Review: The Off-Season by Jodie Robins
I’m from Glasgow, so of course my family went to Blackpool in the October holidays for many years. That would definitely count as ‘in-season’, though - a time of evening adventures, kaleidoscopic lights, theme park rides, and hot fried food.
The Off-Season, Jodie Robins. Wild Hunt Books, 2025
The Off-Season, by contrast, tells of a Blackpool in the grey, quiet months at the start of the year. Slow days, where underemployed locals spin out pots of tea in a rundown café, and wonder where their lives were meant to take them.
Tommy has moved back to Blackpool from more southerly climes, the breakdown of his marriage and the reluctant altruism of tending to his aging father’s care needs combining in an inescapable return to the town of his youth.
Then one day the dull monotony is broken by the arrival of a group of entertainers who set up on the seafront. As Tommy and his dad weave their way through the crowds, they are confronted with the unexpected in more ways than one.
Hard to summarise this one - absurdist gothic exploration of loss and grief, maybe? - but there is real skill here in the rapid transition from dull banality to frantic vibrancy. The pivotal ‘moment of decision’ scene brought real tension, because I truly could not tell which way it would go.
This is Blackpool as most of us will never see it; the town that lies just beneath the noise and the lights, the town that belongs to residents rather than tourists. A short wee read, but one that packs a punch. Definitely one to look out for.
The Off-Season is one of 6 novellas which form the Northern Weird project; bringing us stories from and about the north of England.
Thanks to Wild Hunt books for this ARC. The Off-Season will be published on 26th June.
Grab your copy of The Off-Season from Wild Hunt books or via Amazon UK
Product pages are affiliate links
