![]() ![]() The Girl Next Door, first published by Warner Books in 1989, was based on the real-life story of Sylvia Likens, a sixteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped and tortured to death by neighbors the book, which has been published in both foreign editions and special editions, was also adapted into a 2007 feature film that polarized critics (although King was again in Ketchum’s corner, calling the film “the dark-side-of-the-moon version of Stand By Me”). His first novel, Off Season, was released by Ballantine Books in 1980 in his introduction to a later reprint, Douglas Winter called the tale of a group of cave-dwelling and cannibalistic savages who prey on vacationing New Yorkers “raw and risky,” while the Village Voice criticized Ballantine for publishing violent pornography. Ketchum-who, in person, is amiable and personable enough to have once been a successful literary agent (he managed the career of literary icon Henry Miller, among others)-has always walked a unique line between mass market author and cult object. There’s a famous quote about Jack Ketchum that goes like this: “Who’s the scariest guy in America? Probably Jack Ketchum.” The author of that quote? Just some guy named Stephen King. ![]()
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