A Constant Reader

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After finishing [b:Off Season|179734|Off Season (Dead River, #1)|Jack Ketchum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1321733068s/179734.jpg|584847] I felt sick, disgusted, disturbed and amused at the same time. It was a book that really impressed me not only because of the gore but for its unpredictability, so my expectations for Offspring were really high. The sequel was entertaining but it doesn't come even close to the first instalment of the Dead River trilogy.

Offspring takes place eleven years after the events of the first book. Former sheriff Peters is still haunted by the memories of his encounter with the cannibals and he is full of regrets because of how everything ended up. Unfortunately for him, a new cannibal tribe lead by The Woman an extremely cunning psychopath, is stealing newborn children in order to increase the family. The police ask Peters to join them in the hunt of this new family of cannibals, the retired cop will have to deal with his worst nightmare again...

What I did like of this book was that the beginning was very intense, the story is really fast paced and like the previous one, it's impossible to put down once the cannibals appears. Also the story shifts from different points of view constantly so we get to know a wide range of characters which are more complex than the protagonists of the previous book, my favourite POVs (although it may sound sadistic) were those of the cannibals since Ketchum put us inside of his twisted minds and we get to know their tactics and plans, those were by far the more disturbing aspects of this book.

Sadly the story was wasted: it was extremely predictable, the character are more complex but Ketchum spent more time building them up and forgot the gore and disturbing scenes that were the strong point of the last book. Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty nasty scenes but they don't come even close to the cruelty and detail shown in Off Season, I found some of these scenes to be tuned down copies of some of the previous book.

So all in all it was an entertaining horror book ideal for a weekend read but don't expect it to be at the same level of [b:Off Season|179734|Off Season (Dead River, #1)|Jack Ketchum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1321733068s/179734.jpg|584847]. It's predictable, recycled some of the scenes of the previous book and the ending was kind of lame in my opinion.