Customer Reviews

Survivor

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Many of the poor reviews for this book are based on its graphic content. Yes, it does portray some disgusting events, but nothing that would shock a reader of extreme horror authors like Edward Lee, or authors like Jack Ketchum on the darker edges of the genre.

No, the real problem with this book is that it's abysmally written. Amateurish doesn't begin to describe the level of incompetence Gonzalez demonstrates in this novel. It gives the impression of having been written at great haste by a writer who was barely paying attention to what was going onto the page. I'm pretty certain that this book received absolutely no editing apart from running it through Microsoft Word's spell checker. We see everything from basic grammar errors to clumsy stylistic goofs to the kind of storytelling gaffes that can only be made by a fumbling hack with only the dimmest grasp of characterization or suspense.

Readers with delicate sensibilities should obviously stay away from this book, which features graphic descriptions of atrocities such as rape, necrophilia, and the gruesome murder of infants. But the danger in describing these details is that they might attract fans of extreme horror to this book, creating the impression that they're in for a good old splatterfest. You're not.

If you're looking for kinky horror thrills, you're unlikely to find them here, unless your standards are low enough that you're content with the mere description of horrific acts, staged with absolutely no imagination or style, and in fact rendered with such hamfisted dullness that this book might turn you off of horror for good.

What separates enjoyable extreme horror writers like Edward Lee from wannabes like Gonzalez is that guys like Lee revel in their dark subject matter. They love slogging through the rivers of gore and dredging up bloody treats to dangle before their repulsed, yet fascinated audience. Gonzalez, on the other hand, is an opportunistic hack, and it shows. Gonzalez doesn't understand the genre (s)he is playing at. The way the violence is depicted in this book, it's like a novel about marijuana written by the creators of Reefer Madness. When you have characters who are purveyors of "hardcore S&M porn" actually (and repetitively) using phrases like "the hardcore S&M scene" in casual conversations, you know this author knows nothing about the "hardcore S&M scene" or anyone associated with it.

If you're looking for extreme horror, please stay far away from this book. It's not what you think it is. Read "Bighead" or "The House" by Edward Lee. Read "This Symbiotic Fascination" and "Haunter" by Charlee Jacob. Read something by competent authors who have more knowledge and interest in extreme horror than some pretender dabbling in the field. This book is a ridiculous bore, an absolute waste of any real horror fan's time and money.

I have never read anything like J. F. Gonzalez's Survivor. There were times I actually thought of putting this book down and walking away (Chapter 17), but I couldn't do it. The story is so compelling, the danger so real, and the characters so believable, that I had to keep reading to the bitter end. I write horror for a living, and I thought I had seen it all. I was wrong. The villains in this novel are the vilest and most horrific creatures ever conceived. 'Animal' alone will give you nightmares for the rest of your life. Survivor disgusted me, enthralled me, and it actually made me cry. If you have a taste for real terror, and a very strong stomach, you must experience it for yourself!

J. F. Gonzalez joins the ranks of such horror/terror icons as Edward Lee and Richard Laymon for writing unflinching,graphic mayhem. Survivor starts off good, tweaking the reader in the prologue and then smacking you upside the head with its clincher ending (to the prologue,that is!)

Then its fast forward to 1998-a young,upwardly moblie,professional couple are taking a romantic vacation, where the wife is going to tell the husband she is pregnant. However, thing go awry with the husband's sudden arrest and the wife's subsequent abduction by some very unsavory types who plan to film her brutalization.

That is the plot,in a nutshell. To go on will give away too much information if you plan on reading the book. Suffice to say, its a decent read,has a strong begining, but loses its way,narratively speaking, to a hokey blood-bath of an ending. The characters are fairly two-dimensional and flat and some of the judicial/law procedures raise an eyebrow to its credibility ( I'm in Law Enforcement, so I maybe be biased!)

The book touches on the extreme bondage/ violent mutilation/hard-core/ so-called underground 'snuff' film-making scene. I say touches, because it never really delves into the Zeitgeist of this sub-sub-culture. I wasn't looking for a doctorate discourse into the 'why's' of why one would become invovled in this most extreme form of self-gratification, but a little more than what Gonzalez has his characters say would have been better.

There is a disturbing scene involving an infant, but it is not described in graphic, blow-by-blow detail, but it is quite unsettling and does give one pause.

So, if you are a fan of the likes of Edward Lee, then you will find this book suitable to your taste. If not, go read Dean Koontz.

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.

Recently, I've been reading hardcore novels from authors like Edward Lee and Richard Laymon. In fact, before I had read Survivor, I had just completed The Bighead by Mr. Lee. Whereas the Bighead's violence and gore is SO over the top, you can't help but to laugh while you gag, this book rams you with a sledgehammer over your skull, and just when you think it sunk in, it slams you some more. This book is depravity at its finest, and what makes it so special, is that it takes place in the here,the now,the real world.The events in this book COULD in fact, happen . Sure, there are some grammatical and punctuational errors in the book. However, I'm no longer in English class, so they can be overlooked.I'd love to see a movie made based on this book. With the way the characters jump off the page and imprint themsleves into your brain, imagine what the cinematic geniuses in Tinseltown could do.The main thing about this book is that it shows you how far, and to what extreme lengths a human would go through to survive, and its aftermath. Read this book IF you dare, and then afterwards ask yourself: How far would YOU go,TO SURVIVE?

I just finished reading Survivor. OMG! It was fantastic! I could not stop reading it. I read it in 3 days. The characters were so good! Terrifying, because these monsters could be real. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I would think I would only read for 15 minutes and before I knew it, 2 hours had past! The ending is so very good! I could not put it down.

As I read this book, I kept asking myself how far this story would go? Having finished reading it, I can honestly say that this author went the distance and held nothing back. Mr. Gonzalez created a very realistic and chilling depiction of a cold blooded killer that will be hard to forget. Shocking and addictive, I definitely want to check out more work by this author.

I'm not sure why the last review by "hangedwoman" was so negative, especially since they already read the novella that Survivor was based on called 'Maternal Instinct'. I think "hangedwoman" secretly loved it but won't admit it to themselves. Why else re-read something? Am I sensing a bitter and failed author?

The other 5 star reviews speak for itself and the fact that this book was recently selected to be re-released next month by the premier horror publisher in the world, Leisure Books, speaks volumes. If you want grisly, ferocious, no-holds-barred horror, this is your book.