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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wouldn’t be able to ever recommend this in good conscious to my friends. that being said, it was a horrific train wreck that I couldn’t look away from and I’m very aware I will end up reading it’s sequel. Knowing the films that were inspired by it, I went in with some expectation of the type of violence that would be present in it, though it did take me by surprise at the level of it. Very few books have left me feeling nauseous and this is one of them. The first half of the book left me feeling like it was a bit slow as I never quite felt the connection to the characters I perhaps should have but the last half was a non stop thrill ride that more than made up for the short comings of the first half.
This book is okay, but it is by no means scary. It's not suspenseful at all. What's truly scary to me, and what constitutes a good horror novel, is the building up of tension, of not knowing exactly what the horror is. It's hard to even call this a horror novel. Splatterpunk is a much more accurate categorization of it. It's carnage for the sake of carnage. It's torture porn on a level with movies like Hostel and Saw, and to me that just isn't scary. It's boring. So this book only gets 3 stars. I'll stick with Stephen King for my horror needs. He's much more adept at realizing just what is truly terrifying, what can keep a reader up late at night too afraid to go to sleep...
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
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.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual violence, Torture, Cannibalism
Honestly the ending saved the book for me, but I don't know if I'll read something else by this author.
Well. I knew this was a book about cannibals, and I'm not new to Jack Ketchum, but somehow this was even more brutal than I expected. The good in this book is the pacing and tension. You're lulled into a sort of calm vacation with some underlying tension, peeking inside the window of all these couples drinking and being merry. Then from about halfway (maybe even earlier) and on, the tension is a constant 10/10. It's such an interesting book because I can't tell you how much I dreaded reading it, but also how quickly I whipped through it because I needed to finish it and see the ending.
The bad... Well, the bad in this is hard to pinpoint. I think what I may not have liked about it is part of the genre. I found it confusing with the cannibals sometimes, to understand who was doing what as they never had names, but isn't that kind of the point? The gore was intense and dialed up too high for me at times, but isn't that what the book promises?
The ugly is literally the content. Blechhhh. Some scenes were so awful, but they definitely shock and awe. All in all, know what's you're getting into.
I think the book is truthfully very strong, and some of the plot points had my heart racing (the treatment of Laura, Nick at the end). It's bleak, it's about survival, and Ketchum even admits at the end some of it is supposed to suck because that's life. So I can't fault the book for doing what it wanted to (and doing it well). I'm not sure where to land on a rating for this, so I'm going with 3 and saying it could easily swing either way depending on what you're looking for.
One of my favourite parts was reading the author's note at the end, I had to chuckle when he said he'd scaled this book back to be published and we were cheated out of the process of making man jerky. Too bad. Maybe I'll read the sequel if he ever releases new recipes.*
*Joking. I don't think I could stomach a second one of these.
The bad... Well, the bad in this is hard to pinpoint. I think what I may not have liked about it is part of the genre. I found it confusing with the cannibals sometimes, to understand who was doing what as they never had names, but isn't that kind of the point? The gore was intense and dialed up too high for me at times, but isn't that what the book promises?
The ugly is literally the content. Blechhhh. Some scenes were so awful, but they definitely shock and awe. All in all, know what's you're getting into.
I think the book is truthfully very strong, and some of the plot points had my heart racing (the treatment of Laura, Nick at the end). It's bleak, it's about survival, and Ketchum even admits at the end some of it is supposed to suck because that's life. So I can't fault the book for doing what it wanted to (and doing it well). I'm not sure where to land on a rating for this, so I'm going with 3 and saying it could easily swing either way depending on what you're looking for.
One of my favourite parts was reading the author's note at the end, I had to chuckle when he said he'd scaled this book back to be published and we were cheated out of the process of making man jerky. Too bad. Maybe I'll read the sequel if he ever releases new recipes.*
*Joking. I don't think I could stomach a second one of these.