Off Season

A wonderful book that pulled no punches. An easy 5*. Not an easy read but a vivid, real story. Looking forward to more from Ketchum

Six adult friends go on holiday to a cabin out in the wilderness of Maine. Once there they sit about contemplating trivialities in their life that don't really matter ~ does my bum look big in this, I think I could be depressed, my career's not going to plan etc etc ~ but fortunately not for long, soon they will go through an evening of terrifying life or death survival situations.. Because outside lurk a cannibal tribe of inbred loonies, chomping at the bit, just dying to 'meat' them...I'd never read any Jack Ketchum before this, but I'd heard good things, and so, intrigued by 'The Sawney Bean Clan' style premise, and it's heavily censored publishing history, I thought I'd give this one a go first.Pretty good. I quite enjoyed it overall. The first 60 pages are duller than a train~spotters memoirs, but after that, once it kicked off, just under halfway into the book, the action was fairly relentless..Now don't get wrong, it's by no means the goriest/nastiest book I've ever read, and whether it deserved to be so heavily cut (or indeed it's reputation as being so gruesome) on it's release back in 1980, probably depends on how easily shocked you are, and your views around censorship in general, but overall you can kinda see why it might have upset a few mainstream readers at the time..Featuring as it does, some nice juicy chapters that include: dismemberment, brain eating, child decapitation, point blank lobotomies, castration, mutilation, stone age torture, organ removal, cannibal cooking tips and sexual assault, etc!Fear not though, because it's not so long before the civilised heroes begin to fight back and turn the tables (which was rather upsetting as I was growing quite fond of the cannibal family) and it eventually all comes to a head in a somewhat predictable (not that that spoils it) climactic bloodbath.So there we have it folks, 'Off Season' is a straight up, genuine, early 80s, backwoods inbred slasher~horror. That has a good old humourless (There is a lot of humour, but it's macabre humour as opposed to irritating fanboy stuff), bloodthirsty vibe. And is an enjoyable fast paced (once it gets going) read, which I sat down and finished in one sitting.Followed by Offspring and The Woman ~ which were both made into films. Which, if talking of films, if you like stuff like Wrong Turn or The Hills Have Eyes, this novel certainly comes recommended.The Leisure Books version is the uncut, cheap mass market version I read.4.25/5

a violent sexually explicit story set in the deep woods of america cannibals and coppers the end is not the usual american everybody lives happily ever after

I'm not going to repeat what has been said in other positive reviews here. But taken together, 'Off Season' and its sequel 'Offspring', represent a portal to a darker time.I think what is most effective about Ketchum's 'horror' here is that it is so primal. An evil which doesn't feel alien but real.When I was twelve I read a novel by Hammond Innes - of all people - called 'Levkas Man'. It was a thriller but the 'shock ending' was the discovery of an underwater cave, which was a massacre site. Evidence of the genocide visited upon the Cro-Magnon's by the Neanderthal's. Innes made no bones - sic - about how brutal and disgusting this was; the implications for the human race of these acts.The sanitised type of cave dwellers depicted in epic novels such as Jean M. Auel's 'The Clan of the Cave Bear' just don't seem realistic. 'The Family' here - inbred, superstitious, cannabilistic, malevolently vicious, almost telepathic - seem closer to what certain tribes would have been like then. Not a very Humanist survey, but with a ring of truth.Ketchum is a writer who is able to unravel the skein of civilisation with unerring skill and imagination. And in horror writing terms his understanding of the meaning of true terror issecond to none.

Off Season ☠️ Slow burner…and then it explodes into a fiery ball of murder, cannibalism, mutilation and mayhem…and the ending well 🤯 4/5 ⭐️

I could not put this book down, once it has it's teeth in you it will not let you leave. It's ferocious, fast paced and extremely exciting. I have since bought and read the sequel, Offspring, which is equally as good.

This book is a pioneer to the genre and makes films like Wrong Turn seem mild in comparison. When three couples arrange to meet for a weekend at a leased house somewhere in the deep Maine woods, their terrifying ordeal is about to begin. Before the night is over an assault by the strange cave dwellers will exact a terrible price with a horrifying aftermath, one that nobody is likely ever to forget. After a slow start the book takes off at warp speed and you will be compelled to read every page thereafter. Jack Ketchum is such an amazing master of the macabre, there is nobody I can think who comes close.

I wasn't expecting this book to be as good as it was! The Hills Have Eyes x Wrong Turn vibes. Loved it!

This is the fifth book I’ve read by Ketchum, and easily my favourite of the bunch. Everything from him has been solid so far, but this one immediately creeps into the “all time favourite horror” conversation.

Aclaro que aun no lo he leído, pero este y su secuela encabezan mi lista de pendientes.

arrived a week earlier than expected and is in great condition, i’m a couple chapters in and loving kethcum’s style of writing! all in all a good buy

Jack Ketchum's OFF SEASON is a classic horror novel for fans of the grotesque. There's no doubt the novel is horrific - it's about a family of inbred cannibalistic lunatics living in a cave on the coast of Maine, and Ketchum holds no punches in describing the brutality of their violence. But beyond that, OFF SEASON is a well-written and gripping novel that has a lot to say about both humanity's propensity for violence and the sheer absurdity of our ongoing struggle to survive. There's more to this book than blood and body parts, and that's what makes it worth reading.The story focuses on Carla, a young editor from the big city who has rented a remote cabin in Maine for a month of relaxation and work on her latest project. When she invites sister Marjie and four of their friends to join her for a week in the woods, she has no idea it will be the start of a nightmare for all of them. Within hours of the guests' arrival, the six friends are attacked by human monsters intent on murder . . . and worse.Some reviewers here have described OFF SEASON as a novel that lacks characterization, while others have complained about the slow start to the violence. Neither assessment has merit. Ketchum does an excellent job differentiating his characters: Carla is self-assured and confident, younger sister Marjie has always seen herself as weak and suffers from depression, Nick loves both of them but is trying to put the past behind him, and police chief Peters is middle-aged and tired but determined to do the right thing. These are identifiable characters that are likable and easy to root for. Carla's other three guests (her current boyfriend Jim, Marjie's boyfriend Dan, and Nick's new girlfriend Laura) are less fleshed out, but Ketchum is able get his readers to understand all three in very short order.As for the slow start to the violence, the only readers who will complain about that are those who are only picking this up for the gore-fest. It's true that the first 130 pages are a set-up for what's to come, but that set-up is full of foreboding, hints of brutality, and glimpses of depravity. Ketchum shifts perspective from Carla to her sister and friends to Peters to members of the cannibalistic family, and in so doing he is able to build suspense over those first 130 pages, so that when the attack actually occurs it's impossible not to be blown away. The "slow start" is the roller coaster's creaky rise up to the first big drop, and the rest of the book is pure free-fall.Just how gross is this book? It's pretty gross. Ketchum's villains are cannibals, after all, and they really love the hunt . . . and the kill and the butchering and the cooking. There's enough blood and gore for any shock-horror fan. At the same time, what makes this novel worth reading is Ketchum's portrayal of these fiends as human - as horrible as they are, they are not monsters. And as Marjie and the others are sucked deeper and deeper into depravity, Ketchum forces us to see how far they themselves will go to survive. This is not an easy book to read, and it's not an easy book to forget.The original version of OFF SEASON, published in 1981, was edited to remove things the publisher felt were too over-the-top for mainstream readers. The paperback edition released in 2006 (as well as the pricier hardcover edition) restores the uncut version of the manuscript. Does it make a huge difference? I read the original version in 1981, and the only thing that stood out to me as obviously different in this new version is the ending and the fate of one particular character - this change is important, and it makes a big difference in terms of the overall message of the novel. The other changes involve the inclusion of some additional bits of grotesque description during the many scenes of brutality. I can't say I would have noticed most of the changes without Ketchum's afterward - well, one particularly horrific moment with a fish hook did stand out!Overall, if you're a horror fan, this is a novel that is definitely worth reading. It's more than just a collection of gross-out moments, though, so if it's just the gore you're looking for, OFF SEASON might disappoint (the sequel, OFFSPRING, actually has more non-stop violence than OFF SEASON, although it is less successful). Horror fans who appreciate well-written prose with a challenging message will enjoy this. It remains one of my favorites.

der zweite roman von ketchum, den ich gelesen habe. "the girl next door" war schon ziemlich gut und grauenhaft - im positivem sinne -, aber dieser roman schlägt "the girl next door" auf ganzer länge. eigentlich recht kurz und knackig gehalten, so ist's vielleicht am besten. ketchum hält sich nicht mit belanglosen dingen in diesem roman auf. carla, eine autorin, hat ein am waldrand liegendes ferienhaus gemietet. ruhige gegend, kaum eine menschenseele, da will sie mit fünf freunden eine schöne zeit verbringen. doch diese schöne zeit, kaum hat sie angefangen, wird urplötzlich von eine großfamilie von kanibalen zerstört. fast hilflos sind die stadtbewohner diesen wilden ausgeliefert und müssen einen erbitterten kampf ums überleben aufnehmen.wie gesagt, ruhephasen oder sowas gibt's in dem buch kaum, nur am anfang ein paar. danach zieht das tempo ernorm an. an brutalitäten und splatter hat ketchum diesmal echt nicht gespart, also sollten eher zartbeseitete leute dieses buch nicht kaufen. genial von ketchum ist, dass man die wahren hauptrollen eigentlich nicht erkennt. hat man einen scheinbar identifiziert und denkt: ach, der/die ist also der/die held(in) hier", stirbt diese person auch schon.und sehr gut finde ich es, dass das buch recht actionreich ist, soll heißen, es geht hier auch zur sache.als bonus gibt's die kurzgeschichte "winter child". ist zwar nicht schlecht, aber nachdem man den roman gelesen hat wirkt die geschichte recht unspektakulär.kann's kaum erwarten mehr von ketchum zu lesen...