Commentaires client les plus utiles
|
|
3 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
Good scare, Sep 18 2006
Off Season opens with a BANG, and hangs on to it throughout the book.
A young woman on her way to the quiet town of Dead River to visit her son and daughter-in-law sees on of the most peculiar things: a half naked girl wandering in the middle of the road. When she gets out of the car to see what is wrong with the small girl, it turns out that the girl is perfectly alright, and in fact laughing manically. When our good Samaritan turns around to head back to her car, the vehicle is surrounded by a pack of wild, skin-wearing children and teenagers. The children then attack her with shards of bark and small knifes, chasing her into the night and eventually over a cliff.
THUS ENDETH CHAPTER ONE. Good start no?
The story then moves over to an editor named Carla, who is taking a small vacation with her friends at a small cabin at Dead River, not a few miles from where the attack in the first chapter took place. Little does she know that someone has already staked a claim on the small piece of land, and now Carla's vacation has turned into a mad dash for survival.
The book has a feeling similar to the plot line as the movie Wrong Turn or House of a Thousand Corpses, with a clan of cannibal crazies hunting down innocent vacationers but with much more tact and thought behind the story. I really enjoyed this novel, and it was a very fast read. If you want a good scare, grab this one.
|
|
|
2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Extreme horror at its best, Jui 17 2006
First and foremost, it must be said that Off Season is not for the faint of heart; this is a visceral, brutal, unrestrained, exceedingly realistic novel that may sicken and disgust those unprepared for such extreme horror. The cover of my copy proclaims this "The Ultimate Horror Novel." I would not go that far in my assessment, but the suggestion doesn't fall very far from the mark. Ketchum held nothing back and pulled no punches in this, his first published novel. The story is rather simple but is far from simplistic. A group of six adults (three male, three female) retreat to a remote cabin in the woods of Maine for a week of relaxation. Unbeknownst to them, a family-group of utterly primitive, sadistic quasi-humans watch, wait, and eventually attack. Among this group are a number of wild children, and it is the children that have the most significant impact on the characters as well as the reader. The battle rages for some time, and many very bad things happen as the innocent victims do everything they can think of in order to survive. I found the conclusion to be spectacular; rest assured it is not the formulaic ending we see so often in novels of this sort.
I won't attempt to describe the horrible things the depraved attackers do--imagine the worst things you can think of, then imagine how much worse the unthinkable is, then imagine children taking part in it. This really is one of the goriest, most extreme horror novels I have read, but it rises far above any charges of shock value or gore for gore's sake. It would have been a disservice to the reader had Ketchum not made the awful individuals he described behave in such a fashion; in fact, I would suggest that these characters of Ketchum's creation committed such atrocities on their own and that Ketchum the writer had no choice but to tell their story truthfully and realistically. It is this utter, unimaginable realism that really sinks its claws into you and immerses you in this nightmare landscape of Ketchum's genius. Extreme horror used gratuitously accords the author little respect in my book, but extreme horror written as honestly and dare I say respectfully as that of Off Season deserves the utmost respect that I, as an epicure in the horrible, can possibly give to an author.
|
|
|
2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
When the line between human and animal is severed, Fév 14 2004
Carla has been given a cherry editing assignment, one month to finish editing a book on fifties rock 'n' roll, which she knew she could easily finish in one week. She rents a cabin outside the tiny town of Dead River up the Maine coastline. Carla invited company up for the first week of her stay; her younger sister Marjie and her boyfriend Dan, Carla's own current boyfriend Jim, and her ex-boyfriend Nick who brings along his current girl Laura. All five ride up to meet Carla together.Marjie loves reading the scandalous Evening Post, and eagerly reads the book on Dead River that Carla sent her, eating up the tales of Catbird island and the mysterious deaths and disappearances that surrounded the lighthouse and island there. What none of the six vacationers know about is the family of wild people who live in the caves along the rocky shores. They are not zombies, they are real; but they are not civilized. As dead in the brain as a zombie would be, this hellish clan lives off the land and survives on whatever food happens their way. And their favorite food is people. This wild clan of human monsters will discover the vacationers, and a fight for their lives ensues. Who will be the next target? Will the local sheriffs catch on in time? Off Season is a gore streaked feast for those inclined to gruesome horror. Practically banned back in 1981 for its disgusting content and mainly for its use of children as villains instead of victims. A not to be missed early piece by the master, Jack Ketchum, pick up a copy of this if you can find it. Enjoy!
|
|
|
|
de Jack Ketchum
de Jack Ketchum
de Jack Ketchum
de Jack Ketchum
de Jack Ketchum
