Product Description

THE STORY BEHIND THE GRUESOME LEGEND....

Twenty years ago....It shocked horror fans everywhere -- Jack Ketchum's OFF SEASON, the brutal and harrowing story of an inbred family of cannibals in present-day Maine. Some readers were horrified, others outraged. Yet no one could put the book down. An instant cult classic.

THE LEGEND LIVES ON!

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he'd killed them off ten years ago... a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of predatory savages. But somehow, the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. Now the peaceful residents, who came to Dead River to escape civilization, are fighting for their lives....

= Signed by Jack Ketchum.
= Original Binding for these 1000 copies.
= Featuring: Back to the Stew Pot: An Afterword& by Jack Ketchum.
= Original full color endpaper artwork by Cortney Skinner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106732 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 293 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Off Season (1980), the tale of a cannibal holocaust in rural Maine, established Ketchum as a writer of hardcore horror and cultivated ground where Splatterpunk fiction eventually took root. This sequel, first published as a paperback original in 1991, reprises characters and themes from its predecessor and far too much of the grisly plot. Survivors of the feral flesh-eating clan, who were all but destroyed at the end of the first novel, are back and chowing their way through the locals again. Amy Halbard and Claire Carey strive to survive their abduction by the cannibals and save their children. A subplot involving Claire's despicable husband, Steven, gives Ketchum another opportunity to cleverly compare predatory civilized folk to the appetite-driven primitives. The story is suspenseful, fast-paced and intelligently written, but readers nurtured on horror fiction that has come up in the wake of this saga may wonder what the fuss is all about. Agent, Alice Martell. (Apr. 5)

Review
Jack Ketchum is probably the scariest author in america. ---- Stephen King

Just when you think the worst has already happened... Jack Ketchum goes yet another shock further! --Fangoria

OFFSPRING may well be the most horrifying book you will ever read. ---- Robert Bloch

Customer Reviews

Cannibalistic, Humanoid, Maine-Coast Dwellers
They eat your liver, but no fava beans or chianti. They are helped in their murderous rampage for part of the book by the stereotypical Evil Yuppie (a fairly overused, stock villain, but still effective). Between extremely graphic descriptions of human dissection, and some suspenseful moments of chasing, hiding, and hunter-becomes-hunted, there are some ruminations on evil that are quite substantial and complex. Consider how the cannibals are presented in such a way that we never feel any sympathy for them: a less careful author would've succumbed to the temptation to make these monsters more sympathetic, to give them a hint of caring or affection, at least for one another, if not for their victims. And also consider how flat they would've been if they were unregenerately evil, but w/o a glimpse into their inner thoughts (as they would appear in a torture porn movie version of this) - cackling clowns whooping it up around the fire as human entrails bubble away in the pot. But with their inner thoughts revealed, we have a look at what the author considers the essence of evil - selfish, almost solipsistic brutality (and here the use of the Evil Yuppie as comparison is effective).

A copy of the first one,,,,,,,,
I'm a big Jack ketchum fan, after reading "The Girl Next Door", but the sequal to the cult novel Off Season was far from special. If you read Off Season , there's really no need to read Off Spring because it's basically the same story, without the creative suspense of the first. Both books have the same synopsis,,,, A few people go to this small rural town for a vacation only to find that they are being attacked by cave dwelling cannibals. I can't really tell too much of the story because i would give away the plot to BOTH books. Off Season is worth reading. Off Spring lacks the creative slow suspense and terror that Jack Ketchums creates by describing horrific incidents as other characters witnesses them.
In short Off Spring pales in comparison to Off season.

Another Ride Into Hell
While similar to his first book, Off Season, Ketchum delves more deeply into the characters this time around. The events occur over one long and grueling night where our cannibal family of maniacs decide to go on another killing spree. I think this book wasn't as shocking to me as the first simply because I had read Off Season and knew what to expect. But that didn't lessen the enjoyment of joining retired law enforcement officer George Peters once again as he tries to finally put a stop to the madness. The only complaint I really had was the character of Steven, who just decided to visit his ex-wife and son on the same day of this random slaughter. Did I mention that Steven had just murdered his employer earlier that day and is running from the law? Yeah, that felt like too big a coincidence to me, too. But it's still a thrilling read and I wouldn't mind a third book sometime in the future.