The most terrifying, horrific horror novel I ever read was Open Season by Jack Ketchum. One critic who praised the book summed it up perfectly, including for me after I read it. Unlike all other horror novels, there is nothing redemptive; only repulsive. One cheers for the heroes, but is disgusted by what they have to do to survive. Again, there's nothing redemptive; only repulsive and disgusting. One has nightmares after reading it. In other words, it works to perfection.
It's about a group of NYC women who rent a cabin on the stormy coast of Maine (where else?), not knowing that living along the storm-tossed coast in a cave is a tribe of inbred, cannibalistic humans, the descendants of a brother and sister who washed up there generations ago after a shipwreck. The tribe attacks, hunts down and dispatches the women one by one to turn them into sausage (described in grizzly detail) until those left must resort to the most debased things to survive. It was truly and completely horrific, one of the few novels that surpassed the absolute horror of Stephen King's Pet Semetary.
Ballantine published the book and by word of mouth it became a massive best-seller. But the graphic horror of it brought protests and the company pulled it after the initial printing sold out. Readers scrambled to find copies still around. Years later, it was reprinted.
I believe it is now on Amazon. It is one of the most horrific novels one can read and let me say, if anyone wants to attempt it, you've been warned. It's disgusting, revolting and absolutely horrifying. Sleep well after reading it. As I stated, as horror, it magnificently works.
Gerard
