Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Slasher Fiction ever, April 11, 2003
Having never read Ketchumn before this, i expected the same lame "horror" type novel that King and Koontz pump out, the kind that are more often dry and boring than terrifying. But, I have never in all my life of reading (and I'm a magazine editor) experienced anything so feral and psychologically horrifying as Off Season. It was soo unrelentlessy grotesque in its depiction of human dismemberment and cannabalism I couldn't help but become the person staring at the dead bodies beside the car crash. I simply could not look away. There were a few passages that nearly made me nauseous...and that is unheard of in fiction. I can't remember ever caring about the main characters in another novel as much as i cared about Dan and Nick and Marjie. Off Season is written so well, and paced with such ferocity, i felt right there beside the characters. Every scrape they got, every bite from a rabid child they received, i received too. And every battle they won, I won too. When was the last time you actually cheered audibly for a hero in a book? What will set this novel apart form any other horror novel out there is the sheer honest approach it espouses in its evil. This book is not for the feint of heart. But, absolutley, for those who want to test their will in hell.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When the line between human and animal is severed, February 14, 2004
Carla has been given a cherry editing assignment, one month to finish editing a book on fifties rock `n' roll, which she knew she could easily finish in one week. She rents a cabin outside the tiny town of Dead River up the Maine coastline. Carla invited company up for the first week of her stay; her younger sister Marjie and her boyfriend Dan, Carla's own current boyfriend Jim, and her ex-boyfriend Nick who brings along his current girl Laura. All five ride up to meet Carla together.Marjie loves reading the scandalous Evening Post, and eagerly reads the book on Dead River that Carla sent her, eating up the tales of Catbird island and the mysterious deaths and disappearances that surrounded the lighthouse and island there. What none of the six vacationers know about is the family of wild people who live in the caves along the rocky shores. They are not zombies, they are real; but they are not civilized. As dead in the brain as a zombie would be, this hellish clan lives off the land and survives on whatever food happens their way. And their favorite food is people. This wild clan of human monsters will discover the vacationers, and a fight for their lives ensues. Who will be the next target? Will the local sheriffs catch on in time? Off Season is a gore streaked feast for those inclined to gruesome horror. Practically banned back in 1981 for its disgusting content and mainly for its use of children as villains instead of victims. A not to be missed early piece by the master, Jack Ketchum, pick up a copy of this if you can find it. Enjoy!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant and extreme!, January 7, 2007
This novel was my introduction to Jack Ketchum's fiction, a novel that burned itself directly into my brainpan, and which sent me running to the bookstore for more the moment I finished the last page. Here's how it starts: They watched her cross the meadow and step over the low stone wall, into the woods beyond. She looked awkward. She would be easy to catch. Uh, oh. Here it comes. Out in the woods beyond a quiet little beach community in Maine lurks a horrific family of predators with a taste for warm, living flesh. They stalk their prey with the savage cunning of wild beasts, but their intended victims are their own kind: humans. When three urbane couples from the city decide to vacation at a quaint cabin in the sleepy town of Dead River during the off season, they learn just how primitive that others of their species can be, and how quickly they, too, can descend into savagery when fighting for their lives. This is no-holds-barred, in-your-face horror of the highest order that plunges the reader into the center of a waking nightmare that could, indeed, happen. It is gut-twisting fiction superbly wrought by an author who never pulls his punches. Here's an idea: Stuff a copy of OFF SEASON into a backpack and go for a long hike in the woods, like I did the first time I read it. When you've reached your turnaround point way out in the woods and are very tired, settle down under a big tree and start reading. I can pretty much guarantee you'll make the return hike back to your car in record time... Like I did. OFF SEASON is a powerful and terrifying novel from a celebrated master of the genre, the real deal, horror fans. And here's a bonus--this is the author's new uncut, uncensored edition! Don't say I didn't warn you.
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