This had its moments, and was genuinely shocking at times without being excessively gory, but overall I was disappointed by it. It just never really seemed to go anywhere or do much with the premise (regular people encounter a small tribe of cannibals). Readable enough, but really nothing special. ( )

Offspring was better than Off Season. It had the advantage of being less dated, but was still firmly a genre book. As a book firmly planted in the horror genre, it was a fine book and shows how much Ketchum's writing improved over the years. It took me a bit longer to read because I couldn't skip overly long descriptions of sex or ridiculous amounts of torture porn. They were cut to make room for good characters and some very good plotting and taut action. There were plot holes, but Ketchum filled them admirably. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I should have. ( )

REVIEWED: Offspring: The Sequel to Off Season
WRITTEN BY: Jack Ketchum
PUBLISHED: October, 2006

I don't know why, but I've been reading this trilogy of books backwards. First I read "The Woman," (third in the series and most recent), then this book, "Offspring," and next will be the one that started it all off, "Off Season." I think that says a lot about these books that, although they reference preceding events, each is a tightly-knit thriller of characters engaged in horrific circumstances. The characters themselves weren't quite as believable/ well-rounded as some of Ketchum's other work, but their actions and the plot twists kept me enthralled the entire time.

Four and a Half out of Five stars ( )

Offspring is a continuation of Off Season, but I like the Ketchum’s writing so much I used this book to bring me back to reading after a disappointing experience with a non-fiction book. Nothing like gore and violence to pull one back to reality.

Peter, the sheriff from Off Season is back, but he is not the sheriff. He has aged a lot and one of his former deputies is now sheriff. This is a good thing as Peter has devoted himself to alcohol, choosing it as a fill in exercise after his wife died.

The novel begins with a grisly murder scene. This causes the new sheriff to ask Peter for assistance. The crime scene suggests that the new murder is some type of copycat crime from years previous. During the previous crime, Peter went through a serious personal traumatic event; there might be redemption this time. Revealing what the event was would be a spoiler for the previous book.

All the characters have their own problems in their everyday lives that will be emphasized and played out in the gruesome new reality they are about to enter. There is an abusive husband, Steven, who does not confine his abuse to his wife. He will commit an ultimate betrayal of Claire, his wife.

David and Amy are a successful yuppie couple on the road to success. They are friends with Claire but not friends with Steven as they try to help Claire leave Stephen.

The hero of the story is Luke, the son of Claire and Stephen. He is very young to accomplish the physical feats described and this is where the novel approaches fantasy. But how can a novel avoid fantasy with creatures that have names like First Stolen, Second Stolen, Woman, Eartheater, Rabbit, and Cow, to name a few. The unusually named group are a set of sub-humans living in the wild and following a pagan belief that demands blood sacrifice. And they are cannibals. Contact between these two groups provide the horror.

The surprises in the book, setting aside gory scenes, come from the characters who die and the circumstances leading to their deaths. This is not a read for the squeamish. I find Ketchum’s novels a break in the routine of my To Be Read (TBR) books. ( )

OFFSPRING Review We all have books that we know we shouldn't love as much as we do. Some of these novels we should actually hate, downright loathe because of their subject matter and immoral ideals, but we don't. We aren't turned on by the debauchery, but we aren't turned away either. In fact, we wish we could delve deeper, go further, see even clearer the nasty of which the author is capable.
 
Jack Ketchum's OFFSPRING is a guilty pleasure of mine, even more so than its predecessor, OFF SEASON. This book has far more character development than the first book in Ketchum's series about Maine cannibals, and relies less on in-your-face gore and shock value while telling a pretty overdone tale. Don't get me wrong, the violence and disturbia is everywhere throughout, like buckets of blood tossed willy-nilly over the walls of a slaughterhouse, but, this time around, Ketchum tackles his own special brand of the macabre in a sideways fashion. In OFF SEASON, he described everything in splendidly awful detail, down to the last drop of blood. With OFF SPRING, he's more poetic in his delivery of the vicious visuals, taking the metaphor/simile route instead of the stark realistic approach. I think this comes down to Ketchum having grown as a writer since his debut novel, and I respect that. 
 
SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!
 
The first time I read this one, I was caught off guard by its "happy ending". This is one of the only books of his that ends on a positive note. Throughout the entire story, I was on the edge of my seat, deathly certain that Amy's infant daughter, Melissa, was about to be eaten/dismembered/violated, so much so that I was sure that's what had happened. Meaning, after first reading OFFSPRING, I'd convinced myself that the baby had been killed, in turn making the fact that she survives a twist that I didn't see coming when I read it the second time. Weird, huh? This is not to say that I wanted the baby to die, but that Ketchum's writing is so bleak that I've come to expect it, and when it doesn't happen I'm shocked. 
 
I feel horrible now... Please don't think I wanted the baby to die. Pretty please? With sugar and dead puppies on top? :)
 
END SPOILED INFANTS!
 
Anyway, moving on. OFF SEASON, OFFSPRING, and THE WOMAN are not feel good books. Do not go into them expecting anything less than the most vile content imaginable. If you don't think you'd like to read such, stay far away from just about anything Jack Ketchum writes. His books are a bit uplifting though, as most of them will leave you feeling as if you have the greatest life known to man in comparison to the poor fucks that inhabit these pages.
 
Stephen King said it best: "Who's the scariest man in America? Probably Jack Ketchum." ( )