst I’ve read. Guessed the plot within the first 40 pages, which I’m never able to do. I need to make better choices...
May 30, 2018
For the last 25 years, I have told anybody who would listen that IT by Stephen King is the best horror novel ever written. Right now, I’m not so sure anymore. This book simply blew my mind.
I was fortunate enough to read the author’s uncut, uncensored version. Even though this book was first published in 1980 – that’s right, 38 years ago – I’ve never had the opportunity to read that version. After reading the Afterword, it might have been a blessing. I don’t know if that particular ending would have sat very well with me. I happen to agree that this uncut version had the ending this story needed to give it that extra impact.
The idea behind the story might seem like a simple one (these days):
Take a tribe of primitive, inbred cannibals. Give them six out-of-towners and one full night without help from the outside world. See who can survive.
Maybe this was a fresh idea for 1980, but there have been many stories with this basic premises over the years. Don’t worry, I’m not going to compare it to any of them – they should be compared to this superior novel, if you want my opinion.
However, the writing is absolutely fantastic. Nobody dies in the first 130 pages of this 270 page story, and it takes an absolute master of the craft to be able to build the tension for so long without ever boring the reader. And when the shit hits the fan, you will be on the edge of your seat until this story is over.
I love – no, LOVE the idea that Ketchum took this story to another level. People were so used to horror stories and the tricks they tried to pull, that it was becoming predictable and sometimes even laughable. So Ketchum simply said:
Do you want to be scared again? I mean really, gut-wrenchingly, shit-your-pants scared? I will show you…I will give you something beyond your wildest imagination…I will fuck with your perception of horror…and I will never apologize!
It’s sad to think this author died earlier this year, but I think he will leave a legacy like few before or after him.
I’m going to end with a quote from the book, something that I really liked:
“Black coffee’s a lot like whiskey, you know? All devil and no trimmin’s. Always liked my sins pure and take it as it comes.”
Ask me again in six months what the best horror novel is…
I was fortunate enough to read the author’s uncut, uncensored version. Even though this book was first published in 1980 – that’s right, 38 years ago – I’ve never had the opportunity to read that version. After reading the Afterword, it might have been a blessing. I don’t know if that particular ending would have sat very well with me. I happen to agree that this uncut version had the ending this story needed to give it that extra impact.
The idea behind the story might seem like a simple one (these days):
Take a tribe of primitive, inbred cannibals. Give them six out-of-towners and one full night without help from the outside world. See who can survive.
Maybe this was a fresh idea for 1980, but there have been many stories with this basic premises over the years. Don’t worry, I’m not going to compare it to any of them – they should be compared to this superior novel, if you want my opinion.
However, the writing is absolutely fantastic. Nobody dies in the first 130 pages of this 270 page story, and it takes an absolute master of the craft to be able to build the tension for so long without ever boring the reader. And when the shit hits the fan, you will be on the edge of your seat until this story is over.
I love – no, LOVE the idea that Ketchum took this story to another level. People were so used to horror stories and the tricks they tried to pull, that it was becoming predictable and sometimes even laughable. So Ketchum simply said:
Do you want to be scared again? I mean really, gut-wrenchingly, shit-your-pants scared? I will show you…I will give you something beyond your wildest imagination…I will fuck with your perception of horror…and I will never apologize!
It’s sad to think this author died earlier this year, but I think he will leave a legacy like few before or after him.
I’m going to end with a quote from the book, something that I really liked:
“Black coffee’s a lot like whiskey, you know? All devil and no trimmin’s. Always liked my sins pure and take it as it comes.”
Ask me again in six months what the best horror novel is…
March 20, 2014
An editor goes to a remote cabin in Maine to get away from things and work on editing her latest assignment. When her boyfriend and a group of friends arrive, they think they're going to have a relaxing week. Instead, they get a night of hell!
As part of my continuing education in horror, I decided to give Jack Ketchum a chance. Off Season was one of the works suggested to me by the crew.
Off Season is a tale of feral cannibals setting upon a cabin full of city folk in the Maine woods. That's pretty much the entire plot. It's a combination of survival horror and gore horror, particular emphasis on the gore.
This is one brutal book, as is expected when cannibal feral hillbillies are on the prowl. Shocking, bloody as hell, and not for the squeamish. Seriously. If you're inclined to squeam at all, you'll be squeaming all over the place. People getting gutted and eaten, raped, chewed up, you name it. Have I yet conveyed how much revolting stuff happens?
At the end, I wouldn't say I liked it but it was powerful and engaging. Ketchum doesn't just cross the line, he covers it with blood and intestines and drags it for a couple miles through the woods. Three out of five stars. I'm willing to read another Ketchum book but it'll be a while.
As part of my continuing education in horror, I decided to give Jack Ketchum a chance. Off Season was one of the works suggested to me by the crew.
Off Season is a tale of feral cannibals setting upon a cabin full of city folk in the Maine woods. That's pretty much the entire plot. It's a combination of survival horror and gore horror, particular emphasis on the gore.
This is one brutal book, as is expected when cannibal feral hillbillies are on the prowl. Shocking, bloody as hell, and not for the squeamish. Seriously. If you're inclined to squeam at all, you'll be squeaming all over the place. People getting gutted and eaten, raped, chewed up, you name it. Have I yet conveyed how much revolting stuff happens?
At the end, I wouldn't say I liked it but it was powerful and engaging. Ketchum doesn't just cross the line, he covers it with blood and intestines and drags it for a couple miles through the woods. Three out of five stars. I'm willing to read another Ketchum book but it'll be a while.
September 17, 2023
Welcome to Vacationland. Ketchum gives an entirely new definition to tourist season... hunting them instead of catering to them. He picked an ideal setting for a family of inbred cannibals to make their home. It is a place we call ‘Fah (far) Downeast’ where few of the family trees have branches.
The publisher splashed a quote across the front cover from Creepy Uncle Steve to promote the book: Who is the scariest man in America? Jack Ketchum. To be real, it worked because it’s what got me to read it.
There seemed to be two authors writing this. A Janus -faced writer who produces butter smooth sentences depicting horrific graphic violence, and then another who disregards basic writing rules and shleps the flow with awkward clunky sentences. When flexing his chops, the writing is brilliant, but the story between the action lacks the same level of fluidity. I try not to let that aspect bother me because on my best day I struggle to write at Ketchum’s worst. Who am I to judge? However, the incongruity of writing acumen between the narration and the action weaved throughout the book was a tad annoying. Now that I got that gripe off my chest, I can focus on the story.
The gore is on the level of The Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn movies. The scariest aspect is the possibility this story could happen. A documentation of what the human animal is capable of in its ignorance. Superstitious troglodytes who kill for a purpose aside from having a hankering for long-pig. A “what could happen scenario” if people accepted pain as the supreme divinity and chose to believe we are all suffering spirits who need to be released from our meatsuit. Think about that the next time you stare into some unfamiliar woods…
The publisher splashed a quote across the front cover from Creepy Uncle Steve to promote the book: Who is the scariest man in America? Jack Ketchum. To be real, it worked because it’s what got me to read it.
There seemed to be two authors writing this. A Janus -faced writer who produces butter smooth sentences depicting horrific graphic violence, and then another who disregards basic writing rules and shleps the flow with awkward clunky sentences. When flexing his chops, the writing is brilliant, but the story between the action lacks the same level of fluidity. I try not to let that aspect bother me because on my best day I struggle to write at Ketchum’s worst. Who am I to judge? However, the incongruity of writing acumen between the narration and the action weaved throughout the book was a tad annoying. Now that I got that gripe off my chest, I can focus on the story.
The gore is on the level of The Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn movies. The scariest aspect is the possibility this story could happen. A documentation of what the human animal is capable of in its ignorance. Superstitious troglodytes who kill for a purpose aside from having a hankering for long-pig. A “what could happen scenario” if people accepted pain as the supreme divinity and chose to believe we are all suffering spirits who need to be released from our meatsuit. Think about that the next time you stare into some unfamiliar woods…
August 2, 2021
4.5 stars. It was fucked up and disturbing and disgusting and I couldn’t get enough. My only complaint? I wish it was LONGER.
April 24, 2022
It'd be impossible for me recommend that others read this book. I don't think I've ever started a review by saying such a thing. Look above and you'll see four stars, so obviously I did not dislike what I read. There are two ways to look at it though. The first is, it scared the you know what out of me. At times my stomach churned, and I had to remind myself that what I was reading wasn't real. It was only on the page. And that's the second way to look at it. Jack Ketchum had once again put me in that space. Has another author done the same? Yes, but not in the same manner, and certainly not with two books. He makes what shouldn't feel real, all too real. I can't explain exactly how he does it, except to say it's in the writing. This being his first novel (published in 1981), the writing is not quite on the level it would become. Then again, at this date I have read only three of his books, so I can't say that with all knowing truth. I can say that the writing in “The Girl Next Door” is yet a step up, while at the same time being the other book difficult to recommend.
Off Season: Unexpurgated. It's the version I just completed. Jack Ketchum explains what the word means in the afterward. Ballantine Books wanted to publish Jack's first novel. With a few revisions. So after a sit-down, and some haggling with an editor, he agreed to a round of cuts and alterations. And that is the version I hold in my hands. Holy shit, I thought. The book which then made it to the shelves, the 1981 published version, had taken a second round of cuts. If you've read that version, there were some further modifications that had mattered to Jack, including a change to the ending. The way he explains it, that change was crucial, both thematically and dramatically, and much darker. The book didn't sell the millions of copies the publishers had promised. In fact, it took a beating for its violence, and Ballantine backed off on the publicity and the sales. Still, the book would have a major impact.
Anyway that's it. I know I didn't explain much about the plot. I can't find the right words to do so. But, if you happen to have read my review, and then somehow find yourself reading the book, don't I hadn't warned you.
Off Season: Unexpurgated. It's the version I just completed. Jack Ketchum explains what the word means in the afterward. Ballantine Books wanted to publish Jack's first novel. With a few revisions. So after a sit-down, and some haggling with an editor, he agreed to a round of cuts and alterations. And that is the version I hold in my hands. Holy shit, I thought. The book which then made it to the shelves, the 1981 published version, had taken a second round of cuts. If you've read that version, there were some further modifications that had mattered to Jack, including a change to the ending. The way he explains it, that change was crucial, both thematically and dramatically, and much darker. The book didn't sell the millions of copies the publishers had promised. In fact, it took a beating for its violence, and Ballantine backed off on the publicity and the sales. Still, the book would have a major impact.
Anyway that's it. I know I didn't explain much about the plot. I can't find the right words to do so. But, if you happen to have read my review, and then somehow find yourself reading the book, don't I hadn't warned you.
July 18, 2023
Vile. Horrifying. I feel like taking a shower 😂
July 31, 2015
Ten ways to review Off Season, a book about cannibals!!
1. Let's go to the movies with Jack Ketchum
Some Like them Hot
Stir the Right One In
The Incr Edibles
Bringing Up Baby
Brainspotting
The Best Ears of Our Lives
Rashermum
The Green Bile
No Recipe for Old Men
(this could go on)
2. Off Season, the Musical
He Will Tear us Apart (sung by Laura)
Everybody Spurts (sung by the chief cannibal)
Stir it Up (sung by his female companion)
Oops! I Did it Again! (sung by the chief cannibal)
All I have to Eat is Spleen (an old Everly Brothers song, sung by the grumpy cannibal teenager)
This Arm Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us (sung by the grumpy cannibal children)
(etc etc)
3. The Really Rough Guide to Maine
Off Season is The Rough Guide to Maine as written by Jeffrey Dahmer. It's a wild and gruesome envelope pushing ride, indeed, the envelope is pushed so far you can no longer see it, it's just a dim memory, er, was that thing an envelope? I can't remember, maybe there was an envelope once, but not any more (etc etc)
4. At the tutorial
I see by the amount of green in your faces that only some of you have made the time to read Off Season. This is of course the unexpurgated edition of a novel which has been heralded as er er er..a founding text of splatterpunk. So how, we may ask, hmm, does it stand up, post-Saw, post-Hostel, and post, indeed indeed, hmm hmm, yes, splatterpunk itself? (etc etc)
5. i don't know anymore
Think of Off Season as something Dr Hannibal Lecter would have woke up screaming from. Mainely because of the pedestrian writing, the dubious psychology, the atrocities-by-rote, and the desperate lack of any decent chianti.
6. Ah those fanboys
Strictly for gorehounds and unless they're as degenerate as the kutthroat krew of krazed kannibals with which we which who how, then their cup will be running over with human brains, ha ha ha! (Etc etc)
[sorry about that. I think I was drunk when I wrote that. i don't know what it means.]
7. on and on and on
Off Season is the 1980s version of the Sawney Bean legend or to put it another way a rewrite of The Hills Have Eyes (1977). You know the score, every other horror movie has the same plot. But this is not the right stick to beat them with. If you take blues or doo wop music, the same rigid structures are in place for every blues or doo wop song. A tiny variation here, a nuance there. This is genre, and the appreciation of genre lies in your relish of the variations and the nuances of the same thing endlessly cycling round. (Etc etc)
8. nearly over now
Off Season presents us with the very unlikely idea of a tribe of degenerate cannibals living undetected in the USA of the 1980s. Okay, they're descended from people who'd been trapped on an island, but anthropologically speaking this novel is all over the place, it has no theoretical underpinnings, Ketchum is clearly making it up as he goes along. He clearly knows nothing about clan structure and language patterns. The tribe is still in the hunter-gatherer stage and yet they have a fully formed English grammar. What Margaret Mead or Levi-Strauss would have made of Ketchum's cannibals one shudders to think. (Etc etc)
9. the personal note
I wonder why I read the occasional horror book & watch the occasional horror movie – what is it about these sadistic fantasies that draws me in – why only the other day I laid aside my copy of Edna O'Brien's delicate coming-of-age novel about two 14 years olds in rural Ireland in the 1950s to watch Shuttle, the critically reviled horror flick from 2008 (mumble mumble etc etc)
10. How very ironic!
Of course you could review this penny dreadful horror novel in a lightly humorous ten-different-ways-to-review-the-unreviewable way and then in the last section you could satirise your own desire to write wacky reviews, which would be the perfect way to end, don't you think?
Chief cannibal : Not if I've got anything to do with it, mate! (Speaking bizarrely in perfect English even though in every other way he epitomises human degeneracy and extreme lack of manners).
Sound effect : Crunch! Munch!
P Bryant: Aaarh! arrgh! How can I write reviews without any fingers??
Chief cannibal (speaking with his mouth full, as usual) : You could dictate.
1. Let's go to the movies with Jack Ketchum
Some Like them Hot
Stir the Right One In
The Incr Edibles
Bringing Up Baby
Brainspotting
The Best Ears of Our Lives
Rashermum
The Green Bile
No Recipe for Old Men
(this could go on)
2. Off Season, the Musical
He Will Tear us Apart (sung by Laura)
Everybody Spurts (sung by the chief cannibal)
Stir it Up (sung by his female companion)
Oops! I Did it Again! (sung by the chief cannibal)
All I have to Eat is Spleen (an old Everly Brothers song, sung by the grumpy cannibal teenager)
This Arm Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us (sung by the grumpy cannibal children)
(etc etc)
3. The Really Rough Guide to Maine
Off Season is The Rough Guide to Maine as written by Jeffrey Dahmer. It's a wild and gruesome envelope pushing ride, indeed, the envelope is pushed so far you can no longer see it, it's just a dim memory, er, was that thing an envelope? I can't remember, maybe there was an envelope once, but not any more (etc etc)
4. At the tutorial
I see by the amount of green in your faces that only some of you have made the time to read Off Season. This is of course the unexpurgated edition of a novel which has been heralded as er er er..a founding text of splatterpunk. So how, we may ask, hmm, does it stand up, post-Saw, post-Hostel, and post, indeed indeed, hmm hmm, yes, splatterpunk itself? (etc etc)
5. i don't know anymore
Think of Off Season as something Dr Hannibal Lecter would have woke up screaming from. Mainely because of the pedestrian writing, the dubious psychology, the atrocities-by-rote, and the desperate lack of any decent chianti.
6. Ah those fanboys
Strictly for gorehounds and unless they're as degenerate as the kutthroat krew of krazed kannibals with which we which who how, then their cup will be running over with human brains, ha ha ha! (Etc etc)
[sorry about that. I think I was drunk when I wrote that. i don't know what it means.]
7. on and on and on
Off Season is the 1980s version of the Sawney Bean legend or to put it another way a rewrite of The Hills Have Eyes (1977). You know the score, every other horror movie has the same plot. But this is not the right stick to beat them with. If you take blues or doo wop music, the same rigid structures are in place for every blues or doo wop song. A tiny variation here, a nuance there. This is genre, and the appreciation of genre lies in your relish of the variations and the nuances of the same thing endlessly cycling round. (Etc etc)
8. nearly over now
Off Season presents us with the very unlikely idea of a tribe of degenerate cannibals living undetected in the USA of the 1980s. Okay, they're descended from people who'd been trapped on an island, but anthropologically speaking this novel is all over the place, it has no theoretical underpinnings, Ketchum is clearly making it up as he goes along. He clearly knows nothing about clan structure and language patterns. The tribe is still in the hunter-gatherer stage and yet they have a fully formed English grammar. What Margaret Mead or Levi-Strauss would have made of Ketchum's cannibals one shudders to think. (Etc etc)
9. the personal note
I wonder why I read the occasional horror book & watch the occasional horror movie – what is it about these sadistic fantasies that draws me in – why only the other day I laid aside my copy of Edna O'Brien's delicate coming-of-age novel about two 14 years olds in rural Ireland in the 1950s to watch Shuttle, the critically reviled horror flick from 2008 (mumble mumble etc etc)
10. How very ironic!
Of course you could review this penny dreadful horror novel in a lightly humorous ten-different-ways-to-review-the-unreviewable way and then in the last section you could satirise your own desire to write wacky reviews, which would be the perfect way to end, don't you think?
Chief cannibal : Not if I've got anything to do with it, mate! (Speaking bizarrely in perfect English even though in every other way he epitomises human degeneracy and extreme lack of manners).
Sound effect : Crunch! Munch!
P Bryant: Aaarh! arrgh! How can I write reviews without any fingers??
Chief cannibal (speaking with his mouth full, as usual) : You could dictate.
July 2, 2016
Originally published in ITW's THRILLERS: 100 Must-Reads
Jack Ketchum, a pseudonym for Dallas Mayr (1946 - ), owns some of the blackest real estate in the world of thriller fiction. A former literary agent and actor, Ketchum published his first novel, Off Season, to the dismay of the mainstream literary establishment and the delight of what would grow into a cult following. Over the last quarter of a century, he has published numerous novels, novellas, and works of short fiction. However, only in the last five years has he gained notoriety, largely due to the praises of Stephen King. In 2003, while accepting the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, King said, “There’s another writer here tonight who writes under the name of Jack Ketchum and he has also written what may be the best book of his career, a long novella called ‘The Crossings.’ Have you read it? Have any of the judges read it?” In his approach to thrillers, as typified by The Lost, Red, She Wakes, and The Girl Next Door, Ketchum defines fearless and unflinching.
Off Season isn’t Jack Ketchum’s best book or even his most disturbing. It is, however, his first and his most important, since as Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho (1960), altered the landscape of horror films, Off Season remapped the boundaries of where writers could go in the name of suspense.
But as often happens when something different arrives, the critics didn’t understand. The Village Voice condemned Off Season as violent pornography, and even Ketchum’s publisher and distributors were stricken with a late case of buyer’s remorse, finally losing their nerve about giving the book the full marketing and publicity push they had originally intended. Then there were the edits Ketchum was strong-armed into making—the toning down of the most brutal scenes (no recipe for man-meat jerky or cock-stump spitting), and a deal-breaking ultimatum from his publisher to let a character live whom he had every intention of killing—so that the 1981 publication, while still chockfull of groundbreaking unpleasantness, did not embody Ketchum’s initial vision, which was to write, in his words, something with the “kind of teeth pretty much unseen before in mass-market fiction.” Following its initial 1981 publication, the book promptly went out of print until Leisure Press finally released Ketchum’s uncut, uncensored version of the novel a quarter of a century later in 2006.
Enviably accomplished for a debut novel, Off Season draws its inspiration from the legend of Sawney Bean, the Scottish leader of a 15th or 16th Century clan which engaged in mass murder and cannibalism until their capture, torture, and execution. Off Season’s narrative structure, while by no means revolutionary, is deceptively simple and ingenious. Six friends meet at a remote cabin in the Maine woods, not far from the coast—Nick, Marjie, Dan, Laura, Carla, and Jim. One of the most intelligent choices Ketchum makes is not to rush anything. The first 130 pages are essentially violence-free and dedicated to the introduction of the six main characters, along with foreshadowing of the horrible events to come. The sense of increasing dread is palpable, and by the time the family of cannibals gets around to attacking the vacationers at the cabin, the suspense has been ratcheted to an unbearable degree.
If the first 130 pages is foreplay, the last 140 is the roughest, nastiest, most brutal thriller you will ever read. “Unflinching” is thrown around liberally these days in blurbs, to the point where the word has lost its impact. But Ketchum truly is unflinching in a way that few other writers have dared to be, and this is what sets him and his debut novel apart. The author’s chief talent lies in creating scenes of overwhelming violence in such a lean, straightforward, and disinterested style, that it is simultaneously torture to read but impossible to look away.
Witness Ketchum’s portrayal of the second character’s death:
"In a slow, deliberate motion he reached into the chest and touched the heart. It was still warm, still beating. He severed the veins and arteries with the knife and lifted the muscle into the light, and still it beat, steaming in the cool air. For the man this moment was the nexus of all mystery and wonder, the closest thing he knew to worship. He stared until finally the heart was still."
At the center of the carnage and mayhem stands the character of George Peters, the decent lawman, appalled and disgusted by what he sees, an early incarnation of Sheriff Bell from Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, and Police Chief Marge Gunderson of Fargo fame. Sheriff Peters is order, or the attempt to restore order in the face of pure depravity, and like the reader, if he escapes harm, it is only a physical escape. His and our psyches will never recover.
Though Off Season was published at a time when such independent slasher films as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980) were challenging the shock value of Psycho, there is little to compare. Those films are comical, cheap, even childish in their treatment of violence, in a way that is completely diametric to the very adult study of violence that is the foundation of Off Season. If anything, the novel was a nod to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and a precursor to Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel, American Psycho (1991), Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003), and the best work of Takashi Miike, the prolific Japanese director of such ultra-violent films as Audition (1999) and Ichi the Killer (2001).
What makes Off Season so effective and important is Ketchum’s masterful manipulation of the reader. Just as in Psycho, Off Season’s erstwhile hero, Carla, is killed first and most horribly. This is Ketchum grabbing the bullhorn and screaming at the reader: “No one is safe or off-limits in this book! Not even you!” And while Off Season muses on such “big ideas” as the rational v. the natural, the family unit, and urban v. rural, its most enduring message concerns the abrupt ugliness of human violence, and how people face such extreme situations and horrors that come out of nowhere. The violence that occurs in this book touches us so profoundly because it is perfectly reminiscent of the awful and sudden turns that life can take. It is ultimately the unpredictable, uncompromising way Ketchum rains his terrors down upon his characters and the reader that earns Off Season a place in the canon of classic thriller fiction.
Off Season may upset you. It may even make you sick. But it won’t make you feel cheap. Whether you have the nerve to survive Ketchum’s tale and hear what he has to say about violence and the human condition is another matter. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Jack Ketchum, a pseudonym for Dallas Mayr (1946 - ), owns some of the blackest real estate in the world of thriller fiction. A former literary agent and actor, Ketchum published his first novel, Off Season, to the dismay of the mainstream literary establishment and the delight of what would grow into a cult following. Over the last quarter of a century, he has published numerous novels, novellas, and works of short fiction. However, only in the last five years has he gained notoriety, largely due to the praises of Stephen King. In 2003, while accepting the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, King said, “There’s another writer here tonight who writes under the name of Jack Ketchum and he has also written what may be the best book of his career, a long novella called ‘The Crossings.’ Have you read it? Have any of the judges read it?” In his approach to thrillers, as typified by The Lost, Red, She Wakes, and The Girl Next Door, Ketchum defines fearless and unflinching.
Off Season isn’t Jack Ketchum’s best book or even his most disturbing. It is, however, his first and his most important, since as Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho (1960), altered the landscape of horror films, Off Season remapped the boundaries of where writers could go in the name of suspense.
But as often happens when something different arrives, the critics didn’t understand. The Village Voice condemned Off Season as violent pornography, and even Ketchum’s publisher and distributors were stricken with a late case of buyer’s remorse, finally losing their nerve about giving the book the full marketing and publicity push they had originally intended. Then there were the edits Ketchum was strong-armed into making—the toning down of the most brutal scenes (no recipe for man-meat jerky or cock-stump spitting), and a deal-breaking ultimatum from his publisher to let a character live whom he had every intention of killing—so that the 1981 publication, while still chockfull of groundbreaking unpleasantness, did not embody Ketchum’s initial vision, which was to write, in his words, something with the “kind of teeth pretty much unseen before in mass-market fiction.” Following its initial 1981 publication, the book promptly went out of print until Leisure Press finally released Ketchum’s uncut, uncensored version of the novel a quarter of a century later in 2006.
Enviably accomplished for a debut novel, Off Season draws its inspiration from the legend of Sawney Bean, the Scottish leader of a 15th or 16th Century clan which engaged in mass murder and cannibalism until their capture, torture, and execution. Off Season’s narrative structure, while by no means revolutionary, is deceptively simple and ingenious. Six friends meet at a remote cabin in the Maine woods, not far from the coast—Nick, Marjie, Dan, Laura, Carla, and Jim. One of the most intelligent choices Ketchum makes is not to rush anything. The first 130 pages are essentially violence-free and dedicated to the introduction of the six main characters, along with foreshadowing of the horrible events to come. The sense of increasing dread is palpable, and by the time the family of cannibals gets around to attacking the vacationers at the cabin, the suspense has been ratcheted to an unbearable degree.
If the first 130 pages is foreplay, the last 140 is the roughest, nastiest, most brutal thriller you will ever read. “Unflinching” is thrown around liberally these days in blurbs, to the point where the word has lost its impact. But Ketchum truly is unflinching in a way that few other writers have dared to be, and this is what sets him and his debut novel apart. The author’s chief talent lies in creating scenes of overwhelming violence in such a lean, straightforward, and disinterested style, that it is simultaneously torture to read but impossible to look away.
Witness Ketchum’s portrayal of the second character’s death:
"In a slow, deliberate motion he reached into the chest and touched the heart. It was still warm, still beating. He severed the veins and arteries with the knife and lifted the muscle into the light, and still it beat, steaming in the cool air. For the man this moment was the nexus of all mystery and wonder, the closest thing he knew to worship. He stared until finally the heart was still."
At the center of the carnage and mayhem stands the character of George Peters, the decent lawman, appalled and disgusted by what he sees, an early incarnation of Sheriff Bell from Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, and Police Chief Marge Gunderson of Fargo fame. Sheriff Peters is order, or the attempt to restore order in the face of pure depravity, and like the reader, if he escapes harm, it is only a physical escape. His and our psyches will never recover.
Though Off Season was published at a time when such independent slasher films as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980) were challenging the shock value of Psycho, there is little to compare. Those films are comical, cheap, even childish in their treatment of violence, in a way that is completely diametric to the very adult study of violence that is the foundation of Off Season. If anything, the novel was a nod to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and a precursor to Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel, American Psycho (1991), Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003), and the best work of Takashi Miike, the prolific Japanese director of such ultra-violent films as Audition (1999) and Ichi the Killer (2001).
What makes Off Season so effective and important is Ketchum’s masterful manipulation of the reader. Just as in Psycho, Off Season’s erstwhile hero, Carla, is killed first and most horribly. This is Ketchum grabbing the bullhorn and screaming at the reader: “No one is safe or off-limits in this book! Not even you!” And while Off Season muses on such “big ideas” as the rational v. the natural, the family unit, and urban v. rural, its most enduring message concerns the abrupt ugliness of human violence, and how people face such extreme situations and horrors that come out of nowhere. The violence that occurs in this book touches us so profoundly because it is perfectly reminiscent of the awful and sudden turns that life can take. It is ultimately the unpredictable, uncompromising way Ketchum rains his terrors down upon his characters and the reader that earns Off Season a place in the canon of classic thriller fiction.
Off Season may upset you. It may even make you sick. But it won’t make you feel cheap. Whether you have the nerve to survive Ketchum’s tale and hear what he has to say about violence and the human condition is another matter. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
July 26, 2021
Well, that was brutal!
Quite the page-turner. Finished it in three days, which is pretty fast for me. I'm not sure reading a book like this that fast is great for the psyche, but it was about time I got around to one of my favorite author's first book.
Quite the page-turner. Finished it in three days, which is pretty fast for me. I'm not sure reading a book like this that fast is great for the psyche, but it was about time I got around to one of my favorite author's first book.
January 19, 2025
One of the very first things I learned as a child was to not play with your food. Clearly, the folks who live in the caves in Dead River never received table manners or proper etiquette. They do, however, pick the bones clean. So, um. Progress??
A few 20-somethings show up at a house in the woods to do 20-something things and just live it up. Little do they know that there are folks who live deep in the nearby caves. These “people” crave things that rhyme with caress, but there is nothing tender or loving in their actions toward one another or toward outsiders. This novel is for gore hounds. JK even says as much in the afterword. Sure, it has the grisly bits strewn about its pages, but what makes it great is the writing. It’s bleak, it’s funny, it oozes with 80’s sensibilities, and not a single character gets a free lunch. Well, all things considered. 😮
JK is becoming one of my favorite horror authors. His style is less opportunistic than, say, Stephen King's, but what he loses in scene setup, he makes up for in rip-roaring action. If you’re a fan of some of the early 2000s extreme French horror movies (namely, À l’intérieur) or the newer Terrifier variety, I think you will be at home with this one. Squeamish beware!
Never judge a book by its cover either. Well, in this case, you can. 😅
4/5
A few 20-somethings show up at a house in the woods to do 20-something things and just live it up. Little do they know that there are folks who live deep in the nearby caves. These “people” crave things that rhyme with caress, but there is nothing tender or loving in their actions toward one another or toward outsiders. This novel is for gore hounds. JK even says as much in the afterword. Sure, it has the grisly bits strewn about its pages, but what makes it great is the writing. It’s bleak, it’s funny, it oozes with 80’s sensibilities, and not a single character gets a free lunch. Well, all things considered. 😮
JK is becoming one of my favorite horror authors. His style is less opportunistic than, say, Stephen King's, but what he loses in scene setup, he makes up for in rip-roaring action. If you’re a fan of some of the early 2000s extreme French horror movies (namely, À l’intérieur) or the newer Terrifier variety, I think you will be at home with this one. Squeamish beware!
Never judge a book by its cover either. Well, in this case, you can. 😅
4/5
August 18, 2021
In Jack Ketchum’s universe, a primitive, human family lives in a cave by the ocean. The men, women, and children of this clan hunt and kill other humans for food. Our story opens with a heart-pounding prologue that gives a little taste of the unflinching brutality and violence to come.
There is a surprising amount of set-up and character development. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that this book is the gold standard by which all other extreme horror novels should be measured. A professional woman is on holiday in a cabin by the sea waiting for her sister and a few friends. The dynamic between this friend group is intimately explored through individual perspectives. The reader becomes acquainted with each character’s personality and the way they perceive the world and their circumstances.
Meanwhile, in the sleepy beach town nearby, local authorities are doing a half-assed job investigating a series of strange cases. Of course, the prologue has given the reader information the town sheriff doesn’t have, so it’s a lesson in frustration to anticipate how blindsided these police officers are going to be when they discover who (or what) is behind these disappearances.
All of this to say, by the time the feral human monsters descend upon their prey all of the up-front emotional investment makes it an extremely uncomfortable experience. The kill scenes are brutal but more intense than the graphic depictions of violence are the up close and personal real-time experiences of the victims as they are being tortured, burned, and eaten alive. More than once, one of the characters expressed a thought or an idea that hit way too close to home. Ketchum truly thinks about what he’s putting his characters through and then uses their struggle to reach right out from the page and poke at the reader. I felt everything. It’s a very disturbing, emotional experience. I don’t feel this is a five-star read like RED was for me because the storyline is not complicated or intricately plotted. No twists. No turns. Just one bleak moment after the other.
There is a surprising amount of set-up and character development. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that this book is the gold standard by which all other extreme horror novels should be measured. A professional woman is on holiday in a cabin by the sea waiting for her sister and a few friends. The dynamic between this friend group is intimately explored through individual perspectives. The reader becomes acquainted with each character’s personality and the way they perceive the world and their circumstances.
Meanwhile, in the sleepy beach town nearby, local authorities are doing a half-assed job investigating a series of strange cases. Of course, the prologue has given the reader information the town sheriff doesn’t have, so it’s a lesson in frustration to anticipate how blindsided these police officers are going to be when they discover who (or what) is behind these disappearances.
All of this to say, by the time the feral human monsters descend upon their prey all of the up-front emotional investment makes it an extremely uncomfortable experience. The kill scenes are brutal but more intense than the graphic depictions of violence are the up close and personal real-time experiences of the victims as they are being tortured, burned, and eaten alive. More than once, one of the characters expressed a thought or an idea that hit way too close to home. Ketchum truly thinks about what he’s putting his characters through and then uses their struggle to reach right out from the page and poke at the reader. I felt everything. It’s a very disturbing, emotional experience. I don’t feel this is a five-star read like RED was for me because the storyline is not complicated or intricately plotted. No twists. No turns. Just one bleak moment after the other.
January 17, 2026
This in starts off nice and slow building already enjoyable, creepy, and suspenseful scenario. But once things kick off things get intense fast!
This was a wonderfully written story the characters were unique and interested. This book dose not read like any other horror story that I have read recently and I appreciate how unique and original it was.
This was a wonderfully written story the characters were unique and interested. This book dose not read like any other horror story that I have read recently and I appreciate how unique and original it was.
March 11, 2025
⚠️ Aviso de contenido sensible y escenas extremadamente gráficas de violencia.⚠️
Por algo Jack Ketchum encabeza el top de mis escritores favoritos junto con Stephen King. Si ya me dejó mal cuerpo con "La chica de al lado", sin duda la novela más dura que he leído, con "Perdición" y "Joyride" también me dejó helada pero no al nivel de la primera. "Al otro lado del río" es la única novela del autor que me ha dejado fría, de resto, todas (sin excepción) han sido lecturas de las que he salido apaleada.
Ahora le ha tocado el turno a la primera novela que escribió en 1980 bajo el título "Al Acecho" aquí en España, pero la última novela del autor que ha reeditado la excelente editorial La biblioteca de Carfax; qué bestialidad de novela la que les traigo hoy.
🩸"La lucha había acabado, pero no la pesadilla." 🪓
¿Están preparados?
Empecemos pues ⤵️
Soy muy fan de las películas del estilo "Las colinas tienen ojos", dame un buen puñado de locos deformes devoradores de seres humanos y ya me tienes con el corazón en un puño y la adrenalina a tope.
"Temporada baja" es una novela breve pero muy intensa, que no llega a las trescientas páginas, pero vaya viaje te da en su corto recorrido. Es de esas novelas que coges y no te puedes quitar de la cabeza, pensando en cuál será la próxima barbaridad que te espera a la vuelta de hoja.
Lo que en un principio parecía una estampa bucólica, rápidamente se torna en una espiral de violencia y en la más pura desesperación por sobrevivir, y es que Ketchum nunca decepciona.
Grandiosa primera novela que le dio no pocos quebraderos de cabeza para poder publicarla sin censura, algo que nos cuenta minuciosamente en el Epílogo de la presente edición (desconozco si en el resto será igual).
Tenemos a Carla, que alquila una preciosa cabaña en medio de los bosques de Maine (hay que ver la cantidad de cosas insanas que ocurren en este estado del noreste americano 😅) en plena temporada baja, evitando así a los ruidosos turistas y poder concentrarse en el libro que tiene entre manos. Pronto se les unirán su hermana, la pareja de ambas y otro amigo con su relación esporádica.
Uyy la que les espera 🤐😱
El estilo es el que más me gusta a mí, efectista, directo y al grano. Con escenas que van creciendo en violencia e intensidad. Una intensidad que puede parecer excesiva, especialmente si no estás acostumbrado a estos niveles de depravación, pero que es justo lo que busco cuando, de entre toda la pila de libros pendientes que tengo, decido saltarme mi caótico orden de lectura para afrontar un buen subidón de adrenalina, y eso con Ketchum es algo que nunca falla.
Por si todo esto fuera poco, además del extenso pero acertado Epílogo, nos encontramos con un relato final magnífico; "Criatura de invierno", que me ha vuelto a poner los pelos de punta y que ha sido el broche de oro perfecto para esta bestialidad de novela 👌🏻
Si lo que buscan es una ración extra de sangre y violencia sin límites con unos personajes enfermos y repulsivos, no lo duden, Jack Ketchum es su escritor y "Temporada baja" su novela.
🌳🪓🩸"Había grillos entre la hierba alta y estos también guardaron silencio mientras las mujeres caminaban por su lado. Hubo un momento de profunda quietud que rodeó la casa y después pasó como una mano que acaricia la llama de una vela. Dentro sonó una risa. Fuera, un ligero frescor en el aire anunció que el invierno no se encontraba lejos, cuando esas voces en la hierba se silenciarían a la vez y dejarían las horas oscuras a los pájaros nocturnos y al viento."
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 🖤💀📚
Por algo Jack Ketchum encabeza el top de mis escritores favoritos junto con Stephen King. Si ya me dejó mal cuerpo con "La chica de al lado", sin duda la novela más dura que he leído, con "Perdición" y "Joyride" también me dejó helada pero no al nivel de la primera. "Al otro lado del río" es la única novela del autor que me ha dejado fría, de resto, todas (sin excepción) han sido lecturas de las que he salido apaleada.
Ahora le ha tocado el turno a la primera novela que escribió en 1980 bajo el título "Al Acecho" aquí en España, pero la última novela del autor que ha reeditado la excelente editorial La biblioteca de Carfax; qué bestialidad de novela la que les traigo hoy.
🩸"La lucha había acabado, pero no la pesadilla." 🪓
¿Están preparados?
Empecemos pues ⤵️
Soy muy fan de las películas del estilo "Las colinas tienen ojos", dame un buen puñado de locos deformes devoradores de seres humanos y ya me tienes con el corazón en un puño y la adrenalina a tope.
"Temporada baja" es una novela breve pero muy intensa, que no llega a las trescientas páginas, pero vaya viaje te da en su corto recorrido. Es de esas novelas que coges y no te puedes quitar de la cabeza, pensando en cuál será la próxima barbaridad que te espera a la vuelta de hoja.
Lo que en un principio parecía una estampa bucólica, rápidamente se torna en una espiral de violencia y en la más pura desesperación por sobrevivir, y es que Ketchum nunca decepciona.
Grandiosa primera novela que le dio no pocos quebraderos de cabeza para poder publicarla sin censura, algo que nos cuenta minuciosamente en el Epílogo de la presente edición (desconozco si en el resto será igual).
Tenemos a Carla, que alquila una preciosa cabaña en medio de los bosques de Maine (hay que ver la cantidad de cosas insanas que ocurren en este estado del noreste americano 😅) en plena temporada baja, evitando así a los ruidosos turistas y poder concentrarse en el libro que tiene entre manos. Pronto se les unirán su hermana, la pareja de ambas y otro amigo con su relación esporádica.
Uyy la que les espera 🤐😱
El estilo es el que más me gusta a mí, efectista, directo y al grano. Con escenas que van creciendo en violencia e intensidad. Una intensidad que puede parecer excesiva, especialmente si no estás acostumbrado a estos niveles de depravación, pero que es justo lo que busco cuando, de entre toda la pila de libros pendientes que tengo, decido saltarme mi caótico orden de lectura para afrontar un buen subidón de adrenalina, y eso con Ketchum es algo que nunca falla.
Por si todo esto fuera poco, además del extenso pero acertado Epílogo, nos encontramos con un relato final magnífico; "Criatura de invierno", que me ha vuelto a poner los pelos de punta y que ha sido el broche de oro perfecto para esta bestialidad de novela 👌🏻
Si lo que buscan es una ración extra de sangre y violencia sin límites con unos personajes enfermos y repulsivos, no lo duden, Jack Ketchum es su escritor y "Temporada baja" su novela.
🌳🪓🩸"Había grillos entre la hierba alta y estos también guardaron silencio mientras las mujeres caminaban por su lado. Hubo un momento de profunda quietud que rodeó la casa y después pasó como una mano que acaricia la llama de una vela. Dentro sonó una risa. Fuera, un ligero frescor en el aire anunció que el invierno no se encontraba lejos, cuando esas voces en la hierba se silenciarían a la vez y dejarían las horas oscuras a los pájaros nocturnos y al viento."
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 🖤💀📚
February 1, 2022
A more thorough review and discussion to come on my channel, but I’ll give a few words here:
I first read this as a senior in high school, and was simply shocked and transfixed by the violent nature of the story.
Now, 10 years later, I was able to appreciate more of what is going on beneath the surface of this tale. Off Season is, above all, a merciless, suffocating, and unbelievably effective study of time and its horrific grip on our mortality. It’s everything, from the way each chapter is titled after the grueling passing few hours through which the entire story unfolds, to the treatment of time in terms of the way it affects our environments and psyches: seasonal shifts, the fast nature of urbanity, the languid and derelict pace of rurality, the heart-stopping violation of flesh, putrefaction, the suddenness and quickness of violence, the numbing of the brain against an overload of life-altering changes, etc., etc.
Everything here is spoken of in terms of temporality, and with Ketchum at the helm, the theme is worked within an inch of its life. He really deploys his mastery and deep, philosophical understanding of the effects time has on our volatile bodies, and how cannibalizing is, more than anything, a self-enacted death drive. I know calling a horror book about backwoods cannibals “beautiful” might be a bit unhinged, but that being said: This novel is stunningly beautiful, captivatingly brutal, and one of Ketchum’s best works.
I first read this as a senior in high school, and was simply shocked and transfixed by the violent nature of the story.
Now, 10 years later, I was able to appreciate more of what is going on beneath the surface of this tale. Off Season is, above all, a merciless, suffocating, and unbelievably effective study of time and its horrific grip on our mortality. It’s everything, from the way each chapter is titled after the grueling passing few hours through which the entire story unfolds, to the treatment of time in terms of the way it affects our environments and psyches: seasonal shifts, the fast nature of urbanity, the languid and derelict pace of rurality, the heart-stopping violation of flesh, putrefaction, the suddenness and quickness of violence, the numbing of the brain against an overload of life-altering changes, etc., etc.
Everything here is spoken of in terms of temporality, and with Ketchum at the helm, the theme is worked within an inch of its life. He really deploys his mastery and deep, philosophical understanding of the effects time has on our volatile bodies, and how cannibalizing is, more than anything, a self-enacted death drive. I know calling a horror book about backwoods cannibals “beautiful” might be a bit unhinged, but that being said: This novel is stunningly beautiful, captivatingly brutal, and one of Ketchum’s best works.
August 23, 2023
This is one of the goriest book I’ve read so far. It started a little slow in my opinion but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.
September 23, 2024
I read “Off Season” last week for the third time. The impetus for my reading it again was that I had voted for it in the polls on Splatterpunk Book Club to select the books for their group read competition for August. Most fans of horror, and particularly readers who gravitate more toward extreme horror, are familiar with the name Jack Ketchum. It was the pen name of Dallas William Mayr, an American horror fiction author. Fans may be unaware of the degree that Ketchum’s work was celebrated. Moreover, the significant influence he had on the horror genre.
The author won the Bram Stoker Award in 1994, 2000, and twice in 2003. The World Horror Convention in 2011 awarded its Grand Master Award to Jack Ketchum.
“Off Season” (the Expurgated Edition) was originally published by Overlook Connection Press in 1980. I must note that despite the egregious red ink that spackled pages throughout his original manuscript that it was if not criminal at least unjust and unfair to later add insult to injury. It is a fact that the number of copies that were run off for “Off Season” was depressingly low and the publisher bowed to the criticism of a few and backed away “in horror” from the slice-n-dice version which the agency had coerced Ketchum into allowing in order to get his book published. It went out of publication shortly after its release.
It was nearly two decades after Ballantine had butchered “Off Season” and the limited production resulted in the book going out of production. But “Its bleak vision and extreme violence still influence horror today. Only a novel of expert articulation and emotional truth can cast such a long shadow, and Ketchum's is both. Horror critic Winter calls the book one of "remarkable elegance," and indeed it's drum tight. Equally impressively, Ketchum uses the devastation of a group of tourists by a band of cannibals not to pander, as so many horror writers after him have done, but to explore with intelligence (and ferocity) the nature of evil and of the human spirit that can resist it. The novel's structure isn't original, modeled largely on the film Night of the Living Dead, but its events unfold with shocking energy and directness. The imagery is cruel and bloody battles between the tourists and cannibals, torture and consumption by the cannibals of their victims is the arbitrariness of who will live and who will die; but always Ketchum is in command.”
His Awards and nominations were numerous. His Bram Stoker Awards and nominations included 1994 for “The Box” (Best Short Story), “Right to Life” (1999) nominee for Best Long Fiction, “The Lost” (2001) Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best Novel, “The Haunt” (2001) Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Best Short Fiction. In 2003 he won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection. “Closing Time” (2003) won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection. In 2012 “I’m Not Sam” was a Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best Long Fiction (with Lucky McKee)
I purchased the Unexpurgated Edition released in 2006 by 47North (Published June 1, 2006). Finally, this book is a horror classic from one of the most talented authors of horror fiction and our worst fears that has ever put pen to paper. Gritty realism that is visceral and jarring is related to us in pure undiluted strength and power.
“Off Season” is decidedly not Ketchum’s best book or even his most disturbing. That said, “Off Season” was his first and most important. This is suggested by the author’s moniker as a “trailblazer” for the extreme horror faction of the large horror genre. Perhaps more significantly Ketchum’s ties to the talented author of “Psycho” the great Robert Block were significant. He supported Ketchum’s work in much the same manner as his own legendary mentor supported him, the legendary H.P. Lovecraft.
Jack Ketchum published his first novel "Off Season" in 1980. This work appeared later in an unexpunged version, but Stephen King was noted to address Jack Ketchum in his remarks to the crowd at the 2003 National Book Awards.
"Off Season” King elaborated, “set off a furor in my supposed field, that of horror, that was unequaled until the advent of Clive Barker”. “It is not too much to say that these two gentlemen remade the face of American popular fiction."
As his books gained in worldwide popularity, they also began to be adapted into feature films, the first of which was "Jack Ketchum's The Lost" which went on to be a cult success, followed by the highly controversial second film "The Girl Next Door". However, the main launch for Jack Ketchum into international commercial and critical success was the long-awaited release by Magnolia Pictures of the film Red, based on his novel, starring Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan).
Stephen King is on record with the following two quotes which are indicative of the respect and awe with which he was held by his contemporaries in the horror genre:
“Who's the scariest guy in America? Probably Jack Ketchum, the outlaw horror writer whose terrifying first novel is finally available uncut from Overlook Connection Press. That would be Off Season: The Unexpurgated Edition.” ---Stephen King
“Jack Ketchum "is on a par with Clive Barker (Hellraiser), James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Thomas Harris (The Silence of The Lambs), …” ---Stephen King
One of most talented authors in the horror genre died in 2018, but he gave the extreme horror sub-genre his canon of works to remind the fans who came along after his death to still have access to the incredible adrenaline and raw power to take you to another place that is dark and filled with terror. He is a giant talent whose works lives on to thrill horror readers of tomorrow.
I did not refer to the contents of the uncensored and uncut version of “Off Season” (2006). I read it allowing sufficient time to appreciate the artistry of his careful set up and perfect background on the participants in what would be the fight of their lives. The marauders sneak attack on the three couples was heart stopping in its gruesome realism and chaos. The confinement of the members of the group who were temporarily kept alive, and their ordeal is chilling to the bone. There is the arrival of the “Cavalry” but when does a small army of men morph into a mindless single cell of rage and blood lust. The end was a given. The story was never going to end in a different way at least in the way it was written by the author. The book was perfect any way you looked at it.
More of Ketchum’s works are in my near future. Thank you, members of Splatterpunk and hope you all enjoyed this horror classic from the creative mind of the late Jack Ketchum
CHILLING DEBUT BACKWOODS THRILLER FROM THE LATE JACK KETCHUM
August 9th, 2024 - August 15th, 2024
The author won the Bram Stoker Award in 1994, 2000, and twice in 2003. The World Horror Convention in 2011 awarded its Grand Master Award to Jack Ketchum.
“Off Season” (the Expurgated Edition) was originally published by Overlook Connection Press in 1980. I must note that despite the egregious red ink that spackled pages throughout his original manuscript that it was if not criminal at least unjust and unfair to later add insult to injury. It is a fact that the number of copies that were run off for “Off Season” was depressingly low and the publisher bowed to the criticism of a few and backed away “in horror” from the slice-n-dice version which the agency had coerced Ketchum into allowing in order to get his book published. It went out of publication shortly after its release.
It was nearly two decades after Ballantine had butchered “Off Season” and the limited production resulted in the book going out of production. But “Its bleak vision and extreme violence still influence horror today. Only a novel of expert articulation and emotional truth can cast such a long shadow, and Ketchum's is both. Horror critic Winter calls the book one of "remarkable elegance," and indeed it's drum tight. Equally impressively, Ketchum uses the devastation of a group of tourists by a band of cannibals not to pander, as so many horror writers after him have done, but to explore with intelligence (and ferocity) the nature of evil and of the human spirit that can resist it. The novel's structure isn't original, modeled largely on the film Night of the Living Dead, but its events unfold with shocking energy and directness. The imagery is cruel and bloody battles between the tourists and cannibals, torture and consumption by the cannibals of their victims is the arbitrariness of who will live and who will die; but always Ketchum is in command.”
His Awards and nominations were numerous. His Bram Stoker Awards and nominations included 1994 for “The Box” (Best Short Story), “Right to Life” (1999) nominee for Best Long Fiction, “The Lost” (2001) Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best Novel, “The Haunt” (2001) Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Best Short Fiction. In 2003 he won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection. “Closing Time” (2003) won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection. In 2012 “I’m Not Sam” was a Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best Long Fiction (with Lucky McKee)
I purchased the Unexpurgated Edition released in 2006 by 47North (Published June 1, 2006). Finally, this book is a horror classic from one of the most talented authors of horror fiction and our worst fears that has ever put pen to paper. Gritty realism that is visceral and jarring is related to us in pure undiluted strength and power.
“Off Season” is decidedly not Ketchum’s best book or even his most disturbing. That said, “Off Season” was his first and most important. This is suggested by the author’s moniker as a “trailblazer” for the extreme horror faction of the large horror genre. Perhaps more significantly Ketchum’s ties to the talented author of “Psycho” the great Robert Block were significant. He supported Ketchum’s work in much the same manner as his own legendary mentor supported him, the legendary H.P. Lovecraft.
Jack Ketchum published his first novel "Off Season" in 1980. This work appeared later in an unexpunged version, but Stephen King was noted to address Jack Ketchum in his remarks to the crowd at the 2003 National Book Awards.
"Off Season” King elaborated, “set off a furor in my supposed field, that of horror, that was unequaled until the advent of Clive Barker”. “It is not too much to say that these two gentlemen remade the face of American popular fiction."
As his books gained in worldwide popularity, they also began to be adapted into feature films, the first of which was "Jack Ketchum's The Lost" which went on to be a cult success, followed by the highly controversial second film "The Girl Next Door". However, the main launch for Jack Ketchum into international commercial and critical success was the long-awaited release by Magnolia Pictures of the film Red, based on his novel, starring Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan).
Stephen King is on record with the following two quotes which are indicative of the respect and awe with which he was held by his contemporaries in the horror genre:
“Who's the scariest guy in America? Probably Jack Ketchum, the outlaw horror writer whose terrifying first novel is finally available uncut from Overlook Connection Press. That would be Off Season: The Unexpurgated Edition.” ---Stephen King
“Jack Ketchum "is on a par with Clive Barker (Hellraiser), James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Thomas Harris (The Silence of The Lambs), …” ---Stephen King
One of most talented authors in the horror genre died in 2018, but he gave the extreme horror sub-genre his canon of works to remind the fans who came along after his death to still have access to the incredible adrenaline and raw power to take you to another place that is dark and filled with terror. He is a giant talent whose works lives on to thrill horror readers of tomorrow.
I did not refer to the contents of the uncensored and uncut version of “Off Season” (2006). I read it allowing sufficient time to appreciate the artistry of his careful set up and perfect background on the participants in what would be the fight of their lives. The marauders sneak attack on the three couples was heart stopping in its gruesome realism and chaos. The confinement of the members of the group who were temporarily kept alive, and their ordeal is chilling to the bone. There is the arrival of the “Cavalry” but when does a small army of men morph into a mindless single cell of rage and blood lust. The end was a given. The story was never going to end in a different way at least in the way it was written by the author. The book was perfect any way you looked at it.
More of Ketchum’s works are in my near future. Thank you, members of Splatterpunk and hope you all enjoyed this horror classic from the creative mind of the late Jack Ketchum
CHILLING DEBUT BACKWOODS THRILLER FROM THE LATE JACK KETCHUM
August 9th, 2024 - August 15th, 2024
October 11, 2020
2.5 Stars
This was an incredibly gruesome horror book involving cannibals. Unfortunately, I was not very invested in the characters or storyline so I did not actually find it very disturbing. I am realizing that hillbilly cannibals is just not a subgenre I tend to enjoy. Also, the oversexualization of women really annoyed me.
I got to read the uncut version and it was interesting to read the author's note that outlined what was cut in the original publication.
This was an incredibly gruesome horror book involving cannibals. Unfortunately, I was not very invested in the characters or storyline so I did not actually find it very disturbing. I am realizing that hillbilly cannibals is just not a subgenre I tend to enjoy. Also, the oversexualization of women really annoyed me.
I got to read the uncut version and it was interesting to read the author's note that outlined what was cut in the original publication.
September 18, 2020
No me puedo imaginar este libro censurado, así que me alegra que lo publicaran como el autor lo escribió desde el principio.
Este libro sin la sangre, la violencia, la crudeza, el sexo..., pierde todo.
No es el tipo de terror que suelo leer pero me ha gustado mucho, más de lo que pensaba. También he de decir que pensé que me iba a dar más asquete todo el tema gore, pero no. Supongo que me impresionan más las películas (lo visual), que los libros (mi imaginación); y eso que es muy fácil imaginar todas las escenas gore, porque el autor te las describe de una forma magistral.
Personajes creíbles, una historia dura y cruda, mucha acción, mucha sangre, y un final más que digno.
Muy recomendable.
Este libro sin la sangre, la violencia, la crudeza, el sexo..., pierde todo.
No es el tipo de terror que suelo leer pero me ha gustado mucho, más de lo que pensaba. También he de decir que pensé que me iba a dar más asquete todo el tema gore, pero no. Supongo que me impresionan más las películas (lo visual), que los libros (mi imaginación); y eso que es muy fácil imaginar todas las escenas gore, porque el autor te las describe de una forma magistral.
Personajes creíbles, una historia dura y cruda, mucha acción, mucha sangre, y un final más que digno.
Muy recomendable.
April 4, 2009
For me, this is the horror book to end all horror books. It is the apex of terror tales. No book has come close to topping Off Season, and I doubt that any ever will.
In a rural area off the coast of Maine live a tribe of cannibals. Over the decades travellers and townspeople have disappeared here, but these have been chalked up to the nature of an increasingly mobile, exploding population. People disappear every minute all over the world, don't they?
The tension begins immediately and never lets up. Six adults—two of them sisters—are vacationing in a cabin. As they eat, sleep, and relax in nature, they are silently being stalked by the cannibal clan, who soon set off an unrelenting assault on the cabin. Before you can say "pass the A1," several have been killed, one has been roasted on a pit, and two of the women have been taken back to the cave. And it's in this cave where we see just how these men, women, and children flourished all these years . You'll be tempted to flip to the last page to see how this book could possibly end. If you managed to make it all the way through, you might want to catch up with the inbreds in Offspring.
This is the book that made Jack Ketchum a legend of the horror genre. It must have been a badge of honor to Ketchum for The Village Voice, of all publications, to criticize this book for its "violent pornography."
In a rural area off the coast of Maine live a tribe of cannibals. Over the decades travellers and townspeople have disappeared here, but these have been chalked up to the nature of an increasingly mobile, exploding population. People disappear every minute all over the world, don't they?
The tension begins immediately and never lets up. Six adults—two of them sisters—are vacationing in a cabin. As they eat, sleep, and relax in nature, they are silently being stalked by the cannibal clan, who soon set off an unrelenting assault on the cabin. Before you can say "pass the A1," several have been killed, one has been roasted on a pit, and two of the women have been taken back to the cave. And it's in this cave where we see just how these men, women, and children flourished all these years . You'll be tempted to flip to the last page to see how this book could possibly end. If you managed to make it all the way through, you might want to catch up with the inbreds in Offspring.
This is the book that made Jack Ketchum a legend of the horror genre. It must have been a badge of honor to Ketchum for The Village Voice, of all publications, to criticize this book for its "violent pornography."
January 9, 2016
Oh my god what a disturbing book. There were moments when I dreaded to continue reading it because I just knew that things would go horribly fucked up with a lot of gore. And it did. This is not the kind of books I usually read and I honestly don’t know if I want to read more of its kind. Not that the book was bad, it was good, just a bit too disgusting for my taste I must admit. I prefer paranormal horror that makes you wonder if you should check under the bed and the closet before you sleep not the kind that makes you feel sick.
February 22, 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I went into this book knowing I wouldn’t be making any material emotional investment. I knew it would be a balls-to-wall type of story that went for the gross out at every turn. I knew the characters would be thinly fabricated cardboard cutouts. I knew this would be about as deep as a paper cut from a wet napkin. I was right on every count. This was exactly what I expected it to be, and it very was effective for what it was.
I went into this book knowing I wouldn’t be making any material emotional investment. I knew it would be a balls-to-wall type of story that went for the gross out at every turn. I knew the characters would be thinly fabricated cardboard cutouts. I knew this would be about as deep as a paper cut from a wet napkin. I was right on every count. This was exactly what I expected it to be, and it very was effective for what it was.
November 23, 2024
Como he disfrutado del libro, es de los más duros que he leído y pienso que no es para todo el mundo, pero lo he gozado la ostia. Que brutal y salvaje. He tenido que parar incluso a ratos para digerir lo que leía,pero a la vez , lo he leído del tirón sin poder parar de leer. Ketchum en estado puro. Este si que es de los que da miedito...🤘🏻🤘🏻
March 30, 2011
This may be one of the most disturbing novels I have ever read. Enough said. (Although, I cannot agree with the previous establishment of rating this novel as "violent pornography". In my estimation, if more horror writers took half the amount of chances in thier work as Ketchum does in his, this genre might be more respected.)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
(This recommendation must be clarified: I do not condone cannibalism in any form.)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
(This recommendation must be clarified: I do not condone cannibalism in any form.)
October 3, 2022
The best way I can think to describe this book is if the movies The Strangers and The Hills Have Eyes had a baby. Inbred mutants stalk and attack a group of unsuspecting friends vacationing on the Maine coastline during the off season. Brutally violent and gory. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight. It’s that kind of book!!
November 13, 2024
Es el propio Jack Ketchum el que reflexiona al final de su novela acerca de la profundidad que engloba una historia tan especial como es esta de Temporada baja. En ese añadido, le da vueltas a una sentencia que define a la perfección lo que quiere transmitir en su creación: La vida es como es y no esperes que se transforme en lo que a ti te gustaría. Una reflexión como esa no convierte a esta historia en un tratado filosófico cuya profundidad te invite a cuestionarte la trascendencia de la propia vida que vivimos, pero sí es todo un aviso a navegantes para los que se quieran adentrar en los mareas bravos alentados por los vientos narrativos de Ketchum.
Tendría que simplificar todas mis palabras centrando la reseña en una simple y contundente sentencia: esta novela me ha incomodado en más de una ocasión. Y creo que si alguna vez has leído alguna de las historias narradas por el escritor de Nueva Yersey sabrás que sus propuestas suelen bailar sobre el filo de lo macabro, tanto a nivel visual como destrozando esos pequeños escondites retorcidos de la mente. Desde que tuve conocimiento de la existencia de esta historia sabía que los que podía deslizarse entre sus páginas no sería del agrado de cualquier lector poco iniciado en las propuestas extremas. Sobre la marcha te viene a la cabeza La chica de al lado, como paradigma de como un escritor es capaz de llevarte a la desesperación mostrando la vileza de los seres humanos. Pero la violencia que diseña Ketchum, lo que en otras historias supone toneladas de casquería, mutilaciones y todo tipo de atrocidades que no son más que un simple vehículo para el deleite de estómagos fuertes curados de espantos, aquí se convierte en un puñetazo a la cara ante la impotencia que transmite Ketchum con sus palabras.
De ahí que Temporada baja sea un libro que no será del agrado de aquellos lectores que entiendan el terror como un mero pasatiempo para acompañar las noches de tormenta. A Ketchum se viene a pasarlo mal y, después de haber leído tres de sus cuatro obras publicadas por La biblioteca de Carfax, he de decir que los niveles de perversidad que se alcanzan en esta obra me causaron en más de una ocasión una retirada temporal de la lectura, dejando espacio para poder descongestionar la cabeza entre cada uno de sus capítulos.
Ya desde el prólogo, el autor nos muestra un pequeño anticipo de lo que acontecerá en su novela. Es un simple aperitivo, una invitación a que cruces su puerta, una advertencia. Luego aprovecha sus cualidades narrativas para lanzar pequeñas pinceladas que conformen un escenario, tomándose todo el tiempo necesario para que entiendas los comportamientos de los personajes, sus relaciones, las amenazas que se ciernen entre ellos y las posibilidades de afrontar un asedio como aquel en el que se verán envueltos. Todo mediante capítulos cortos, bien definidos, que te permiten encariñarte en cierto modo con sus protagonistas (yo que tú no lo haría). A partir de ahí, la narración cambia, se extienden los capítulos y comienza a teñirse de rojo la novela.
Me encantaría reflejar entre mis palabras las atrocidades que ocurren a cada párrafo, las sorpresas, los gritos que se ahogan entre tus labios…me encantaría ver tu cara cuando todo se convierte en ese caos que estabas deseando leer y que, entonces, te resultará desmadrado. Me encantaría tener la capacidad de quitarme de la cabeza alguna que otra imagen que sigue atosigándome al reflexionar acerca de cómo Ketchum es capaz de llevar al papel aquello que no debiera ser ni pensado. Pero no alcanzaría a resumir esa incomodidad que llevas dentro tras leer una novela como es Temporada baja.
Jack Ketchum retrata la violencia de una forma única, con esa capacidad innata para sentir sus dentelladas como si tus dedos fueran desgarrándose al paso de cada una de las páginas. Pocos autores consiguen aterrar en base a sus pesadillas. Algunos tildarán obras como esta de mera provocación gratuita y carente de cualquier atisbo de profundidad. Yo solo puedo pensar en que me pasé la mayor parte del libro deseando que terminase de una vez. Y eso, para mi es puro terror.
Tendría que simplificar todas mis palabras centrando la reseña en una simple y contundente sentencia: esta novela me ha incomodado en más de una ocasión. Y creo que si alguna vez has leído alguna de las historias narradas por el escritor de Nueva Yersey sabrás que sus propuestas suelen bailar sobre el filo de lo macabro, tanto a nivel visual como destrozando esos pequeños escondites retorcidos de la mente. Desde que tuve conocimiento de la existencia de esta historia sabía que los que podía deslizarse entre sus páginas no sería del agrado de cualquier lector poco iniciado en las propuestas extremas. Sobre la marcha te viene a la cabeza La chica de al lado, como paradigma de como un escritor es capaz de llevarte a la desesperación mostrando la vileza de los seres humanos. Pero la violencia que diseña Ketchum, lo que en otras historias supone toneladas de casquería, mutilaciones y todo tipo de atrocidades que no son más que un simple vehículo para el deleite de estómagos fuertes curados de espantos, aquí se convierte en un puñetazo a la cara ante la impotencia que transmite Ketchum con sus palabras.
De ahí que Temporada baja sea un libro que no será del agrado de aquellos lectores que entiendan el terror como un mero pasatiempo para acompañar las noches de tormenta. A Ketchum se viene a pasarlo mal y, después de haber leído tres de sus cuatro obras publicadas por La biblioteca de Carfax, he de decir que los niveles de perversidad que se alcanzan en esta obra me causaron en más de una ocasión una retirada temporal de la lectura, dejando espacio para poder descongestionar la cabeza entre cada uno de sus capítulos.
Ya desde el prólogo, el autor nos muestra un pequeño anticipo de lo que acontecerá en su novela. Es un simple aperitivo, una invitación a que cruces su puerta, una advertencia. Luego aprovecha sus cualidades narrativas para lanzar pequeñas pinceladas que conformen un escenario, tomándose todo el tiempo necesario para que entiendas los comportamientos de los personajes, sus relaciones, las amenazas que se ciernen entre ellos y las posibilidades de afrontar un asedio como aquel en el que se verán envueltos. Todo mediante capítulos cortos, bien definidos, que te permiten encariñarte en cierto modo con sus protagonistas (yo que tú no lo haría). A partir de ahí, la narración cambia, se extienden los capítulos y comienza a teñirse de rojo la novela.
Me encantaría reflejar entre mis palabras las atrocidades que ocurren a cada párrafo, las sorpresas, los gritos que se ahogan entre tus labios…me encantaría ver tu cara cuando todo se convierte en ese caos que estabas deseando leer y que, entonces, te resultará desmadrado. Me encantaría tener la capacidad de quitarme de la cabeza alguna que otra imagen que sigue atosigándome al reflexionar acerca de cómo Ketchum es capaz de llevar al papel aquello que no debiera ser ni pensado. Pero no alcanzaría a resumir esa incomodidad que llevas dentro tras leer una novela como es Temporada baja.
Jack Ketchum retrata la violencia de una forma única, con esa capacidad innata para sentir sus dentelladas como si tus dedos fueran desgarrándose al paso de cada una de las páginas. Pocos autores consiguen aterrar en base a sus pesadillas. Algunos tildarán obras como esta de mera provocación gratuita y carente de cualquier atisbo de profundidad. Yo solo puedo pensar en que me pasé la mayor parte del libro deseando que terminase de una vez. Y eso, para mi es puro terror.
April 14, 2020
Definitely the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. It’s going to stick with me, this one.
October 27, 2017
Off Season: A Dash of Fear
Some time ago a woman with an angelic face asked me if I had ever read anything by Jack Ketchum. Well, I hadn't. Until now. Off Season is my first venture into the novels of Jack Ketchum. Let's say it's a book for the reader with a taste for the different.
After a little research into the author, I was intrigued. Ketchum is a four time Bram Stoker Award winner and was named Grand Master of Horror in 2009. His mentor was Robert Bloch Bloch praised and supported Ketchum's writing. Their friendship began in the 1980s and continued until Bloch's death in 1994. Pretty strong credentials, Mr. Ketchum.
So I, being the completeist reader, decided to start at the beginning with this nasty little tale of six Manhattanites staying in an isolated cabin on the Dead River in Maine. The cabin is just a short distance from the coast. Across from an island, formerly the location of a lighthouse with a long history of light keepers and their families meeting less than pleasant demises.
The plot is quite simple. First there were six New Yorkers. Then there were five. Then there were...you get the picture.
As for that old Scottish Incantation that appears at the beginning of this review, forget it. It won't do you any good. After all, the most horrific monsters are human. Or of human creation.
The monsters that prey on the civilized enjoying a cabin in the off season is a savage family of few adults and a brood of children. They have a taste for meat. They prefer human flesh. This group instinctively knows that fear makes flesh more tender. They are masters of inflicting terror.
Ketchum depicts one hellish night of horror. His writing is lean and mean. His sentences are short, declarative. Ketchum has said that his major literary influences were Charles Bukowski, Jim Harrison, Ernest Hemingway, and of course, Robert Bloch. Ketchum is a master disciple of those he admires.
Originally published by Ballentine Books in 1980, this novel became a hit for readers of horror, with sales in excess of 250,000. And that was the expurgated edition. This review is of the novel as Ketchum originally wrote it, published by Overland Connections in 2006. Steven King asked, "Who's the scariest guy in America? " His answer? "Probably Jack Ketchum." I'd have to agree.
I'll warn you. This one is not for the squeamish. Ketchum makes the hair on the back of your neck prickle. It will make you wonder what's really behind that angelic face of a lovely woman who asks "Have you read any Jack Ketchum?"
From ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties, Good Lord, deliver us--Old Scottish Prayer
Some time ago a woman with an angelic face asked me if I had ever read anything by Jack Ketchum. Well, I hadn't. Until now. Off Season is my first venture into the novels of Jack Ketchum. Let's say it's a book for the reader with a taste for the different.
After a little research into the author, I was intrigued. Ketchum is a four time Bram Stoker Award winner and was named Grand Master of Horror in 2009. His mentor was Robert Bloch Bloch praised and supported Ketchum's writing. Their friendship began in the 1980s and continued until Bloch's death in 1994. Pretty strong credentials, Mr. Ketchum.
So I, being the completeist reader, decided to start at the beginning with this nasty little tale of six Manhattanites staying in an isolated cabin on the Dead River in Maine. The cabin is just a short distance from the coast. Across from an island, formerly the location of a lighthouse with a long history of light keepers and their families meeting less than pleasant demises.
The plot is quite simple. First there were six New Yorkers. Then there were five. Then there were...you get the picture.
As for that old Scottish Incantation that appears at the beginning of this review, forget it. It won't do you any good. After all, the most horrific monsters are human. Or of human creation.
The monsters that prey on the civilized enjoying a cabin in the off season is a savage family of few adults and a brood of children. They have a taste for meat. They prefer human flesh. This group instinctively knows that fear makes flesh more tender. They are masters of inflicting terror.
Ketchum depicts one hellish night of horror. His writing is lean and mean. His sentences are short, declarative. Ketchum has said that his major literary influences were Charles Bukowski, Jim Harrison, Ernest Hemingway, and of course, Robert Bloch. Ketchum is a master disciple of those he admires.
Originally published by Ballentine Books in 1980, this novel became a hit for readers of horror, with sales in excess of 250,000. And that was the expurgated edition. This review is of the novel as Ketchum originally wrote it, published by Overland Connections in 2006. Steven King asked, "Who's the scariest guy in America? " His answer? "Probably Jack Ketchum." I'd have to agree.
I'll warn you. This one is not for the squeamish. Ketchum makes the hair on the back of your neck prickle. It will make you wonder what's really behind that angelic face of a lovely woman who asks "Have you read any Jack Ketchum?"
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