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Survivor

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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.

373 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

J.F. Gonzalez

79 books351 followers
Jesus F. Gonzalez was an American author, primarily of horror fiction (writing under the pseudonym J. F. Gonzalez). He has written many notable novels and has done collaborations with Bram Stoker Award winners Mike Oliveri and Brian Keene. His novel Survivor has been optioned for film.

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5 stars
1,059 (36%)
4 stars
847 (29%)
3 stars
571 (19%)
2 stars
272 (9%)
1 star
165 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 422 reviews
Profile Image for David Church.
110 reviews44 followers
February 12, 2013
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 through the woods or sparkly vampires, just depraved psychotics making money off of the snuff film industry, which to me scares me because a) I have heard the urban legends of snuff films and in 3rd world they exist (hell maybe in the US they do and b) they are people sick enough to want to watch this. That is terrifying...

Overall the book scared me and shocked me, which is a difficult feat. To those offended, life isn’t always PG and the subject material will not always be watered down. Stick with the PG friendly Dean Koontz! 
Profile Image for Nancy.
557 reviews834 followers
May 14, 2016
Posted at Shelf Inflicted

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 this. I like well written horror stories and don't mind some violence and gore, but Survivor wasn't particularly well written and the excessive violence and brutality made me feel dirty for reading it.

Two stars because I got sucked in and managed to finish it.
Profile Image for Katie Colson.
726 reviews8,922 followers
Read
November 5, 2022
dnf halfway through

I couldn't do it. Not even because of the extreme horror elements. But because the writing is atrocious.

The first half of this book is just anger and violence and absolutely disgusting things being done to women and babies.

BUT! After I dnf-ed a Patron of mine, Alyssa Jane, sent me a summary of the second half of the book and damn I wish I'd finished. The second part turns into a thriller and things really take off.

I can't pick it back up and subject myself to that writing style again. But I now understand people's love of this book.
Profile Image for Teodora.
198 reviews80 followers
July 18, 2022
Nothing disgusted me in this book more than the author, it says a lot about this.

How did this book got published like this? This book is so bad and we are not even talking about the gore subjects and the “sock” themes he used in here, but the actual book, writing, characters, events that happened, descriptions, etc. What is actually disgusting in this book: is the author's opinions on women and what to do with their bodies, homeless people, how shallow women are & how we judge everything, even other women in the same traumatic experience as us.

The spelling mistakes were everywhere. I don’t know if it was something wrong with my edition or if it’s something that happens in all, I saw a few other reviews commenting on this so I guess they didn’t even fucking care to edit it before they put it out there. If this book gets a movie, I am done reading any male-written books in this life. Imagine paying money to have this book in your library, I would cry.

TW for everything, I put the spoiler filter because someone might not want to see it, who knows,

The writing is very bad. The author was so focused on writing the worst and most disgusting book and trying to excel at it while failing so bad it’s actually funny. There are many reviews saying this is disgusting and everything but the thing is, he never shows us that. This is the real depiction of “show don’t tell”. There are pages of characters saying what the “Animal” did but never truly showing us anything or making me feel that action. There is a scene where it is said that there is blood everywhere, on the floor on the walls on Animal, but that’s all I don’t know more than that. You need to imagine it. I didn’t find it as gross because well I didn’t feel it, the author didn’t make me see or feel what he was writing because he was only telling.

After Lisa traded her life for Alice & her baby, there are like 3 maybe more pages, of the 2 other characters saying what they will do to her if she doesn’t deliver the mother & child, AND IT WAS SO BORING. They were like enumerating stupid and disgusting things that Animal would do to her, BUT I FELT NOTHING. The threats felt so empty I never felt like “awe fuck they will do that”. It was all full of disgusting things that could happen to her but felt so empty at the same time.

Lisa was something else. That woman was written by a man for sure. Let me illustrate that with a quote to show how a man writes a woman that was kidnapped, went through horrific things, slept in her own pee, and cried all day and night she actually thinks this:
“When her sobs trickled down, she looked in the mirror at her reflection. There were large, dark circles under her eyes, the whites red. Despite not sleeping much last night, and everything else she had gone through, she didn’t look that bad.”
Because, of course, we, women, when we are kidnapped and find a mirror, we have to comment on our beauty, right? We go through something so traumatic, the person told us we are going to be in a snuff film, raped, and then killed, but hey, at least I don’t look that bad. HOW SHALLOW DO YOU THINK WOMEN ARE? This was the moment I knew I will rate this book 1 star not even caring what I found in this book. This book can shit unicorns at me and I would still rate this 1 star.

So, at the beginning of the book, we find out she is pregnant, and never forget it during the book. I get it that they tried for years to have a baby and finally, it stuck & she won’t let you forget it. While she is kidnapped, while in the back of the car all she could think about was the baby. While being there the same. During all the book, SAME. She only came to her senses because she lost the baby. It made her character only a baby carrier, nothing else. Because a pregnant woman would only think about the baby, nothing else, like, let’s say just as an absurd suggestion, her own life?

Quotes to point this out
“What are you going to do?” Lisa was sobbing, and now her emotions did gain the upper hand. All she could think about was how this man was destroying all her hopes of having a baby with Brad, a dream she had been working to achieve for the past two years. All she could think about was saving herself so that her baby might live.
The female character in this book, somehow the main character is reduced to being a woman carrying a baby for half the book and only that. All the characteristics this author gives to this woman are fighting for her baby. That’s it!

Mr. Smith / Tim said this: “I understand now why you were so feisty back there at the motel. Your maternal instinct kicked in. You weren’t just thinking about saving your own skin, you were thinking about the unborn baby in your womb. Weren’t you?”


Because, of course, a woman would fight for her life only if her maternal instincts kicked in to save a cell that didn’t even develop to have feelings yet. I mean yea, of course, that’s what a woman would be fighting for, not, let’s say, her life. Who cares about the woman, get the baby FFS. Disgusting.

The thing is this author is so weird when it comes to babies let’s see 2 more examples:

1.
“There were thousands of women who had babies that didn’t appreciate the life they had helped to create. She grew angry whenever she heard a news story about a baby being abandoned in a trash can. What the hell was wrong with people? There were thousands of couples that would give anything to adopt a child, and these selfish bitches dump their kids like so much trash.”


While I get that it is very wrong to abandon a baby in a trash can, I hate the way he talks about it. He has opinions about what women do and nothing would be good in his point of view, of course, the example he gave is a very bad thing to do, but you have to remind yourself why women do these things. Women in so many places don’t have access to free and healthy abortion centers, look at the USA right now, even a 10 yo child can’t get an abortion after being abused and ending up pregnant. The women who resolve to this are, mostly, young girls (who are uninformed because sex ed who?) & women that are very poor and don’t have access to an adoption center and also never wanted that baby in the first place but couldn't get an abortion. How many times do you a wealthy woman do this? Now, I am not shitting on them, I am just pointing out the fact that if women had access to education about the reproductive system and sex education & also free abortion clinics, these shits won't happen!

You are not a woman to come up here and write HALF a book about your opinions of babies and what to do with them! All men repeat after me, “no uterus, no opinion”. I’m not saying to think that these actions are ok, but before you judge women with your privileged dick, think about why they couldn’t get an abortion in the first place. All you have to do is think really.


2.
“And then there were children that grew up in disadvantaged homes. She knew that she and Brad would be able to provide for their child above and beyond providing food and shelter. As lawyers, they both had a combined yearly salary of just under three hundred thousand dollars: their child would never have to worry about being hungry. She knew that any child she and Brad had would be well taken care of, both in love and in security.


Now we go on the other side of shaming women for having children and being poor! You are poor and had the audacity of having sex and getting pregnant? You don’t have money to access free and healthy abortion centers in your country or city and you don’t want to die while trying to abort it with a fucking random object that could do the trick? Well, welcome to being judged by a male who has no uterus. I knew women would want to hear his opinion, because, OF COURSE, we women care so much about what men think about our bodies. He thinks this is legit because it is said from the perspective of a woman in this book. Disgusting!

He made her character SO judgmental it hurts. He actually thinks that a woman being kidnapped and restrained with another woman would think about the other as weak because she reacted the same fucking way she did when she first got there. When Lisa is first restrained in that room she cries, tries to plead for her life, etc, everything a person would do. Now when Debbie is restrained there and is doing the same, SHE DARES TO JUDGE HER. How can you write women so bad dude?! It hurts for real!

There were another 3 more pages in which he judges homeless people. It was awful and ugly, I don’t want to go back there to find the quotes, just trust me.

Now I’ll just dump one more dumb conversation from the book because, why not?

This is an actual discussion between Lisa & Tim, the man that kidnapped her:

Mr. Smith turned to her. “Why do you want to know?”

Lisa shrugged. “I figure as long as I’m going to…you know… I might as well know more about it!” (I don’t know if there was supposed to be an exclamation point here, but the spelling mistakes and the grammar are in hell in this one so w.e fuck it, if the author & publishers didn’t mind, why would I?)

Mr. Smith turned back to the window and continued boarding it up. “I admire that. You’d rather face up to things than run away from them. I like that”


This line is just so stupid because it implies that she could get out of there and this is just a normal conversation between 2 friends. It implies she is there of her free will and just wants to know more about X subject and is not running away from it because it is sensitive, but in reality, she has nowhere to go, she is chained there and she is not facing anything. She is not brave because she asks what you are going to do to her, she just wants information, as any other person would ask. “Why are you doing this, why me, why that, why so?” This is not brave, it is doing the normal thing a person in a panic and such a situation would do.

I don’t even want to get into the BDSM topic and what annoyed me so much about it.

I am done, don’t read this, please. I did and I went through so much and spent time on this review so I can convince you not to.
542 reviews
July 1, 2009
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 driving. This leaves Lisa alone at the motel, and that night she is kidnapped by the van driver and taken to a remote cabin, where she will be the star of a snuff film. Just what will Lisa do to survive the sadist called Animal, who will be her co-star and murderer? Let me just say that she does the unspeakable to survive, and it involves a mother and her baby.

This book does have sex, violence, and some horrible images that will be seared into my brain for a long time. But it is still a well written book about that most secret of all societies--the snuff film industry and its revolting clientele--and the good people working hard to drag it into the light and the perpetrators to justice.

There was actually a little detective mystery thrown in near the end, and some plot lines that seemed evident weren't and turned in another direction.

Unlike the torture porn I have savaged in my other reviews, this book contains some humanity and decency to balance out the difficult parts. The ending was touching and it made the characters seem more than one-dimensional, which occurs too often in the horror genre. I agree with what Lisa did to herself and understand it, because there is no way I could live with myself if I did what Lisa did to survive her kidnapping.

I would recommend this book to most of my horror aficionado friends, but not my non-sicko friends. ;)
Profile Image for Plagued by Visions.
209 reviews688 followers
December 5, 2022
On the one hand, the writing is pretty atrocious. I’ve certainly read worse, but that’s not saying much. Gonzalez was definitely an author who liked to tell a lot and show very little. The plot dawdled so much, only for it to occasionally be boosted by ridiculous twists and by Mabel, my goodness, my favorite character by far, if only because she exemplifies the true spirit of absurdity and farce the novel nosedives into in the second half. The gore? Well, it’s there now and then, but never really the main feature of the grimy and grody snuff film the premise and front cover promise. Instead, it feels like amateur camera work that barely catches blurry bits of flesh here, some severed baby toes there, before the lens chooses to focus on bank transactions and boilerplate dialogue. It’s like an extreme Lifetime original movie more than anything. The thriller attitude of gripping suspense and cheesy sentimentality kept me reading, but eventually those thrills stopped paying off. In the end, I’m not sure this even convinced itself that it was a thriller.

On the other hand, what is camp, if not a culture of excess and dodgy tastefulness? What is camp, if not the lack of awareness that an author is camping, wholly devoted to their weird little diatribe for the sake of indulgence? What is camp, if not an essence that allows the recipient to exaggerate these faults to their fullest degree? What is camp, if not seeing the true spirit of bad taste shine through in all its trashy glory for those who can relish its sordid flare?

This was delightfully campy at times, a real slog at others, but I am convinced of one thing: Gonzalez labored to deliver putrid, ostentatious horror for no reason other than some weird, self-deluded and personal passion, coupled with a certain distaste for rich white folk which I was frankly infatuated by.

If I can say anything, it’s that I’m a lover of bottom-of-the-barrel trash who can truly see what Gonzalez was crafting here: This is an ugly book about ugliness told in an ugly way, and that is appalling and irreverent enough to hold a very special but barely accommodating place in my heart.
Profile Image for Laurie  (barksbooks).
1,829 reviews743 followers
January 11, 2013
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 kidnap the wife in order to make a snuff film. She's only just discovered she is pregnant and she isn't going out without a fight.

This is a mean spirited book about the lengths one will go to in order to survive, one where even the victim turns out to make a horribly selfish decision to save her own skin. I'm not going into any further detail in case you have an urge to read it. Really though there's nothing to like about this cruel book and somehow I kept on reading until the very last page. Maybe I am a sicko but I had to know how it ended.

I can't recommend going out of your way to read this. It gets a bit boring midpoint as the author felt a need to delve into the history of how his characters became the monsters they are today. I found those little forays into the past all a bit pointless and very repetitive.

The ending though? Yeah, that worked for me.
482 reviews18 followers
June 12, 2010
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 available for kidnapping. Once she is taken, she is told all about the underworld of pornography. Soon, she will be a star in a snuff film in which she will be raped and tortured to death by someone called Animal. The rest you can read for yourself.
This book is not for everyone. Within the first ten pages, there is a girl on girl sex scene that concludes with one girl sucking out the other's eyeball. Later, there is a baby involved: something that I will never ever forget. It's bloody, it's fast-paced, and it's terrifying because there is nothing supernatural about this. The closest book I can relate it to is The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, but I found this one far more disturbing. Gonzalez fills it with research about snuff films and how they are made and sold and how the government has such a hard time tracking them down. For a while, this book has the feel of a cheap horror film like The Hills Have Eyes or Hostile, but the characters are believable and the novel goes from pure violent horror to more suspense and that is what brought my already overwhelming respect for the book and it's author to even greater heights. Read this book if you are a horror fan, but it's unlike anything I've ever read before and once again, not for everyone.
Profile Image for Renée.
224 reviews3 followers
August 7, 2022
I can’t believe this was sitting unread on my kindle for two freaking years!

This book wasn’t as brutal as I’d been expecting. A lot was left up to the imagination. There’s a solid storyline here with good characterisation. We got a glimpse into the fucked up minds of monsters within the snuff porn industry. Mabel was freaking hilarious, I seriously lost my shit. Best character ever and my favourite part of the book. And Animal… let’s just say I was enthralled by him. I wanted to be in their twisted minds a bit longer. I will need to read ‘Monsters and Animals’ (prequel to Survivor) to get my fix!

Thankfully I didn’t lose my eyeballs while reading this… but if I had, Mabel would’ve gladly gobbled them up! 🤣
Profile Image for Carol (StarAngel's Reviews) Allen.
1,688 reviews613 followers
October 29, 2013
**** 4 Skin Crawling Stars ****

I originally rated this book as 5 Stars but took a star back because of the visions I have been having in my mind about some of the scenes in this book along with the horrific grammatical errors. I’m not complaining about the errors because it could have just been I received an older copy before the editors got to it.

I do have to share 2 instances of these errors because they made me chuckle during a really sick fucked up book….


                  *There are many times “luck” is used instead of “fuck”
                  *At one point she says – “Oh My Cod” instead of God


Back to my thoughts, this is a very very disturbing book and I LOVED IT!! Yes, I have a sick mind and love this kind of stuff on occasion – this book did test my boundaries on what is acceptable and what isn’t.



This is NOT a LOVE STORY…..it is not unicorns and rainbows with Happily Ever Afters…..it is a raw, dirty, gory and mind fuck book about rape, snuff films, cannibalistic tendencies and torture beyond anything your mind can conceive.

There were many times in the book where I had to step away and take a break from the feelings I was having about what was going on with the characters because if not – I seriously would have either had a heart attack or a mental breakdown. This story grips you from about ¼ of the way in and you just need to know what is going to happen next.

Ok, so Lisa has a secret to tell Brad, her husband, and they are off on their way to spend a romantic get-a-way weekend together. They are set up in a citizen’s arrest and Brad is arrested while Lisa is kidnapped and brought to a cabin to star in a snuff film.

We are then introduced to Tim (abductor), Al (film producer) and Jeff (aka Animal) who is the other star of the snuff film. Animal is anyone’s nightmare because he is the ultimate masochist who loves to fuck any orifice on the human body whether it’s already there or he has to make one. (Yup – sick shit). Lisa watches in horror as another woman has to experience Animal’s demented sexcapades and after having been prone to Animal’s tendencies, Lisa begs and tries to ransom her way out of being “next”.



To Lisa, she believes that if she does as they ask by giving them close to a hundred grand and help exchange herself for something better, then she will be let free without EVER mentioning what happened in that cabin. Lisa follows through with their demands but as she is about to go, she knows they will never let her free – she gets lucky and is able to run away and escape.

We then find out, that it was Lisa specifically who was requested to star in a snuff film by an unknown benefactor of the underground. This mystery man/woman wants her raped, mutilated and dead and money is not an issue. These men must get Lisa back without “passing go and collecting $200”.



Welp, that’s it for the main story line – you have to read the book to find out if Lisa makes it or not and who the “mystery person” is. I’ll just leave you with – I was fucking FLOORED when I found out.

If you have a queasy tummy or get offended easily – this is NOT the book for you!

If you love a good psychological gory thriller…then pick this book up!

Profile Image for Josh.
1,710 reviews165 followers
April 27, 2020
This book is not for the faint of heart. Mutilation, rape, murder, cannibalism, and many other heinous acts of depravity splatter the blood stained pages of Survivors. Amid the viscera, brain matter, and bodily fluids, is a suspenseful story of self preservation and extreme horror. The author see's Jack Ketchum's Off Season and raises the bar to a whole new level. I couldn't put it down, despite the confronting and, at times, difficult-to-read subject matter. 
Profile Image for abbylee Oqueli.
239 reviews27 followers
September 29, 2010
I made a deal with a student - if he read a book I chose for him, I would read one he chose for me. "Survivor" is what he chose and I struggled through every single page. It was bloody, graphic, disgusting, and completely disturbing. There isn't a person on earth to whom I would suggest this book.
Profile Image for Trudi.
615 reviews1,648 followers
July 24, 2010
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 order to save her own skin. It's brutal and calculating and really got me thinking...in the same situation, would I do the same? Could I do the same? And if I did, could I live with myself afterwords? If this book was half as tough to write as it is to read, my hat goes off to J.F. Gonzalez.

Understanding the appeal factor of horror is difficult for some people to accept, who will often turn up their nose at the genre and look at you with a wary expression as they ask "how can you read that stuff"? As if we should be ashamed, as if we are somehow mentally warped or our moral compass dangerously askew. Don't worry, it isn't. Horror appeals to many of us for very solid, rational, non-psychopathic reasons.

We love it because it's a genre that probes sensitive, taboo areas as it asks the difficult questions. The best horror fiction reflects back to us our collective cultural fears and everyday personal anxieties about, well, everything. As a species, we're pretty freaking neurotic. Some of us choose to deal with it by indulging in horror both in text and on the big screen. More than anything else, horror allows us to safely explore humanity's dark side, giving us a place where we can face our deepest fears from a non-threatening viewpoint.

In his non-fiction magnum opus on the horror genre -- Danse Macabre -- Stephen King explains our attraction to horror this way, and I've yet to come across anyone else who says it any better or any more truthfully than this:
Here is the final truth of horror: It does not love death, as some have suggested; it loves life. It does not celebrate deformity but by dwelling on deformity, it sings of health and energy. By showing us the miseries of the damned, it helps us to rediscover the smaller (but never petty) joys of our own lives. It is the barber’s leeches of the psyche, drawing not blood but anxiety....We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.


Profile Image for Angel Gelique.
Author 19 books454 followers
January 5, 2014
What an excellent book--a true horror novel that kept me glued to the "pages" and reading until my iPad battery ran low. This is the first J. F. Gonzalez book I've read and it certainly won't be the last! "Survivor" tells the story of a woman, Lisa Miller, who gets kidnapped while her husband is jailed due to a bogus citizen's arrest. While held captive in a secluded cabin, another woman happens upon her, just by chance--an unlucky break for the woman who joins Lisa as a prisoner. After learning her captors' purpose and witnessing the brutality they inflict on the other woman, Lisa knows that her life is in grave danger. Relying on her captors' greed, Lisa offers them money--her life's savings, then offers them something else, something they can't refuse. But even if Lisa survives the ordeal, she'll never be the same again....

This is the one of the few books that I've read that has actually made my stomach lurch as if I were plummeting down a steep drop on a speeding rollercoaster. It wasn't even during one of the gory scenes--it was actually during the bank scene, of all things. I put myself in Lisa's position and felt this grim sense of dread. What should she do? Was she really going to go through with what she proposed to her captors?

This book evokes raw human emotion. I found myself fearful for Lisa, applauding her strength and resilience then disgusted by her choices. My sympathy for her dwindled as outrage set in. Then I tried to empathize, tried to put myself in her shoes.

Unlike many horror novels, this one presents a thought-provoking story that lingers on and leaves you questioning how you would react under like circumstances. It is a great story and truly horrific for the sheer fact that such atrocities can and do happen.

Gonzalez is an incredibly talented author, a true master of horror amongst the ranks of Bentley Little, Jack Kilborn and Ray Garton. "Survivor" was the first book I read in 2014. What a great way to start the new year!
Profile Image for Paul Nelson.
681 reviews154 followers
March 23, 2014
The first two chapters of Survivor bring genuine feelings of unease, they only touch on the horrors that surface later in the book but a bondage scene where a young woman’s excitement soon goes awry and a couple stalked along the interstate were very unsettling.

Brad & Lisa set off for a weekend break, after a rest stop they are followed by a crazy stalker in a pickup but even more surprising is when they are pulled over by the cops and a citizen’s arrest is invoked. Brad ends up in jail waiting for the court appearance on Monday and Lisa is left waiting in a hotel, not long after to her horror she is kidnapped and told she is going to star however briefly in a brutally extreme hard-core snuff film with a complete sadist named Animal and it doesn’t get any better for Lisa.

Survivor amidst all the horror is actually a pretty decent thriller, the nature of the story presents some horrific scenes, you can’t get more bloody and outrageous than some of the stuff on offer but it lacked some of the bared to the bone tension that you get in something like The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas. Survivor would have benefitted from a tighter editing, it was a little over descriptive in places it didn’t need to be which padded the story unnecessarily. That said I did read this in two days, it’s certainly a hard hitting story about some seriously ruthless people with inhuman desires that border on disbelief. And you can’t stop reading if only to see certain people get what they deserve.

A story definitely not for the faint hearted centred on an underground hard-core S & M culture, there is extreme torture, sexual violence & rape, cannibalism, necrophilia and other stuff I daren’t write down, suffice to say it’s very graphic. You’ll either love it or hate, I don’t think there will be an in-between but be prepared if you attempt to read it.

The ending was excellent a more unlikely assassin you won’t see again but the story primarily was one of betrayal in two unbelievable ways and a profound sadness that you’ll understand if you have read Survivor.
Profile Image for Christian.
78 reviews6 followers
September 25, 2019
Okay, after all I heard about this book over the years and having it sitting on my shelf since Deadite first published it, I can happily report it lived up to its much deserved reputation. I loved the played straight sadistic nature of this book, its horrors all too real. No over-the-top comic book pulp grue in this one, just a story straight out of this worlds heart of darkness. A well-written hardcore horror novel classic.
Profile Image for Alex (The Bookubus).
419 reviews468 followers
August 1, 2021
Lisa and her husband are looking forward to their vacation but things go wrong before they even reach their destination and Lisa finds herself the victim of a group of people planning on making a snuff film.

This read like a thriller for a lot of the story with the tension and the twists and turns. Then there’s the extreme horror content added in so it made for an interesting mix. It definitely goes to some dark and gruesome places both in the graphic scenes that play out and also delving into the underground hardcore scene and what people are willing to do for sexual kicks or financial gain. I didn’t find the protagonists to be super likeable or sympathetic so I didn’t feel for them as much as I could have but it was still a really good read and there were still a couple of emotional moments as the story played out.
Profile Image for Elin the Lightship.
153 reviews5 followers
May 10, 2020
I'm actually going to completely ignore the fact that the constant spelling errors, lack of quotation or punctuation marks bothered me a bit too much to be totally fair in this review(I could actually have gotten an unedited copy or something).
Even if it was printed flawlessly, and it was clear when someone was thinking or someone was talking to someone, I still did not like the writing style at all.
No character growth or even a proper description or feel, this book tried to be so much more than it was.
It was basically a manuscript for a random movie that could actually have been pretty exciting. But what was it? It started as a pretty regular horror movie, happy couple, creepy mysterious van, girl gets abducted, horror gore and some more in a remote cabin. Haven't seen this story before, have you?
But then it tried to develop into some crime story. With a more thriller theme to it.
This could've turned up as an awesome double episode of Criminal Minds, they trying to figure out who, why and how this snuff film business works.
But it didn't go anywhere fast enough. I don't mind slow books, as long as it brings something to the table.
This was just beating around the bush, getting nowhere, repeating everything over and over, jumping in time, perspective and nothing was graphic enough. I don't read my gore novels for the brilliant writing. I WANT GROSS, BLOODY, GORY EVIL. ok.
Profile Image for William M..
583 reviews61 followers
June 28, 2011
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. comes on strong at the end for a very satisfying finish. I can't wait to read more of his work.
Profile Image for summer | the.hellbound.reader.
81 reviews36 followers
April 16, 2024
Okay. First off. What the fuck.

Survivor was messed up. I knew when I went into it that it was going to be a wild ride but it was seriously depraved. It was dark, it was gory, it was brutal, all the things you want in a horror book and then some.

If you liked The Girl Next Door you’ll like this one. Just when you think it couldn’t get anymore dark, it does. Gonzalez goes places I didn’t think any author would go.

Survivor took me on a trip. I am going to be messed up over this book for days. Well done Gonzalez, well done.
Profile Image for Andrew Lennon.
Author 80 books281 followers
December 26, 2022
I enjoyed this book. I can see why so many people have it up there as one of their favourites.
The story itself is good and there’s a lot of extremely brutal scenes which were quite fun.
However I found myself getting quite annoyed. I felt as though the events were being repeated every couple of pages.
We’d have a chapter in which something would take place and then the following chapter would be talking about a characters actions and thoughts about said event, but in doing so it would state each thought and action about it.
So basically a retelling.
If it wasn’t for that overlapping then I think this book would’ve flowed a more, but having said that. It also would have been a fraction of the size.
Still, I’d recommend to fans of extreme horror, I most certainly would NOT recommend to anyone who’s easily triggered or offended as there’s some really taboo stuff in there. Inc animal abuse and child abuse.
Profile Image for Belén.
88 reviews40 followers
February 7, 2017
*Ay, vení que te hago hijos*
Amé este libro. Cuando leí que a los fanáticos de Ketchum les iba a encantar dije no hay chance de que esto sea más fuerte que algo escrito por Jack... pero ¡Jesús! Se sarpa de gráfico.
Esto es terror del que me gusta y me asquea a la vez. Tuve el rostro desencajado todo el libro.

Eso sí, hay mucha violencia en estas hojas, no se si es para todos.
(((Voy a hacer una review como este libro merece cuando esté en la pc.)))
Profile Image for Kelly| Just Another Horror Reader .
467 reviews329 followers
July 12, 2020
***3 1/2 stars***
I enjoyed this but not as much as I expected to given its reputation as a horror classic. It was pretty brutal but not overly so. I didn’t really care that much about the main character/victim so maybe that’s why I didn’t end up loving it. Recommended for hardcore horror readers only. Lots of triggers in this one.
Profile Image for chucklesthescot.
2,975 reviews127 followers
April 19, 2015
First off I will warn you that this is a pretty shocking book. There is graphic rape, torture, murder and gore. There are sadistic characters who don't care what they are doing to other people as long as their needs are met. And our main character does something really shocking to try to save her own life. This is not for the faint hearted.

It is also a gripping, tension filled piece of fiction that had me glued to it from start to finish. I was really invested in the story, liking our heroes and wanting the bad guys to get what was coming to them. I found my mind was racing a bit like Lisa's was-how the hell do I get out of this situation alive?

Lisa and Brad are going on a romantic getaway, driving up the coast. Lisa is planning for the right moment to tell him that she is pregnant and everything seems great. Until a road rage incident occurs and the other driver phones the police to report Brad for dangerous driving, causing him to be arrested. As it is Friday, he is stuck in jail over the weekend, and the driver wastes no time in abducting Lisa from her motel room. Her horror is complete when she finds out that she has been kidnapped to order to appear in a snuff film.

Animal, the man who will be raping, torturing and murdering Lisa is a truly scary guy. He seems so normal until he starts talking about how he got into doing these films and that whole section is twisted and chilling. Lisa knows there is no way to reason with this psycho and her terror increases when she has to watch another woman suffer the fate that awaits her. How can she save herself? The tension increases in the story as we follow Lisa plotting her escape and Brad's frantic search for his wife.

And then comes the REALLY shocking bit. Lisa comes up with a plan to save herself and her baby and it is a shocking decision. I was staring at the page, horrified by her idea and thinking, 'surely you wouldn't do that?' Of course, if you are put in that situation and you are pregnant and want to live, how desperate might you become? We all like to think that we wouldn't do what Lisa did but can we really know how we would react in a life and death situation? It's an interesting thing to think about. I'm not going to say what Lisa does as it would ruin the plot of the book but you will be shocked, I promise you!

Part of this book is a whodunnit in the sense that the rich client who ordered the snuff film specifically wanted Lisa to be the star and victim. This has to be someone she knows, someone who knew about their travel plans that weekend and I pounced on who I thought the sick twisted git was. I kept this opinion right through the book as I found other hints to back up my thoughts-and the author surprised me by having someone else as the bad guy! I love it when there are twists that I don't see coming and this book has several. I love it when the author turns the whole story on its head! There are great scenes where the tension is just creeping off the pages!

Yes, there is rape and violence. Yes there are harrowing scenes. But it is also a really well written horror/thriller and it certainly has me interested in reading more by this author.

Profile Image for Beth.
205 reviews8 followers
November 15, 2013
Wow, this has got to be the most grotesque book I have ever read (or it's at least up there near the top.

It was on my TRL here on GR for awhile (thanks jaHy for reminding me of it and makng me push it up to read now). Sorry hun but I can't forgive Lisa Miller...Now my Review...

what scares me the most about this book is the fact that these sick groups probably really exist out there (read the book if you want to know what groups no spoilers here). Well this books left me stunned, I asked for a WTF book and I got it. This book did leave me feeling sad at the out come and honestly I am only human and Lisa was facing the one thing that terrifies me the most and gives me panic attacks (for real) so I have to say I don't what I would have done in her place but lets face it we all like to think we'd not make her choice and that's all I can really say about this book because in the end that's what it became about for me (is that weird?) it's just that it had the biggest impact and makes you question yourself I guess.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes their head messed with but prepare for a bumpy ride its a page turner and a train wreak you can't look away from and its for sure not to be read if you have a weak stomach or a strong one that cringes a lot..or a...no wait just read with caution LOL.

I won't forget this one in a hurry!
Profile Image for Bandit.
4,774 reviews536 followers
May 26, 2011
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 easily over 6 feet tall. In the epilogue the years don't add up. Things like that. Also, the events are constantly rehashed, it made me feel like I was watching a tv show...Previously on Survivor...I guess it'd be ok if I was reading over many days/weeks, but I read it in two nights, so it was just annoying.
However, having that been said, it was sharp, brutal, compelling and intense. The subject matter is very extreme and the violence is very much over the top, so reader be warned.
I'll read the author again, just hope he got better editors.
Profile Image for Gertie.
363 reviews286 followers
April 26, 2012
Fucking sick. Seriously. I read this book a while ago, and still remember it now, probably because, oh, . 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 myself noticing typos in books, but in this one I actually noticed inconsistencies in the story, which is not something I usually do. Just small things, along the lines of "5 minutes later she was forgotten" followed on the next page with "half an hour later she was still thinking about her".

But mostly, it's the nasty imagery that this book put in my head that I could do without.
Profile Image for Ashleigh.
32 reviews8 followers
July 3, 2013
Rating - 4.5/5

"BEFORE HOSTEL ... BEFORE SAW ... THERE WAS SURVIVOR" - Amazon Book Blurb

Well, that's basically the guts of it. If the movies Hostel and Saw completely freaked you out - then you're probably not going to like this book. It's gruesome, it pushes boundaries and I loved it. In fact, it's so twisted that I don't think they could ever make a movie out of it - there are some scenes that they would never allow in the movies.

This book kept me on edge the whole time, and I just couldn't put it down. It wasn't overly predictable and had some great twists. This is really my sort of horror/thriller ... I guess that makes me a little twisted.
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