Survivor [Paperback]

J. F. Gonzalez (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...it pushes your eyes off the page and then pulls them back..." -- New York Times Review of Books, October 31, 2004 --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Midnight Library (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975514407
• ISBN-13: 978-0975514405
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,099,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts out strong, then fades., August 27, 2006

By 

Jose Jones - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Survivor (Mass Market Paperback)

In its first half, "Survivor" uses the universal fear of a woman kidnapped and the subversive, taboo aura of snuff films to great effect. Our main character, Lisa, is separated from her husband in an unlikely ruse. Her kidnapper takes her to a cabin with the intent of filming her being raped and killed. Her life is briefly spared when an innocent walks in on the scene and the men involved -- her kidnapper, a cameraman and the "performer," a guy who calls himself Animal -- make a movie with her first.

This opening sequence is scary, horrific and suspenseful. And what Lisa does to get out of this horrible situation is just as shocking.

We get wrapped up in Lisa's survival, the stunning thing she does to save her own life, and her sweaty life-or-death predicament. But when it's over the novel jogs in place for a long time. Only to kick back into action with more violence that feels utterly empty.

Lisa's turmoil is affecting, but it never goes beyond the obvious weeping, and that's a big problem with the book -- we never get a glimpse into any of the characters. We never learn why people want to watch snuff films, and we never get to know why people get off on hurting others. Animal rambles on for ten pages, but it felt like a lame explanation. If you're going to tackle this subject, you have to come up with something better than the old "power trip" line of thought.

The book gets a little wacky in the end, as a cartoonish character enters the scene and does something fairly impossible, and overall where this novel ends up is rather unsatisfying and even a little boring.

I really wish Gonzalez had stayed away from the obvious course this book takes. Because its first third is so good -- a matter-of-factly terrifying situation you dread but can't stop reading that ends with a moral twist that makes you question what you would do in the same circumstances -- and then just sort of fades into the oblivion of cliches and bad revenge movies.

Gonzalez had a lot he could have explored in this novel, but in the end "Survivor" doesn't live up to the promise of its opening.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing, suspenseful and sick, May 16, 2006

By 

J. Krall "Horror/Bizarro/Noir Author" (Noir Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survivor (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first Gonzalez book I've read and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm used to reading Edward Lee and Ketchum, etc.. and am no stranger to anything gross. What makes this book GROSSER than Edward Lee is the fact that it takes place in the real world. No strange creatures, aliens, or demons. The real evil is human sadism. That being said, yes, I agree with one reviewer who said it borrows a little bit from that movie 8MM. I'm not sure why the author did this (did he think that movie is obscure?) but even so, the book elaborates on the subject and really does disturb even a hardened reader like myself. He really touches on some things that I'm surprised that the publisher allowed it (the whole baby thing). This is a VERY quick read.. not because it's short but because it's suspenseful. You even get to see things from some of the "bad" guys' perspectives. As for the sloppy writing that one of the reveiwers mentioned, I'm sure that there might have been.. but with mass market pulp horror paperback, I'm sure we're all not looking for Hemingway.. just a good story to entertain us.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly disturbing, June 12, 2006

By 

Melanie Tyler "Melanie" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survivor (Paperback)

Call me masochistic, but I love horror books and movies that do more than entertain, I like them to be seriously disturbing. Case in point: Survivor, which I can only describe as the literary equivelant of the movies Saw or Hostel.

The entire scenario of this novel was gut-wrenching and horrifying. Snuff films are a sort of urban legend, but with a few deft strokes, it becomes conceivable that they could be real. The plot of Survivor explores this as a young couple get seperated in what appears to be a road rage incident. The woman is later kidnapped and we realize why: somebody wants to see her get killed in a snuff film. Just exactly who it is will shock you. She also has just found out she's pregnant. What she does to escape is the most awful part of the book, and it was actually painful for me to read and yet at the same time I couldn't put it down. Yes, horrible things happen in the novel, and the very mention that an infant is murdered is horrible enough (this isn't even shown in the novel, but referred to in flashbacks). But the gore is handled in a way that makes it realistic and ugly and I don't think it was written with the intention to shock. Considering the kind of characters the bad guys are, and the subject matter, I don't think it could have been handled any other way.

I recommend this highly to anyone who loves seriously disturbing horror, and yet I can't stress strongly enough that this is not a book for everyone.