Off Season

By: Jack Ketchum

Narrated by: Richard Davidson

September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine 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, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall.

And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated 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.

©1981 Jack Ketchum (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"If you read Off Season on Thanksgiving, you probably won't sleep until Christmas." (Stephen King)

100 Must-Read Thrillers (International Thriller Writers)

Nice!

Flowed really well. People didn't like some of the gore but I'm all for it. It wasn't to much that made the story lose traction. It was a good listen. Fast paced and had me tense up in quite a few moments. People out to relax and end up in a fight for survival that leads to one of the most horrible nights I can remember in a book. Overall I liked this book. Good scary horror.

Splendid Horror

I loved this book. The performance was fantastic and I loved Ketchum's little bit at the end. Something I'll probably read again.

awesome

I researched gruesome books and this one delivered. The beginning was a bit slow and I wondered what was so terrifying about this book...be patient. It doesn't disappoint.

Ketchum never disappoints

Ketchum is a mad beast and I LOVE IT. If you haven't read his other works two of my favorites are The Girl Next Door and Stranglehold, stories that slip under your skin, then pry it from your muscles

Excellent book

This is an excellent horror book that I stayed up until 4 AM to finish. It's a great story that gives a plausible setup for a group of feral cannibals hunting a group of believable and non idiotic New Yorkers.

The narrator has a good sounding voice, and reads the narrative bits well enough, but his reading of dialog is absolutely tone deaf and pretty terrible. It's really baffling tbh and the only detraction from the audio book.

The best of extreme horror

I couldn't put it down! Narrator was superb. Will be reading more of Ketchums works...I'm just disappointed I hadn't discovered him sooner.

Good not great

It’s a short brutal nasty story but that’s what I wanted. If that’s what you’re looking for go for it.

Slow burn atmospheric horror, worst narration ever

Possibly the worst narrator I've ever heard. Halfway through the story I bought the book just to make it stop.

The 1980s were a long time ago, eh?

Overall, it's an okay story. I didn't realize that 1981 was so long ago but after reading this book and noticing just how much it reads like a "classic", I understand that the 1980s is a whole world ago and what was shocking and revolting then in fiction has been outdone since in real life. I didn't find it particularly gory or disturbing (go read Meat if you want something disturbing) but I'm sure for an 80s audience it must have been.

The women are beyond useless and the "bad guys" are beyond believable, and if I lived in Maine I'd be offended at how "hillbilly-y" Ketchum portrays the locals, but it's fast and nicely paced and you might still find yourself wondering how it'll turn out in the end, even if you might not care about any of the characters enough to hope for their survival.

But, for a fast and gory - albeit somewhat dated - horror book, it's decent enough. I don't think I'll read more of Ketchum though as it's really more like Shock-Horror than Terror-Horror which is what I prefer when I read horror books. Oh, and there's no subtlety as to what's going on, or what will happen in the end.

The narration is okay. He's not the most animated narrator I've heard, but he doesn't hurt the story any.

Great Read

Didn't expect this! Exciting and different. Not familiar with the author but want to read more. Story is just enough to feel for the characters without being bored.