I listened to this one on audio and it was f*cking great. Jack Ketchum is a twisted dude. And a hell of a writer to pull off these brutal tales with such skill. Or maybe I am just as twisted as he is for liking them so much. It has been 11 years since the Sheriff had wiped out the family of cannibals that terrorized the small town of Dead River, Maine in “Off Season”. Guess he missed some. Crap. Now, the Family is back for more bloody, flesh eating mayhem. Let the feast commence!I liked everythi...

Breathtaking, as powerful as Off Season, perhaps even more so. A masterpiece of horror.

Oh, yeah, this is some sick shit... and I mean that in a good way. Wait, is that possible? If you don't have the stomach for the, no punches pulled, splatter-gore, bizarro type horror, then you definitely need to avoid this one. If you do, then enjoy Ketchum at his finest. If you've read this you'll understand where I'm coming from when I say this; I just finished this on Halloween, and I got to tell ya, little kids coming to my door dressed as ghoulies takes on a whole new meaning.

they breed indeed, but they are fewso they steal or rob white infants to avoid inbreedingand they don't wanna "recruit" morethey kill to surviveand cannibalism is their eternal creed of faithor is it, is the core of their theoretic quintessence religious?

"“Ketchum has become a kind of hero to those of us who write tales of terror and suspense. He is, quite simply, one of the best in the business.”—Stephen King" ⭐⭐⭐1/2 Initial Thoughts Offspring, the sequel to Jack Ketchum's horrific but unforgettable debut novel Off Season. I read the original about fifteen years ago when I wasn't an avid reader and was just after as much extreme horror as I could get my hands on. Yes I was young and impressionable but that novel gave me everything I was l

After being terrified by the first book to the point where I was mortified by certain scenes that stuck with me for months, I didn’t find the follow-up to be as frightening. There were still a lot of horrific moments, but I don’t know if it’s because the first book was so crazy that this one seemed relatively tame in comparison. I liked the development of the Woman, and how she grew from the first book, but I don’t think the author took as many risks with the characters like he did in the first....

This is a sequel to Off Season, but I could be wrong. Being that this is a sequel (I think) you have certain expectations that need to be met. For me Ketchum met these expectations and certainly surpassed them. This is my third or fourth book I've read from this author and I just know that I'm in for something great. In Offspring we are met with another clan of horrible offspring that are trying to survive, but they are vile and disgusting. They have a belief that they need a baby. I won't elabo...

I am quite happy to be done. I expected it to be more gory than Off Season and I am pretty relieved it wasn't because I think I went into shock when shit hit the fan in Off Season. I mean, I can't get the image out of my head of Marjories savaged boob and I think I can feel it at times and it has scarred my brain.Only part I skipped over in Offspring was the part of that asshole savage f*** and the kitten. I can stomach almost anything, but not animals being hurt. Especially cats. Lost one star

3.5Jack Ketchum is underrated.Bringing every primal fear to life and covering the pages in blood, he forces you to face the extremes of the human spectrum.

This is the first Jack Ketchum book I’ve read, and his reputation for visceral horror is well-deserved. Forget about building the suspense slowly. It’s carnage from beginning to end. In a matter-of-fact tone, he writes: “Her arms were drying in the sink. Along with the dishes.” There’s power in Ketchum’s storytelling which draws the reader in. It’s the same palpable magic in Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes. You smell the fear, the blood, the excrement. Urine, too. Offspring is a well-told story...

I am officially a Jack Ketchum fan. This book was a great sequel to Off Season. It didn't seem forced to me and it never went TOO dark. Of course it was dark, but there was always hope.So what we have is some of the cannibals surviving from the original book and returning to wreak havoc. There's a little more to the story, but that's the plot in a nutshell. There was a somewhat unusual subplot regarding one of the character's ex-husband, but I think he was thrown in as the "guy you want to see t...

Reseña en español en mi blog: Click AquíAfter finishing Off Season I felt sick, disgusted, disturbed and amused at the same time. It was a book that really impressed me not only because of the gore but for its unpredictability, so my expectations for Offspring were really high. The sequel was entertaining but it doesn't come even close to the first instalment of the Dead River trilogy.Offspring takes place eleven years after the events of the first book. Former sheriff Peters is still haunted by...

Well, SHIT, yeah!!This is the follow up to the book OFF SEASON and it was written about 11 years after the first one.I read said book last year and thought it was utterly brilliant.Dead River has almost put the massacre of more than a decade ago behind them. George Peters retired as Sheriff after that night. Now a widower, he is still haunted by nightmares of everything he had witnessed and done himself - you can never find peace if you keep blaming yourself.But, when the new Sheriff knocks on h...

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. T...

Four and a half stars. Almost as good as the original.I am always leery of sequels. There seems to be two types of sequel writers. Those who are in it for the money. "Shake that moneymaker! Keep them wanting more". Then there is the reluctant writer who is nagged by his publisher to write a sequel to his best selling novel. "OK! OK! just leave me alone. I'll write a sequel then complain to the press that I never wanted to do it".Then there is the rare writer who goes back to his novel because he...

I loved Off Season so I had to get this and read it. And it didn’t disappoint. There was one scene that even gave me shivers - which hardly ever happens. A great successor and I might even go as far to say it was better than the first!!!

You kind of have to take Stephen King endorsements with a grain of salt; but when he says, "Who's the scariest guy in America? Probably Jack Ketchum.", he is spot on. No other author has had the ability to get under my skin quite like Ketchum. This book is a prime example. It's both brutal and brilliant. If you like horror which makes you feel uneasy, this story is your Disneyland. RIP Jack Ketchum.

3.5 stars rounded up. It was good, but really seemed like a recycling of Off Season’s plot, and not as brutal by miles. I flew through it, but am left feeling less than satisfied. Full review to come!!

Yet another gore extravaganza from an author whose work I’ve come to love. I read OFF SEASON last month and gave it all the stars. It was perfect. This book is great, too. Ketchum can turn a phrase that makes me gasp and my stomach clench in revulsion. This one is just a touch less graphic than its predecessor, but it’s still heavy. I’m not sure what it says about me that I prefer the ending to Off Season over this one (if you’ve read it you’ll know, no spoilers here) but I do. I quite enjoyed t...

Another lighthearted romp with Maine's favorite cannibal family, Offspring was an entertaining single-sitting novel that, while not reaching the nauseatingly violent highs (and lows) of the first entry, managed to keep my attention riveted for its 300+ pages. I don't know if I've become even more desensitized to weird shit in the three or so years since I read Off Season but this one actually seemed a bit more, hmm, wholesome or something? The amount of people horribly dying and then getting cho...