Helpful Score: 5
Sick! Fantastic! I am so glad that Jack Ketchum decided to release the uncut, uncensored version of this, his first novel, not that I ever read that first published edition. He explains his reasons for doing so in this book's afterward, interesting. In this book we follow a pack of wild savage children, no, not children, beasts, a family of beasts, vultures, as they hunt for their next meal, their prey, a group of young New Yorkers, Carla and her boyfriend Jim, her sister Marjie and Dan, her friend Laura and Nick, staying in a cabin near the beach town of Dead River in the off season, September. I highly recommend this book! Be prepared for an extremely disturbing read where you will learn how human jerky is made, no happy endings here!
Helpful Score: 4
this was one of ketchum's first. If you like gruesome stories then you will love this one. This one is about a savage family with the taste for flesh. Fasten you seatbelt for this ride. Ketchum's work tends to be very dark so be prepared to be disturbed.
Helpful Score: 3
I really enjoyed this book. However, if you don't like blood and guts, this book is not recommended for you. It is very bloody and graphic. Jack Ketchum tells the tale of imaginary forest people (you can judge if they are human) who like to survive on canabalism. If you want a thrill chill, this book may be for you.
Helpful Score: 1
A truely gruesome, plot twisting, riviting novel from Jack Ketchum, as only he dares to write. This book is NOT for the faint of heart. While, at times, I found myself to be wincing at the details and audacity, I still couldn't put the book down and just HAD to finish it...and what a finish it was!! Totally unexpected and surprising. Absolutely LOVED this book and Jack Ketchum. So much so, I'm already starting to read his next one.
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the most sick, twisted, and demented books I have ever read. That being said, it was AWESOME!! Fantastic read if you are in the mood for a horror book.
This...this....THIS is exactly why you dont just go off into the boonies somewhere for a nice relaxing vacation. Go where theres LOTS of other folks around. Less likely you'll be tortured and eaten by a bunch of cannibals then. CREEPY!!
This...this....THIS is exactly why you dont just go off into the boonies somewhere for a nice relaxing vacation. Go where theres LOTS of other folks around. Less likely you'll be tortured and eaten by a bunch of cannibals then. CREEPY!!
Helpful Score: 1
Gore galore!! I love Jack Ketchum's work. He has a knack for drawing the reader in and dragging them on an insane roller-coaster ride.
This book is for true horror fans; not for the timid. Jack paints a very graphic picture with his novels and you are never bored.
This book is for true horror fans; not for the timid. Jack paints a very graphic picture with his novels and you are never bored.
Helpful Score: 1
I'll think twice before renting a summer home, hunting cabin or ski lodge again. Book flies by and scares the heck out of you. Jack Ketchum's mind is full of dark and scary thoughts. Keep those thoughts coming to print, Jack! On to read the follow up book, Offspring what horrors has Jack Ketchum in store for us now.
Helpful Score: 1
I read this book in one sitting (hard to put down). Very intense and graphic! Looking forward to reading THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and other works.
Awesomely gruesome, definately not for the squeamish. Very detailed scenes.
This book was vicious. Once the attack started, it was relentless. I finished the book in just a few days...though I would have finished sooner if I hadn't kept peeking ahead to find out who survived. This isn't your typical "all the good guys will live through this" kind of books. Very unpredictable. I recommend this book!
Board up the windows and turn on the lights. Ketchum writes horror! This uncut version offers a no-holds barred gore fest of human flesh. Includes a recipe for man-jerky. Highly recommend.
Jack Ketchum is a little less known than he should be, he's among the best in the horror market. Stephen King himself said that Off Season is one of the best books he's read and that Jack Ketchum is one of the masters of horror.
Off Season was his very first novel, a story of group of young couples spending a weekend together in a rural area near the east coast. They are besieged by a band of murderous hillbillies and fight for survival.
Off Season is an in your face, splatterpunk classic that brings what death is like to you in a completely ,no bones about it, brutal story that will play on your inner morbidity.
Off Season was his very first novel, a story of group of young couples spending a weekend together in a rural area near the east coast. They are besieged by a band of murderous hillbillies and fight for survival.
Off Season is an in your face, splatterpunk classic that brings what death is like to you in a completely ,no bones about it, brutal story that will play on your inner morbidity.
If you like Richard Laymon you'll like the book. It will keep you awake at night. Blood, gore, violence, sex, cannabilism, revenge and sheer terror, this story has it all.
Strange story. Very scary and disgusting. I couldn't put it down but I know I will NEVER read anything by this author again. I think I will not sleep tonight. The author's images are still to vivid in my mind.
Probably THE most gruesome horror story I have ever read, and that's saying a lot. Good, rousing action in addition. IF you have an aversion to explicit gruesomeness or rough sex you probably should leave this book OFF your "have read" list. Remember,you have been warned!
Excellent read
This book is typical Ketchum. Gross and very explicit. I think based on all the uproar that I read it caused, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't any worse any any of his other novels. Maybe it was the time in which it was first published??
Uncut, Uncensored Version..... The sun goes down, the moon goes up and the savage human family with a taste for fish lurks in the darkening woods......
Very scary and unsettling.
Great book! Gory to the end. Not for the squeamish. I can't wait to read Off Spring.
WILD!!!!!!!Can't wait for the sequel!!!!!!!!
Fast paced and shocking!! Not for the faint-of heart!!
Stephen King says "If you read Off Season on Thanksgiving, you probably won't sleep until Christmas."
A short, but scary read..
This is a great book by this author and one of my favorites.
September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Main 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, watchng, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall...
And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophistcated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface...and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.
And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophistcated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface...and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.
grafic.. but Icoulld not seem to put this book down.. I have never read one of Ketchum books before . but I will start reading them now. I loved it.
GREAT READ,FINISHED IT IN ONE DAY.
