Reviews

Red by Jack Ketchum

njdarkish's review against another edition

4.0

This was my first Jack Ketchum novel, and because I enjoyed it as much as I did, it certainly will not be my last.
The story was compelling while staying quite simple-- teenage boys kill an old man's dog, and the man seeks justice in any way he can find it. The writing was spare and direct, but in a good way. Like Hemingway. Simply, the writing didn't warrant flowery prose, especially considering the type of man the protagonist is, so Ketchum didn't wax poetic. Instead, he wrote a strong story that carried me through in two or three sittings. The story wasn't longer than it needed to be, which was another thing I appreciated.
The directness of the prose really heightened the emotional impact for me as a reader. When the story gave me no-nonsense details about Av's life, I felt the weight of them. I also appreciated that there is some moral complexity regarding the situation on both Av's side and on that of the teenage boys and their families.

fullmooneaters's review against another edition

3.0

I went to my local used bookstore looking to introduce myself to the extreme horror genre. After bugging the cashier with my list of authors, this was the only book that they had in stock by any of the authors I had found online. I heard about and own The Girl Next Door and the Offseason Trilogy and they’re on my reading list, and I know of his notoriety in the genre, so I was excited to read this. The summary on the back seemed exciting and I couldn’t wait to get to the climax of the novel to see what exactly would happen. I was so excited in fact, that I read this book in one sitting. Revenge stories are some of my favorites and the pacing was fairly decent, the characters interesting enough, and the conflict satisfactory. Unfortunately, the final showdown so to speak, was so lame. So boring. So unexciting. You know that episode of South Park when the kids are made to read Catcher in the Rye and they were so excited to read it knowing it was controversial and edgy and influenced someone to kill someone, then they went home and read the whole thing and were like “that was it?!?”? That was me at the end of this book. The ending felt like such a let down. I thought it was going to be some grand gesture of revenge, instead it was a meager gun battle that just made me groan. I wasn’t hoping for a torture porn, don’t get me wrong, but I was hoping for something with more substance. Something that took more than a handful of pages. Something that felt like it meant something more than it did. I enjoyed the writing style and how easily digestible the novel was so I can’t hate it too much. And, the book did only take me one sitting, and I was so intrigued that I did read it all at once, so I can’t knock it too much. Maybe I let what I heard about Ketchum’s other works (Girl Next Door, Offseason, etc) lull my expectations into something too great.

abbie_reads_horror's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bloodonsnow's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Rape

billymac1962's review against another edition

3.0

It's been quite a while since I've read Jack Ketchum. Offseason and The Girl Next Door were okay reads about twenty years ago and I wasn't really inclined to read him again until Red flashed across my radar somehow.

Those previous novels were three star reads for me, but this one was a bit higher.
Red is the name of our protagonist's dog who meets a brutal fate. The story follows Avery Ludlow's search for justice.

It's a very quick read (much quicker than I thought it was going to be, as the Kindle edition's last 35% is a bonus novella), and this is a very quick review.

3.5 stars.

annie__bananie's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

shawn_of_the_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

peaches2520's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

miskatonickid's review

3.0

Liked the story. But (maybe it was the edition I got or something) the spelling and grammar was atrocious. And I’m not great at all with spelling or grammar or anything but this was actually distracting. Sometimes there’d be random letters in the middle of the sentence and it would take me out of the story, and little random spelling errors. I wonder if anyone else experienced this.

lallie91's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0