Off Season was published by Ballantine Books in 1981, though published is perhaps too gentle a word — the novel was released, then suppressed. Ballantine, alarmed by the content, cut the most graphic passages before publication and printed only a limited run. The editorial gutting and the publisher’s refusal to promote the book became a cause célèbre in horror circles, and the full, unexpurgated text was not available until the Overlook Connection Press edition of 1999.
The plot is deceptively simple: a group of friends arrive at a house on the Maine coast for a vacation. A family of feral humans — cannibals, possibly descended from a colonial-era community described in Sawney Bean legends — emerge from the woods and attack. What follows is a siege narrative stripped of every comfort: the victims are not heroes, the violence is not cathartic, and the ending is not redemptive.
Ketchum was working in the tradition of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, but his method was literary rather than cinematic. The prose is clean, controlled, and precise — the violence is described with the same flat attention that Hemingway brings to a bullfight. The effect is worse than spectacle: by refusing to sensationalize, Ketchum forces the reader to confront the violence as violence rather than as entertainment.
Collecting Off Season
First edition (Ballantine Books, New York, 1981): Mass market paperback.
Market values:
- First Ballantine edition, fine: $100–$300 (censored version)
- Overlook Connection Press unexpurgated edition (1999): $200–$500 (signed/limited)
- Very good Ballantine: $40–$100