The Ruins

Reading The Ruins was a slog, and I was bored most of the time. The writing style is bland, very heavy on exposition, short on description, and even more bereft of dialog- good dialog is what makes characters real. I wasn’t just bored so much as I just felt a passive sort of despair: when I realized I was a hundred pages in and couldn’t face the next two-hundred. In order for me to care about a character there has to be something likeable about them, or at least interesting. the characters in The Ruins are neither likeable nor interesting. The be fair to author Scott Smith they are very realistic characters: sunny beach vacation spots are ripe full of shallow, idiotic, rich kids. Kids who make incredibly stupid decisions. So, what we have is a super-accurate portrayal of five generally repellent people making ridiculously stupid decisions again and again and again. this may be realistic, it’s not interesting to read. It’s less horror and more a sort of vigil of despair. after the initial setup, nothing happens plot wise: the characters suffer and are tortured, they sit and perseverate each over their particular character’s form of unlikability, be it authoritarian bravado or childlike denial of their situation. Smith uses the same types of descriptions and turns of phrase over and over, and often rehashes the same moments from slightly different view points. I’m sure it was meant to convey depth but it has the opposite effect, making it feel like he was benign paid by the word. Little to no background or decsription is given the characters, so they all sort of run together in my head and worse none of the characters develops or seems to learn anything through the book. Again, realistic of real people in a life-or-death struggle, but not interesting. But it’s worse than that- an effective novel makes the reader feel like a participant, but here I just felt like an observer, a voyeur, stuck and forced to watch this horrible thing play out slowly. There was never a question of whether they would survive- I simply diddnt care about them enough to ask “will they make it?”. I felt like one of the Mayans on the perimeter, consigned to a deathwatch where the Stages of Grief are pantomimed amid a Big Bad monster that despite being a super cool idea STILL couldn’t make me interested in the story (there was no plot to speak of, no development), not the least because it displayed contradictory internal logic and attributes that broke my suspension of disbelief. In short, the impression I’m left with is that Scott Smith went on vacation to the Yucatán, saw some ruins, and bumped into a group of absolutely awful people and it rubbed him so wrong he imagined a plant-monster torturing them to death on top of a pyramid and he liked the idea so much he wrote it all down. Save yourself the trouble and just watch the movie- it’s not the best horror movie out there but it is entertaining, and that is more than I can say for the novel.

I was going through a bunch of books that i had read in high-school, and this was one of them. I remember liking this book so much that i read it again a few months later.So what about now? After reading it again (a third time), i can completely understand why i liked it in the first place... but at the same time I was disappointed. I feel that i could rate this book a 2 star, or a 5 star and be fine with either rating. SO i am going to settle at 4.The Ruins follows a group of vacationers on a visit to an archaeological site. The book has a very slow build up before finally going nuclear ~75% through. Reading this book purely as a horror novel, the suspenseful 25%-75%, followed by the insane (!!) 75%-100% make for an enjoyable read. Is the writing great? No. Is the first section of the book boring as f***? Yes.So. Are you tired of boring, same-old-ending novels? Want something that will shock you? This one is for you.Positives:+ The night dispute/fight and the aftermath was perfect. I just kept thinking of comics that showed a shocked character with an '!' above his head. In this case, that would be me.+ Characters. The characters might be stereotypical, but the book uses them in interesting ways. It takes the stereotypes, turns them inside out, and then dumps them on the ground.+ The villain. Lets just take a minute to appreciate the antagonist in this book. If you really think about it, it is 100x as creepy as any alien/monster. The slow creeping/avoid direct conflict is awesome.Negatives:- Writing. It sucks. First 25% of the book is a chore to read. Then the book is just 'OK'.- Plot holes. No explanations of any sort.- Bloody/barbaric. I was slightly nauseous after finishing the book.Neutral:Note: Some characters do die. If characters ending upsets you, then STAY AWAY.

I saw the movie some time ago and really liked it so I thought I'd read the book. Wow. The book is just sooo much better! I went from loving the movie to just thinking it's okay, so much more happens in the book. It's really frightening and I can see these characters and what's happening to them. And the ending is radically different, I did NOT like the ending in the movie but the book's ending makes so much more sense. Love the book :)

Dang. You need to have the stomach to be able to take some of the hardcore images presented in this tragic story. It's graphic and it really sucks you in. The writing is so vivid and raw. The story moves along at a steady clip. It starts out as a fun romp and quickly takes a downward spiral into pure psychological agony. The author opens up each character's mind and lets you take a look at everything that goes on inside, thus you feel as if you are right in the middle of the action. You're feeling what they feel, you are experiencing their pain and sorrow and...horror.Yes, this is a horror novel for sure!So, if you have the stomach to endure, read it. I read somewhere that Stephen King thought it was a killer book too. So, you know it's true horror if that dude loved it.Recommend? Yes.

This is firmly in the category of what I call "junk food" reading: it's not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, but I just couldn't put it down. Like eating a bag of crisps, if you will. It's chilling, bleak, visceral, (very) nasty in places, and the choice of antagonist is quite original. All the more so, because its existence and abilities remain largely unexplained, which adds to the creepiness factor.The characters are mostly believable, though not extensively developed (or particularly likeable), and the author openly subverts the usual horror tropes in regards to them. Interestingly enough, the antagonist only kills two people directly: all the other deaths are caused by panic or desperation. The atmosphere is suitably oppressive and grim, giving a good sense of growing hopelessness in the face of overwhelming odds. The pacing is quite leisurely at first, then gradually picks up steam and becomes relentless by the time you reach the end. The fact that there aren't any chapters contributes to this.However, there were several things that really bothered me, to the point of yanking me right out of the story, and I had to resort to some vigorous handwaving to get back into it. Spoilers follow:1. Aspirin is a blood thinner. It slows coagulation and can increase bleeding. Jeff is supposed to be a future medical student, yet there are two occasions where he instructs Eric - who is bleeding profusely on both these occasions - to take aspirin. He also tells him to give aspirin to Pablo, who is most likely suffering from internal haemorrhage at that point. Maybe it's just me, but I find it highly unlikely that a medical student would do such a thing. Especially not someone as well-read and survivalist-minded as Jeff is supposed to be.2. This has been pointed out by another reviewer, and I'm adding my voice to theirs. The author insists on giving us two German characters and text in German, despite clearly not being a German speaker. This wouldn't be a problem, if he'd actually bothered to check the accuracy of what he was writing. Henrich is not a German name. The correct spelling is "Heinrich". "Katschen" is not a German word and does not mean "kitten". The correct word is "Kätzchen". "Two" does not mean "where", the correct word is "wo". This is either some really unfortunate editing (unlikely, as I don't remember any majorly outrageous typos), or just sloppy writing. Especially given that neither of the other non-English speaking characters suffer from this problem, as the author mostly refrains from transcribing their speech. Which I actually thought was a nice touch, as it increased the feeling of an impenetrable language barrier that further served to isolate the characters.3. I also ended up wondering about the title of the book. The location the characters are stuck in is described as an old mine. There's even a mention of rails going down one of the shafts. I understand that it was changed to a Mayan pyramid in the film adaptation, but it's still a mine in the book. I.e. not ruins in any traditional sense.In summary, if you're a fan of horror craving an undemanding, exciting and gory offering, and are not a stickler for details, this will hit the spot nicely. If you're squeamish or get bothered by inconsistencies, maybe stay away. Just as the protagonists should've done.

I absolutely loved this one, I wish I hadn't seen the film a number of years ago as the suspense building through the book would have been almost unbearable had I not already known most of what happened. Luckily it was still very enjoyable to read.The lack of chapters made it so hard to put down, there was no natural break to stop yourself from reading til three in the morning. I managed it somehow, but it was very hard. It managed to horrify without the use of overly disgusting descriptions, playing with the mind more than the body, although don't get me wrong, there's more than enough gore for some.If you've got the time, it's quite a hefty book, I'd 100% recommend this one.

I think some of the poor reviews here have been spawned by fans of "A Simple Plan" (or thrillers like A Simple Plan) gnashing their teeth because "The Ruins" turned out to be not what they expected. I mean, how dare Smith have the gall to not only write a different kind of novel to ASP, but to completely swap genres as well.This is not a thriller in the Silence of the Lambs mold (the blurb on the cover is misleading to the point of being false advertising as King's quote refers to ASP and not The Ruins); it is not a suspense tale either, instead it is an out and out supernatural horror novel which will appeal to fans of King, Herbert and Koontz. Is it far-fetched? Of course it is, but then so are haunted hotels and towns populated by vampires. I'll not go into the plot as others have done so already, but I will say I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to Smith's next novel, whatever genre he chooses to give us.

I did enjoy this but felt very heavy/intense to read, took me a while to work through. Had a mix of characters that worked well together, really interesting storyline. Felt like you could almost experience what they were going through

Arrived quickly. Great condition and perfect price. Started reading and so far really well written so can't wait to finish this!