Survivor is sick, twisted, and very, very disturbing. I briefly considered abandoning it in frustration after Lisa did what she had to do to get out of her situation. Then I realized I had to finish to see if Tim, Animal and the other depraved monsters got their due. I'm relieved it is finally done and the book safely out of my house.

I honestly don't know what possessed me to buy Survivor. I like well written horror stories and don't mind some violence and gore, but Survivor wasn't particularly More...

This book may haunt you and not in a good way. I do not recommend reading it unless you are a hardcore horror reader because you will never be able to unread it. The scares here come in the way of torturous things happening to people by other people. None of it is supernatural in nature and that makes it all so much worse

So here's the setup. Two young lawyers decide to take a nice little vacation that turns nightmarish pretty quickly. A crazed driver decides to target them, separate them and kid More...

grueling, powerful stuff.

a pregnant woman on vacation with her husband is kidnapped by a group of underground film makers specializing in snuff films. the book has the flavor of HOSTEL or a SAW film, in that the heroine endures atrocities both moral and physical
at the hands of faceless villians. what she's made to do to others is almost as bad as what is done to her.

this normally wouldn't be the kind of book i'd like, but i read a few really strong reviews for it online. could've been throwawa More...

This is by far the most disturbing, graphic, risk-taking novel I've ever read in my life. I've read everything by Stephen King, nearly everything by Dean Koontz, and then books by brutal horror authors like Bentley Little, James Herbert, Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum, and Thomas Tessier, and nothing I've read by them can come close to this masterpiece of sick twisted violence. The novel is about a couple who is going on vacation. The husband is framed for a minor crime so that the wife will be av More...

Trigger warning: Not for sensitive readers. I thought this would be some cheesy 'hardcore horror' book with lots of laughs and kinky parts... buuuut I was wrong. There is nothing wrong with the book itself. It's a very well written page turning thriller. But it's not made to be an enjoyable read. Period. The highly HIGHLY TABOO subject matter deals with the 'snuff' industry. There is lots of anxiety and grotesque depressing situations involving unwilling participants. It's about the lowest form More...

J.F. Gonzalez Survivor

Plot:

It was supposed to have been a romantic weekend getaway. Lisa was looking forward to spending time alone with her husband - and telling him that they were going to have a baby. Instead, it became a nightmare when her husband was arrested and Lisa was kidnapped. But the kidnappers aren't asking for ransom. They want Lisa herself. They're going to make her a star - in a snuff film.

My Review and Thoughts:

This is a dark horror that is a deep twisted in your face, step over More...

I didn't plan it this way but this was the second book in a two week period that I finished which happened to be centered around snuff films. The other was Edward Lee's THE HOUSE. It's not like I tried to do so nor are snuff films a usual plot device; it's not unusual but it's definitely not common. Regardless, it was SURVIVOR which I liked more. There is a more believable and solid plot. The story has the gross-out and over-the-top gore that was expected but from characters that are easier to c More...

I liked this book, but it wasn't a five star read for me, cause of the editing problems.
For example, one of the first chapters ends with something like "they drove away and after 5 min, forgot all about the woman". The next chapter like starts with "Brad spending 30 min thinking about the woman" SERIOUSLY? it's on the same page, look it up... there shouldn't be such glaring inconsistencies in a mass published work.Their bodyguard is described as 6 feet tall, soon after he's described as being ea More...

Well, I wanted something shocking...this was most certainly shocking.

A romantic getaway for Brad and Lisa turns into a kidnapping for Lisa to star in a Snuff film!

The setup of how she was captured in the first place is kind of shaky. I don't know of any place that throws someone in jail for 3 days for traffic violations on a "citizens arrest" but I guess it's what moved the story to where it needed to be.

The actions that follow, are bloody....vile....disgusting...they make you want to stop readi More...

I really disliked this book, not for the graphic subject matter but for the bad writing and boring story line. I found it very similar to watching porn, no one watches it for the story or the acting, its all about getting to the sex. Survivor was exactly the same, the story is boring and badly written with short bursts of interest in the form of shocking passages. It feels like the author is going overboard with the violence and sex only putting it in for the shock value. I'm not opposed to grap More...

Survivor has surprised me in divers ways.
I was expecting just a dreadful horror-story as the regular Jack Ketchum, but this had more to offer.

The mentioned plot is that a woman is being kidnapped, and held to serve as victim in a snuff-movie.
So I expected it would be just that and expecting the victim to survive.

But there's a lot more.
The intro of this book is appalling and what happens there, has something to do with a (scary and sick) character who comes back later in the story.

For prevent More...

I think it is so funny when “horror fans” become “offended” or “deeply disturbed”. I loved this book, it takes the reader to those dark deep places that we don’t want to know about that really exist but we want to pretend that they do not exist. Like Ketchum, Gonzalez does an amazing job of showing the true horror of the human corrupt heart. Survivor is a page turner and I had to find out how Lisa was going to survive her ordeal. To me this is the scariest type of horror, no monster tromping th More...

This was a really good book. I love horror and usually nothing fazes me. The thing about this book was that it didn't necessarily gross me out (I've definitely read grosser descriptions) , so much as crawl under my skin and into my brain. Yes there is definitely sex, violence, (lots of) gore, and horrific events occurring in this book, but what really impressed me was some of the restraint Gonzalez demonstrated in some of the more notorious segments. There were many points in which a lesser horr More...

First of all, holy shit. This book is not for the faint of heart and there were scenes in the book that I almost felt sick at (the baby scene was the worst)and wanted to "unknow" what I had just read. I was a little concerned that I would always have those images burned into my brain so now I'm reading a light book just to erase the darkness of this one. I gave it four stars because while it was as disturbing as all hell (one of THE most disturbing books I've ever read, and I like general horror More...

Well, I know my limit now. I enjoy the disturbing books, the graphic scenes, horror. This was too much for me. Some how, some reason I finished it. Had to see who was behind it. It was VERY difficult to read. I was scared to let my eyes land on some of the words, fear that I would accidentally read it and know what was going on. I skipped sentences, I did, no shame. It was just too much.
On the writing style; I had to look at the picture of the author when I was done reading it. Who can write th More...

*sigh*

A good editor is worth every penny. Lack of one makes this book worth so much less than it could have been. Every problem I had with it could have been fixed. It's hard to be disturbed and terrorized by the story when I kept getting pulled out by repetition, inconsistencies and other assorted issues.

So that was (some of) the bad. The good? Well, the author handles the material well. There are some extreme things going on in this book, but the author knew when to pull back, when to cut sce More...

I don't know why some reviewers hate this book because of the content. Don't you read the back of the book? You know you're getting into some gruesome stuff, so why complain after you read it? Anyway, this novel is very hardcore, and I'm so glad I've discovered J.F. Gonzalez. He blends realistic human drama the way Richard Laymon writes and combines that with the raw sensibilities of Edward Lee. The first half of the book is very inspired and is slightly better than the second half, but J.F. com More...

To say that this novel gave me nightmares would be an understatement. Some of the things Gonzalez writes about in Survivor still bother me. I'm an EMT...*rolls eyes* I know right? But back to the topic. Nothing is too extreme for Animal and he is always after the ultimate high sexually. It's like he's addicted to heroin and he does anything to get it. I can't even put myself in Lisa's place. It's too disturbing. It's an OK read...NOT for the easily offended, grossed out, or wimps. Read it twice More...

The most horrible, horrifying, disgustingly depraved book I have ever read. This book is not for the weak of heart or stomach! It gave me real life nightmares. The story of a pregnant woman kidnapped by terrible people (and I use the term people loosely here) and held hostage until they have the perfect location in which to use her in their snuff film. This book details the tortures visited on her, another captive girl, and the newborn baby, all to be filmed for the perverse pleasure of others. More...

I read this twice when I was in high school. I have read many disturbing horror novels, most of them by Richard Laymon and one by Jack Ketchum, but this trumps them all in terms of disturbing content. Of course, twisted high school me really enjoyed it because of that. It used to be a game of mine to get other students to read the 10-page or so prologue and analyze their reaction (it was universal shock and horror). The rest of the novel never reaches the shocking climax of the prologue, but it More...

I found this book to be very disappointing. I liked the parts dealing with Lisa trying to cope with her drastic decision after being kidnapped and the ending dealing with the aftermath of Lisa and Brad's lives but the rest was overlong, poorly written and very repetetive and lacked necessary humanity to make it more than just torture porn disguised as a meaningful exploration of the snuff film industry. Perhaps if the author didn't feel the need to overexplain everything in the story ad nauseum, More...

One of those rare books that lives up to the hyperbole, SURVIVOR by J.F. Gonzalez is just as bleak, dark, and disturbing as you've heard it is. A lot of hard-edged horror novels and films ask how far you would go to protect the ones you love, but Gonzalez takes the notion a step further--having done what was neccessary to survive, can you live with what you've done?

At the hands of underground pornographers, an expectant mother makes a ghastly decision to keep her child safe. I'll not spoil it, b More...

This was a tough one to finish and I nearly threw it down in complete revulsion more than once, yet there was also something so compelling about the story that kept me riveted and turning the pages to get to the end ... the whole "slowing down to look at the accident" compulsion I guess. Not one of our most attractive human qualities, this morbid curiosity that afflicts us.

In order to survive the worst circumstances imaginable the female protagonist makes a choice no human should ever make in o More...

Nobody is more surprised at my 4-star rating of this book than me. I went into this book expecting to hate it and be offended by the gratuitous violence. However, that's not what happened.

The plot: Lisa and Brad are an attractive, successful couple en route to a peaceful vacation. Lisa recently found out she was pregnant, and is going to break the good news to her husband.

But they are menaced by an erratic van driver who accuses THEM of driving erratically, and Brad is arrested for reckless driv More...

This is not a book for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. There, you have been warned. I'm a huge horror fan, I've been reading and watching horror from too young of an age so I'm pretty hard to gross out or scare. But there are two things I can't stand... don't hurt puppies and don't hurt babies. Sorry for the spoiler but let's just say there aren't any puppies in this book.

One Paragraph Summary: A young couple (Brad and Lisa) are on vacation where Lisa intended to tell Brad that they were More...

Fucking sick. Seriously. I read this book a while ago, and still remember it now, probably because, oh, (view spoiler)[ the guys RAPES AND EATS A BABY ALIVE (hide spoiler)]. I think there are just some places we don't need to go. So, on to the milder portion of the review...

Other peoples ratings of this book seem to be pretty high, but I found it a bit too disturbing to enjoy. I'm a fan of horror, but there are some lines I'd rather not see crossed. Also, there are some problems with the writing and editing. I often find myse More...

I really hated this book, not simply as a matter of taste but because it was a perfect example of really bad writing. The characters were unsympathetic and at times their motivation unbelievable, readers were knocked upside the head with plot devices, and worst of the worst, there was a section with several pages of exposition, the main villian of the story explaining how he got into making snuff films. ANY rambling exposition like that is ridiculous in a published work, but to top it all off it More...

First let me say that I love horror and gore and have a very strong stomach for such tales. While reading this book I seriously considered putting it down and never picking it back up. I won't spoil it for others who have yet to read it, but I'm sure those of you who have read the book know exactly what I am talking about. It is hard to even imagine that such evil lurks in our shadows. I think I struggled with the scenario in question because I am a mother. This was a little too real for me. I d More...

This was the most disturbing book I have ever read. It literally made me throw up. I burned it when I was finished.

That being said, it must have been well-written to evoke such a response in me. And I DID finish it...

Still, unless you enjoy watching Internet videos of people being run over by trains and whatnot, I would recommend staying away from this book!

This book was hard to read. It was a very compelling story, but very gory at times and I found myself putting the ereader down, and walking away, even out of the same room as it.

I finished it, because I am not a quitter in that respect, but felt let down at the ending. It was like I suffered through all of the gore and violence for a lame ending.