Rating: 
Summary: Ketchum is insane!
Review: Despite the western and a few soft, non-horror stories (?!), Jack Ketchum's collection PEACEABLE KINGDOM will leave horror fans (especially those into gore) hungering for more. MAIL ORDER is one of the best short horror stories in years (with an ironic and truly horrifying ending), as is THE HAUNT. Ketchum truly shines in the short story format, and delivers a much better compilation than other recent offerings on the Leisure Books label. Add two HUGE pluses for a unique and latent zombie tale as well as a very strange view of the vampire genre.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent collection of short stories
Review: I am currently rereading all of these stories. Ketchum is not only a amazing horror novelist he has in this collection some of the best short fiction Iv'e ever read. I cannot recall the name of the story, but a father outraged that a pedophile is living in his neighboorhood gets desprate to keep his daughter safe and finally kills the man. This story is beautifully written and by the end you discover the father isn't the hero you think he is. I love the way ketchum brings the human condition to life in another example where a mother discovers the truth about what her son is becoming and "prevents" it from happening. A must have book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I was hoping for...
Review: I discovered Jack Ketchum while searching for a horror author that would shock me. I began with Off Season and Girl Next Door, and boy did they deliver. I found my new main squeeze in Ketchum and set about to eagerly devour anything he had written. My next book was Peaceable Kingdom. I am a fan of the short story format and I discovered that I had read the story "The Box" already; I just had failed to take note of the author's name.
With high hopes I read this book and perhaps that is why I'm so dissapointed. It just wasn't all that. It was a bit dull, not very shocking or horrific, and if you will pardon the term -"artsy-fartsy" and snobbish in a few instances.
Not to say that it isn't well written, he is still a very skilled and gifted writer. A few of the stories were quite enjoyable to me - The Rifle, Chain Letter, Snakes and Mail Order were my favorites - but mostly the rest were 'ehh...'.
To sum up, if you have read Off Season and Girl Next Door and you are expecting a collection of short stories in the same vein - this book is not for you. If you just want some easy yet thoughtful and dark stories, then dig in.
Rating:
Summary: better than most
Review: I don't usually like short horror stories but this novel was pretty good.I think it's because he pulls no punches, and always manages to get keep you interested.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Memorable.
Review: I was extremely disappointed in this collection from one of my favorite authors. Sure there are some excellent stories in this novel. All of which won the Bram Stoker award, Gone, The Box, and Closing Time. The last story firedance was also a refreshing change for ketchum fans, but 70% of the book was clearly filler material. I really didn't enjoy the 10 page short story format. Even though you can get 30 stories in a book, they all seemed incomplete in some way. I always finished a story wishing there were about 10 more pages.
Also alot of the stories lacked the edge that jack ketchum's novels usually have. It was almost like they packaged this set together to rival a Stephen King collection, even though ketchum's style is completely different.
I would reccommend this novel as a starter for new ketchum readers but not to his faithful "Hardcore" followers.
Rating:
Summary: What the **** is in "The Box"?!!
Review: I was first turned onto Ketchum's work through a co-worker, and have been an avid fan ever since. Still have yet to read Off Season or Cover,but I've been in awe of this author since his dark coming of age tale The Girl Next Door. Ketchum's voice, in case you don't know is EXTREMELY dark which shows through his writing. This collection of stories range in styles, you have everything from westerns, to sci-fi,and of course,straight freaky-*** horror. I'm only about halfway through this book, but the stories that I will definately be re-reading are
The Box-Stoker winner for short story. Dear GOD!!!! It's creepy!!!
The Work-might be some autobiographical aspects to this story, but once you read it,you hope and pray that this won't happen.
Ketchum's voice is dark, but if you consider yourself a fan of horror, give it a try. And oh yes, Leisure books rule!!!
Rating:
Summary: Brutal yet somehow satisfying
Review: I'm somewhat of a newbie with Mr. Ketchum and I must say that it has been a real pleasure getting to know his work. Being from the Robert Bloch/Richard Matheson school, I have high expectations and Jack Ketchum comes damn near close. He tells a tight and concise short story, no fat. They are taught with human (and oftentimes animal!) emotion and convey more in 4 pages than many authors can do with 400. And they are INTENSE. Lord, I don't know how to warn people about the volatility of Mr. Ketchum's characters, and perhaps I shouldn't. You asked for it, you got it.
I found "Peaceable Kingdom" hard to get through, there was so much dread and depravity. Sex slaves kept in boxes under beds, anyone? How about grieving widowers at bedsides of the undead? Perhaps cruelly made orifaces for criminal punishment? It's quite the smorgasborg. And Mr. Ketchum piles on the empathy, too. I can't think of another writer who spends so much time on so many details about so many characters who are so much about to get it!
But all is not doom and despair in Mr. Ketchum's world and that is why I give the 5 star rating. There is loads to think about here. Basically, man's inhumanity to man and the world around him. And, fortunately, by the last few stories, things start winding down and, as Ketchum promises in his foreward, the "warm and fuzzies" literally step out in to the "kingdom". It's an amazing turn of events and quite satisfying, not to mention profound.
Something tells me that Jack Ketchum is not all about the blood and gore, but about holding up mirrors and letting us decide how decent we should be to each other.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal yet somehow satisfying
Review: I'm somewhat of a newbie with Mr. Ketchum and I must say that it has been a real pleasure getting to know his work. Being from the Robert Bloch/Richard Matheson school, I have high expectations and Jack Ketchum comes damn near close. He tells a tight and concise short story, no fat. They are taught with human (and oftentimes animal!) emotion and convey more in 4 pages than many authors can do with 400. And they are INTENSE. Lord, I don't know how to warn people about the volatility of Mr. Ketchum's characters, and perhaps I shouldn't. You asked for it, you got it.
I found "Peaceable Kingdom" hard to get through, there was so much dread and depravity. Sex slaves kept in boxes under beds, anyone? How about grieving widowers at bedsides of the undead? Perhaps cruelly made orifaces for criminal punishment? It's quite the smorgasborg. And Mr. Ketchum piles on the empathy, too. I can't think of another writer who spends so much time on so many details about so many characters who are so much about to get it!
But all is not doom and despair in Mr. Ketchum's world and that is why I give the 5 star rating. There is loads to think about here. Basically, man's inhumanity to man and the world around him. And, fortunately, by the last few stories, things start winding down and, as Ketchum promises in his foreward, the "warm and fuzzies" literally step out in to the "kingdom". It's an amazing turn of events and quite satisfying, not to mention profound.
Something tells me that Jack Ketchum is not all about the blood and gore, but about holding up mirrors and letting us decide how decent we should be to each other.
Rating:
Summary: Peaceable Kingdom
Review: If I'm to give the highest praise to those books that illicit the strongest reaction I've ever had while reading them, then--due to a technicality--I have to rate Peaceable Kingdom as high as any. Because I almost got sick reading one of the stories inside. I was on a subway train, feeling perfectly fine--but then I started reading Ketchum's tale called 'Amid The Walking Wounded', featuring the ultimate, unstoppable nosebleed, and I fainted. Passed out, for a moment. Just before, and just after, passing out, I felt like I was going to throw up, I felt weak and nauseous, I got the sweats, and I flashed back to a horrible nosebleed I had as a kid. I just don't like blood that doesn't do the right thing and stop flowing, even from little cuts, or normally well-behaved nostrils. I realize it's not the blood itself; it's the fact that it might not stop...especially in a Ketchum horror story.Yuck. But effective story-telling, effective use of the gross-out. And not all the stories in Peaceable Kingdom push the same Panic buttons; Ketchum leads off his collection with an Intro where he tries to con you into believing he's a nuisance because he aims for variety. False modesty, but I'll take that over glaring hubris--and thank the stars for Ketchum's variety. I didn't want to spend the whole book fainting (though that would probably earn a horror collection a five-star review, now that I realize how rare that would be!), and thankfully, 'Amid the Walking Wounded' is completely different than, say the last entry, 'Firedance', which is unnerving but beautiful too. The order of the stories sabotages Ketchum's penchant for variety, with a bit of theme-building. Early on, the emphasis seems to be on families--kids, in particular: the good the bad, and the ugly to the soul. The opener, called 'The Rifle', is cruelly arresting, and not far after that, we have one of the best tales in the bunch, the award-winner, 'The Box', enigmatic tragi-horror of the best kind you might ever find. By the end of the collection, animals attack, or at least behave strangely. In between, Ketchum gives up at least two stories--one of them the longest, called 'Closing Time'--in which several scattered characters are unknowingly interconnected by a dangerous fate that is unfolding, pulling them together, for a terrible conclusion caused by the evil, or maybe just the apathy, of one troubled participant. 'Closing Time' is good, but an earlier, similar entry--'The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard'--is perhaps better. Better, because the author doesn't end it. He allows you, the reader to end it for him, and how can you not end it badly? Marvellous horror, which comments on each and every reader, just by being what it is. Additionally, lots of different women throughout the tales. The good, the bad, the...well, you get it. And you can decide if Ketchum has issues. It's no skin off my nose. (Yuck. I must forget, I must forget...).
Rating:
Summary: THE definitive Ketchum collection
Review: If you like 'some' Ketchum or 'all' Ketchum this is an absolute must have for your library! One of Ketchum's greatest draws is his diverse writing, from macabre to simply chilling, from 'mainstream' to hardcore, and from unnerving to straight out jaw clenching - and this collection covers ALL the bases!
With an introduction that will make you smile this book begins with a bang... literally in 'The Rifle.' The first story is not forgotten as you delve into the various tunnels of his macabre mind and travel through these stories that attack your senses - in fact, The Rifle is the story that sticks with me still.
Writing on the edge of reality, Ketchum empowers his readers with the gift of 'what if' and you tend to leave his works with furrowed brow and fearful contemplation. From a mother's dilemma to a western setting, he has the ability to put horror into any normal situation and remove your securities.
Characters are generally difficult to develop fully in short stories, but Ketchum leaves you with several memorable creations. There is truly something for everyone within these pages. Whether you like hardcore or subtle, modern or classic, you will walk away wanting more.
A solid 5. If you've never read Ketchum, this is a great sampler - if you have you'll love this!
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