Offspring by Jack Ketchum
So, I'm retroactively writing a blog about Offspring by Jack Ketchum. This was the first book I read by the master of splat and visceral horror. I read Off Season later.
This book is good old fashion splatterpunk. Many people don't like Ketchum's "Off" books because of the amount of gore and canabalism, but every horror writer has to indulge these two topics. He just started off with them. He was a good answer to Stephen King, when he was burning up the book lists in the beginning of the 1980's, but back to the story. It follows the offspring of a clan of flesh eaters who inhabit the rocky coast of Maine. I have friends from Maine, by the way, and they've never tried to eat me.
The book deals with teens as the hunters and younger children. It's more like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome with recipes for cooking humans. It's not as enjoyable a story as Off Season but it is still well written. Ketchum has a way with the gore, and this book proves it.
