Offspring

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 show more 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." show less

Offspring was better than Off Season. It had the advantage of being less dated but was still firmly a genre book. It didn't contain overly long descriptions of sex or ridiculous amounts of torture porn. Offspring had good characters and plotting along with taut action scenes. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I should have.

Jack Ketchum's Off Season was a brilliantly executed take on a somewhat cliché idea. One night in the backwoods of Maine, a group of city dwellers are attacked by a group of feral cannibals. In their attempt to survive, they find themselves confronting the savagery of mankind, not just in their enemies but in themselves as well. A decade later, Ketchum returns to the lonely woods of Maine; waiting there is the last survivor from the original clan. She has now grown and gathered a new family around her, feral and vicious as the first, to seek out new prey.

You may be wondering how Ketchum manages to top Off Season, which was brutally engrossing despite its clichéd elements. Surprisingly, he doesn't, eschewing 'the same, only bigger' show more strategy so common to sequels. Though the structure is the same--one night's encounter between a group of people and the deadly clan hunting them--Ketchum creates a more varied and complex cast of characters. Even the cannibal children have more personality than those in the original.

The new group of hero-victims includes David and Amy Halbard, software programmers living in what they believe to be the peaceful countryside, and their daughter Melissa. (In a bit of a comedic aside, David and Amy had earned the wealth to buy the isolated cabin by creating a hit adventure game by the name of The Woods Are Dark.) Soon they are joined by Amy's friend Claire and her son Luke. Also making his way there and something of a beast in his own right is Claire's estranged husband Steven. This is a contrast to the group in Off Season, who would have fit in fine in a Friday the 13th flick if they had been a few years younger. Also returning is now-retired lawman George Peters, who was sheriff during the events of the first book.

Ketchum's prose has also improved, and the story feels a little more organic for it. Though very much along the same lines as the original, Offspring is actually somewhat richer and more emotionally complex. The only downside is that it fails to match the white-knuckle intensity of the original. show less

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

I originally bought this book not realizing that it was a sequel, so I had to read the first book first. (Off Season, in case you're wondering.) I wasn't particularly impressed with the writing quality in Off Season, but then again, it wasn't supposed to be a "well-written" book…its main appeal was the story's extreme level of visceral gore. And when I say extreme, I mean extreme. I remember reading the book at home while my parents and my sister were watching TV, and I remember looking up and saying nonchalantly, "You know, this may be the most disgusting book I've ever read." And then I went back to reading.

Yes, as strange as it may seem, this level of gore does hold appeal for many horror fans, and there was something about Off show more Season I appreciated. It's definitely NOT meant for squeamish stomachs, but I wasn't disappointed that I had read it, and when I finally got to Offspring a few years later, I was expecting more of the same.

Both stories revolve around a group of savage and cannibalistic humans living in the northern woods of Maine who routinely attack people living in isolated cabins on the coastline. The victims are gruesomely mutilated and consumed, until an aging sheriff steps in to save the day, or what little bit of the day remains.

With a few small exceptions, the plots in both of these books are identical. Offspring tries to tie in with the first book, mainly in terms of the old sheriff still having issues coping with what he's experienced and trying to track down the last of the surviving cannibals in order to atone for his past mistakes, but the essential core of the story is the same.

There's still a lot of gore in this book, but for some reason, it wasn't as pervasive or memorable as it was in the first book. Maybe it's been too long since I've read Off Season, or maybe I've numbed myself to the violence, but I was not nearly as disgusted as I was several years ago.

My main issue with this book was, again, with the writing style. I know a novel like this is not supposed to blow you away with its literary prowess, but I found myself really struggling to keep up even with the basic sentence structure, especially in the chapters from the cannibals' points of view. No one in the tribe has an actual name, and Ketchum's sentences were so convoluted that I had to reread several passages before I could figure out what was going on.

But with that being said, I still maintain that there's a reader for every book, and if someone came to me who really, really enjoyed Off Season, I would probably put this book in their hands. Not my particular brand of horror, but I attribute that to my own personal tastes (pun partially intended)...

Recommended for: fans of extremely gruesome horror

Readalikes:

Other horror authors that have made a name for themselves by pushing the limits of gore: Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, & Poppy Z. Brite.

Afraid - Jack Kilborn. A helicopter crash unleashes a group of government-created psychotic killers that destroy a nearby town, leaving only a few stragglers behind. Publisher's Weekly calls this one a "gore fest."

The Ruins - Scott Smith. A group of friends just out of college become stranded at the site of an ancient Mayan ruin, where they discover that they are being stalked by something horrific. Besides being an intense survival thriller, anyone who reads this book will never look at plants the same way again...

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis. A wealthy Wall Street yuppie in 1980's New York City masquerades as an emotionless, brutal serial killer at night. This is a much more experimental novel that relies heavily on satire and dark humor, but if you want the gross-out factor, American Psycho delivers. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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.