The Ruins

Mar 30, 2008 Campbell rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Wow, what a disappointment. I'd been so excited about this-- I'm not a horror novel fan, but this had gotten such great reviews, I figured I'd give it a try. The trailer for the movie also looked intriguing. Unfortunately, you may as well just watch the trailer and read the first forty pages of the book, because beyond that, it doesn't deliver.
My first issue with the book was the characters-- they're the most one dimensional people I've come across in long time. Goldilocks had more personality...more Wow, what a disappointment. I'd been so excited about this-- I'm not a horror novel fan, but this had gotten such great reviews, I figured I'd give it a try. The trailer for the movie also looked intriguing. Unfortunately, you may as well just watch the trailer and read the first forty pages of the book, because beyond that, it doesn't deliver.
My first issue with the book was the characters-- they're the most one dimensional people I've come across in long time. Goldilocks had more personality. It's hard to feel a whole lot of sympathy or empathy for characters who are nothing more than stock types-- "the ditzy sexy girl"; " the boy scout" etc. Smith acknowledges their single dimensions midway through the book when the characters are talking about a film version of their situation and one of the character breaks them all down into types ("the boy scout" "the prissy girl" "the slut" "the funny guy"). Too bad Smith never makes the effort to flesh the characters out. It's hard to get too worked up about their deaths when you don't feel like there's anything at stake.
The second problem (and a far bigger one, in my opinion), is the lack of pay off. Early in the book, the characters end up stranded on a mountain, kept captive by a Mayan village who forces them to stay on the mountain with this monster plant. Yeah, yeah, the plant's terrible, it's carnivorous and smart and is able to torture and kill it's captives. Once I got to the point in the book where it's clear the characters are stuck on the mountain, I thought, "I sure hope the next 400 pages aren't spent just detailing how these people die. I sure hope we solve the mystery of where the plant came from, why the Mayans are in collusion with it, and if it's truly a plant at all or an extension of something much more ominous below the surface." So if you ask yourself the same questions and think you'll get answers later in the book, save yourself the time. None of those things are answered and it is, in fact, 400 pages of describing each of their demise.
Part of the problem stems from Smith's tactic of only writing from the point of view of the American characters. If the characters were interesting, it might be worthwhile to see how they handle this awful and confusing situation, but we've already addressed that these folks are pretty dull. I think a more interesting approach would've been to either tell part of the story from the Mayan's point of view or from an omniscient POV, detailing the history of why such a malevolent force is at work in this spot. Maybe my perception was skewed from the film trailers in thinking that this might be revealed.
I found the book frustrating because the characters briefly seem to be going in this direction, mentioning how the Mayans have contained the plant and guessing at why they continue to hold people captive here. They also touch on the fact that the plant may not be a plant at all. Unfortunately, Smith doesn't explore these ideas either through speculation on the characters' parts or by having the characters physically seek out the source of the plant. Sure, it may be unbelievable that the characters would risk their lives trying to find the source, but believability went out the window when the plant started talkig. Smith already set up that the characters are boring,not so bright, and going to die anyway, so why not have them die in the pursuit of what this thing actually is?
Overall, I thought the book was pisspoor. The first 40 pages are good, the story is tightly wound and propulsive, but after that, you may as well watch any generic slasher flick.(less)

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Aug 30, 2007 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: horror fans

Stephen King has a short story (that I believe may have been entitled "The Raft") in which four college students head out to an old rock quarry. They swim out to a raft in the middle of the lake. As the afternoon progresses, they notice what appears to be a patch of oil skimming the surface of the water. One of the students dives into the lake for a post-coital swim and is mysteriously and grotesquely devoured by the oil patch, his skin pretty much being stripped right from its bones. Now horrif...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Joey-Joey-Jo-Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone who might purchase my copy

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Joey-Joey-Jo-Jo Now that the review proper is done, here is my contribution to the literary theory of _The Ruins_. The Plant is telepathic. Wait, no, hear me out. I w...more Now that the review proper is done, here is my contribution to the literary theory of _The Ruins_. The Plant is telepathic. Wait, no, hear me out. I would claim the character's poor decisions are not solely the result of stupidity, exhaustion, and stress. There are simply too many cases where they make subtly but crucially incorrect choices. A quick summary:
- When they first reach the hill and the Mayan is sticking a gun in their collective face, Amy decides that it would be a good idea to keep walking backwards to get just the perfect photo.
- Pablo's inordinate haste to go rappelling down an abandoned mine shaft.
- Eric's decision to jump the rest of the way down the pitch black mine shaft rather than making a second trip.
- Eric's decision to pick up cutting as a hobby.
- Eric's decision to stab Matthias.
- Jeff's decision not to help Amy when she is choking.
- Jeff's decision to make a run for it, and not stop running, even after being spotted.
- Stacy's decision to off herself. Also, her unexpected knowledge of the old Unix Admin's credo, "down, not across".

I believe that like the Plant uses its leaves to subtly herd he characters, or its flowers to taunt them, the plant has a sort of telepathic, bad-decision-making field that it is capable of exerting to tip the balance at crucial points. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. The Plant is clearly more intelligent than the characters, and it reveals itself to have an excellent grasp of the human psyche. In addition, the Plant is clearly supernatural, as it capable of supporting its enormous biomass, both above and below ground, off of just a diet of small insects and the occasional tourist. So telepathy/psychic powers are within the range of reason given what we know about the Plant and the genre.

As further evidence, notice that the degree to which the humans act against their normal character varies with their strength of will. Jeff and Matthias, who we know to be strong willed and intelligent people, make these bad decisions only in the heat of the moment when having to choose between two difficult choices. Eric and Stacy, who even at the best of times go through life in a haze, fall almost completely under the Plant's control. Eric cuts his body parts off one by one, and then stabs Matthias in the heart. Stacy walks down to the Mayan's and cuts her wrists, while notably thinking that she is not herself. In these latter cases I think it can be instructive to think about the scene from a third person perspective rather than from inside the character's narration. From outside the character, say from a Mayan perspective, it looks like the Plant is show boating its control of the characters.

Fin.

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Oct 27, 2007 02:54am

May 09, 2008 Nancyc rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

I just finished reading The Ruins by Scott Smith. If you plan to read it, stop here, because I'm about to take a stroll through it.

Reading The Ruins as a writer, got through the first 75 pages and asked myself how this writer managed to get me to follow these people into the jungle when I didn't particularly like any of them.

The Ruins is about four recent college grads on vacation in Cancun, who go off on an adventure to help an acquaintance find his brother. The college grads are comprised of t...more I just finished reading The Ruins by Scott Smith. If you plan to read it, stop here, because I'm about to take a stroll through it.

Reading The Ruins as a writer, got through the first 75 pages and asked myself how this writer managed to get me to follow these people into the jungle when I didn't particularly like any of them.

The Ruins is about four recent college grads on vacation in Cancun, who go off on an adventure to help an acquaintance find his brother. The college grads are comprised of two American couples, Eric and Stacy and Jeff and Amy. Although they have distinct personalities, none of them stands out as a person I would follow on a day trip away from the beach. When their German friend, Mathias, tells them that he must travel to an obscure Mayan archaeological dig to retrieve his lovesick brother, Jeff volunteers himself and his friends to keep him company. And let the foreshadowing begin.

None of the Americans really seem happy to leave the beach. Eric is so hung over, I expect his eyes to start bleeding, Stacy doesn't seem to think about whether she wants to go or not...she just follows Jeff's lead and remains the classic follower until there's... um...no one left to follow. Amy whines about going but then remembers she's been criticized for whining and summarily shuts up and goes. And I follow right along with them, thinking, "They're not really prepared. Do they know where they're going? Should they trust Mathias?" They have a hand-written map, where public transportation only takes them within 15 miles of the spot. The bus ride is ominous, the pickup truck ride to the trail head is stressful, the truck driver tries to warn them, they encounter an entire town of Mayans who try to stop them, and Amy continues to snap photos. At the last minute, a smiling Greek, bearing the gift of three bottles of tequila, joins them.

That the Greek speaks no English is only one of the language barriers the Americans encounter. They can't talk to the Mayans either. And the Mayans are clearly trying to tell them something kind of important. Something like, Don't Step Onto The Hill With The Red Flowering Vine. They do, of course, and that seals their fate. Looking back, I don't know why I didn't predict the end. They all die. There are no heroes, no survivors. Their collective penchant for sniping at each other and their private pools of fear and self-doubt take them straight to their deaths.

That pretty red-flowered vine turns out to be a carnivorous plant with super human abilities. It can mimic them in their own voices and knows just what to say to hurt them better than a kid sister with a crush on her sister's boyfriend. When hunger makes them swoon, it can engulf the hilltop with scents like freshly baked bread or steaks barbecuing. Yep. It's one mean plant. But the two couples, the German and the Greek never really question what it is or why the Mayans feel the need to keep them on the hill at gunpoint. They never try to find a weakness in their enemy. Nor do they work to make a plan to escape. They wait, hoping that the Greek's companions will come for them. Two other Greek men, who don't speak any English, Spanish or Mayan, are their only hope for survival from this situation.

Is there a message here? Something beyond entertainment? The Ruins does break a lot of formula expectations. No survivors, no heroes, no escape plan. They are four Americans, newly graduated from college, affluent, white and ready to begin adult life. By American standards, they are four young people who have the world by the ass. Yet they are not prepared to survive any difficulties. In fact, they are all basically lead to their deaths, whining and longing for another drink.

Another thing that Smith does is he keeps them all alive for an agonizingly long time after their fate is sealed. I kept expecting people to start dying off. But no one dies until more than 3/4 of the book is gone. Once the first one dies, though, Jill comes tumbling after... they drop pretty quickly. The sad part is, I'm grateful to see them go. They're the kind of people you might have a drink with at a tavern and never remember any of their names an hour later.

Okay...since I said at the beginning that I was going to go through the book, I don't feel like I've spoiled anything for anyone. Just thinking it through.
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Feb 17, 2008 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a tough one to rate, and the only way I can think to do it is through talking about the actual content. I'll warn you just before this happens.

I'm really torn about what to give this one. I picked it up because I'd seen a trailer for the movie version and thought it seemed terrifyingly good. I knew I'd never be able to stomach the actual movie and was happy when the trailer mentioned that it was based on a book. So I picked it up and gave a go. And then it left me so damn pissed off and...more This is a tough one to rate, and the only way I can think to do it is through talking about the actual content. I'll warn you just before this happens.

I'm really torn about what to give this one. I picked it up because I'd seen a trailer for the movie version and thought it seemed terrifyingly good. I knew I'd never be able to stomach the actual movie and was happy when the trailer mentioned that it was based on a book. So I picked it up and gave a go. And then it left me so damn pissed off and depressed at the end.

OK, OK! No doubt it's a horror novel, and that's part of the trouble I'm having with the rating. I mean, hello! It totally disgusted me and like -- what did I expect with a horror novel? Disney songs? But what I mean goes beyond the yuck and horror factor. Here's where you might want to stop reading if you're going to read the book or watch the movie.

OK. Ready?

Yes, it's all so very, very horrifying, no question. And perhaps more horrifying than anything else at all is how easily the characters give up, how easily their fight for survival is crushed. But I'm not sure if that's meant to be part of the larger message here. Because if it's not, and I really don't think it is, then there's not so much substance to this work. Nothing really happens at all.

It's very frustrating to me that they give up without tapping into much of their survival instinct, aside from Jeff. I kept thinking of ways for them to fight, even if it ended up fruitless. How about duct-taping wonking lengths of the vine to rocks and pelting them at the ring of Mayan sentries, for example? Maybe it wouldn't have accomplished anything, but it wouldn't been at least an attempt at fighting back. And the vine is freaked out by fire ... SO WHY DOESN'T SOMEONE AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO SET IT ON FIRE??!?!?!?!

Back to Jeff -- I hate the practical side of life, but sometimes it's just plain necessary for life to continue. Yeah, I don't know if I could actually eat any of you if we're all stuck someplace and the only option is cannibalism, especially since I'm a vegetarian. But shouldn't I have tried?

AND WHY DIDN'T ANYONE ATTEMPT TO LOOK THROUGH THE JOURNALS? There's a brief mention of one of them having Dutch writing, but it's a passing mention and the narrative never returns. Maybe something was written later by someone else.

I also didn't really give a damn about any of the people, except the most enigmatic, Mathias. (Maybe if we knew more about him, we wouldn't like him, either, lol.) One of the characters even sketches a brief movie scenario of the situation, and unfortunately, while it's meant as a kind of joke, there's not much more depth to the characters than that.

And that's what it comes to, I guess I'm circling around to: The whole work, in a nutshell: 500 pages of vapidity.

One other, very minor, thing that nonetheless annoyed the piss out of me: Um, hello. It's called "The Ruins." So where are those ruins? If it's meant to be some double entendre -- the ruins of the characters, for example -- it still doesn't work. Ruins are not a mine shaft dug into the side of a hill, damnit! They're a leaving of civilization. From what I remember, the movie trailer fixed this. So that's something. I guess.(less)

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Dec 01, 2010 Delroy rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

This may be the worst book that I have ever read in much the same way that I feel Mission to Mars is the worst movie I have ever seen. There is plenty of crap out there, but sometimes a piece of crap manages to find itself in the shoe-shine pile and gets lots of money thrown at it and gets splashy reviews and buys out the front rack at the distribution center for the arts and you are in a hurry to get your culture on so you don't see that the polish this turd has been given barely managed to mak...more

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Aug 23, 2008 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-fiction, fiction

Scott Smith's The Ruins is one of the best horror novels I've read in some time. It would be really easy for me to rip into it. The premise is, frankly, ridiculous, and its plot is nothing but doom and gloom. So why did I love it so much? Simply because it was completely convincing, engrossing, and terrifying. I don't think I have ever found myself squirming as much while reading as I was for this book's last 20 pages or so.

I think The Ruins works as well as it does because of Smith's writing an...more Scott Smith's The Ruins is one of the best horror novels I've read in some time. It would be really easy for me to rip into it. The premise is, frankly, ridiculous, and its plot is nothing but doom and gloom. So why did I love it so much? Simply because it was completely convincing, engrossing, and terrifying. I don't think I have ever found myself squirming as much while reading as I was for this book's last 20 pages or so.

I think The Ruins works as well as it does because of Smith's writing and characterizations. There are a lot of negative reviews of this book on this site. The most common complaints are that the characters were unlikable, that there were no lofty themes or messages in the story, and that the nature of the threat the characters face in the Mayan ruins where most of the book takes place was impossible to take seriously.

I didn't find the characters at all unlikable. They infuriated and saddened me consistently, because their flaws were all either ones I see in myself or in other people and am powerless to change, but I never found them unlikable. They are drawn so well, in fact, that they really seemed like real people to me. And real people in peril are the worst kind of people. If you've ever wondered what your significant other or best friend would do in a situation of extreme peril with you and found yourself feeling sick and worried, then this novel will probably twist your guts up. And terrify you.

No big themes? Again, I liked this. If there were, it would have blunted the terror. This is a story of a few people in the midst of a crisis over the course of a few days. They don't have the luxury of reflection, and neither does the reader. This book might not teach you anything, but its immediacy is chilling.

As far as the nature of the threat that faces them in the ruins, I can't disagree. There are a number of reasons why it's incredibly silly. But at the same time, in the context of the story, it's really not. I, for one, found it disturbing for a number of reasons.

If you're able to read The Ruins and tell yourself, "This could never happen," then you'll probably hate it. But if you're able to give yourself over to the situation and see yourself in the novel's characters, you will feel a creepy and pervading sense of doom.(less)

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Oct 27, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Jzhunagev

Shelves: horror

This is my Halloween read for this year and it is very apt because it is really, really scary. While reading that part when the killer vine is going inside the body of its prey, I thought I could feel my limbs or my abdominal cavity constricting as if I could feel something slithering under my skin and putting pressure on my muscles. I thought I could feel the cool misty feel of the forest, smell the musky trees, hear the crowning cocks and chirping birds and see the sun going down and darkness...more This is my Halloween read for this year and it is very apt because it is really, really scary. While reading that part when the killer vine is going inside the body of its prey, I thought I could feel my limbs or my abdominal cavity constricting as if I could feel something slithering under my skin and putting pressure on my muscles. I thought I could feel the cool misty feel of the forest, smell the musky trees, hear the crowning cocks and chirping birds and see the sun going down and darkness slowly spreading in the sky turning the Mayan sacred hill into a graveyard full of immaculate white bones underneath the vines and beautiful purple flowers. What I am saying is that every page this book is truly engaging as it makes sure that your senses are busy working while reading. Imagining being in a forest is something that is easy for me to do because I grew up in an island in the Pacific when the vegetations in our coconut plantations were still thick and I used to walk in the rice/corn fields enjoying the morning mists or help my father in clearing up weeds and vines in between the mature coconut trees.

I neither have not read Scott B. Smith’s (born 1965) earlier hit, A Simple Plan nor have seen the movie adaptation of that or this The Ruins so I did not have any expectation prior to cracking this book open. With one exception: A good GR friend rated this with “1” star and I think that the disappointment was due to the fact that she had read and enjoyed A Simple Plan and reasonably expected that this book was at par with that earlier work. So, I said I would put this book last in my tbr and I did not plan to read this soon. It was just that I got bored with Stephen King’s It and I needed to have a Halloween read. I needed to feel scared and get in tune with this season.

I thought this was a good pick. It’s just that when I was finally done reading the book, I asked myself: so, is there any lesson or any learning or any new knowledge that I learned from this work? The resounding answer: none. It is all about being scared. It is an escapist book. It enables you to escape into another place and although you enjoy the scare, you bring back nothing. Definitely no takeaway. Mayan? It is an extinct tribe and Smith did not bother to mention anything regarding their history. Cancun? Easy, it is a place in Mexico. Four young single Americans vacationing in there? No brainer. Americans go everywhere they find interesting. Friendships among those four? They are so stupid they almost killed each other. The two brainless girls alternately saying ”bitch” and ”slut” to each other was even copied by the more intelligent killer vine. Oh, the killer vine? If Cormac McCarthy’s The Road makes us aware that we need to take care of our environment, Scott B. Smith’s The Ruins makes us want to hate forest because it is only in the forest where there are huge trees with vines. Nothing. Nada. It is like watching those B-grade horror flicks with thin plots where nothing is happening except that each of the characters has to die. You shout. You hyperventilate. You cringe on your seat. You cower in fear. You keep your eyes covered. But as you step out from the movie house, you feel cheated as you did not get any lesson from it. No lesson that could turn you into a better person. Waste of time. Waste of your hard-earned money.

But it is Halloween and I surely got that spirit of the season with this book. So, for Smith’s effort, I thought this deserves my two stars.
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Jul 16, 2008 Scoobs rated it 3 of 5 stars

I just rented this movie from Blockbuster a few days ago. I have had the book sitting on my shelf since it came out in hardcover. I decided to be a true nut and read the whole thing before I watched the movie and see how badly they ruined it. Or how faithful they were. Luckily, Blockbuster doesn't have their late fee's anymore.

Well, I jammed through the thing, not only because I wanted to watch the movie sooner than later, but because I couldn't put it down. To be honest, I didn't really like t...more I just rented this movie from Blockbuster a few days ago. I have had the book sitting on my shelf since it came out in hardcover. I decided to be a true nut and read the whole thing before I watched the movie and see how badly they ruined it. Or how faithful they were. Luckily, Blockbuster doesn't have their late fee's anymore.

Well, I jammed through the thing, not only because I wanted to watch the movie sooner than later, but because I couldn't put it down. To be honest, I didn't really like the book. It didn't scare me like I thought it would. Like I wanted it to. Killer vines? Really? Didn't scare me.

Of course, what scares and creeps you out more than......your own damn stupid self? I finished the 319 page book and immediately stopped thinking about it. I started thinking, what the hell would I do in that situation? How would I react? How long would it take until I cracked? Broke? Fell apart? Died?

What choices would I make, good, bad, smart, stupid, brave, cowardly, helpful, pointless? Would I make them all? Yes. Would I be the hero, villain, comic relief, wimp, slut? Would I be them all? Yes.

We've all been out camping or hiking or out in nature, far away from civilization. We've all been in or on basements, elevators, roller-coasters, close to civilization. We've all thought...What if? What if the power went out when I was in the elevator? What if I'm trapped in a mine? What if I get lost in the forest? What If I run out of gas on the way out to Vegas, stuck in the desert? What If I get trapped under a rock?
What steps would you take? To what extremes would you go? What would you put others through? What would you force them through? What would you force yourself through?

So anyways, as I write all this, I am still only thinking about myself and what I would do. I stopped thinking about the characters and their situations. Don't get me wrong, some fucked up things do happen in this book. There is some truly great writing going on, but I just wanted some cheap scares.
I got something else.
Yee-haw Scott Smith! 3 stars! Great fucking name too!

Now I get to watch the movie. And I bet, because they always fuck up the better horror books, I'll get my cheap scares and none of the psychological mind fuck.(less)

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Mar 15, 2009 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Consider this a 2.5-star rating.

I'm not exactly sure what to even say about The Ruins, but I'll give it a try.

For me, the reason this book didn't fall to a 2- or even 1-star rating is because the book was ultimately readable, and at a fairly quick pace. Unlike some reviewers, I also found the overall story creepy and disturbing.

Unfortunately, the story had several flaws that could not be overlooked. After the characters arrived at the site of the "ruins," almost all forward motion of the plot gr...more

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Apr 17, 2008 Regina rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody

This review contains no spoilers, no specifics, just generalities.

I have nothing good at all to say about this book, one of the worst stinkeroos I've ever had the misfortune to stumble across. I can't believe it was ever even published. It's junk like this that make me feel that no matter how bad my writing is, if drivel like this can earn money, than there is no reason why anything I slap together can't make money.

Horror story? Nope. Didn't scare me one bit. Didn't even make me uneasy. Extended...more This review contains no spoilers, no specifics, just generalities.

I have nothing good at all to say about this book, one of the worst stinkeroos I've ever had the misfortune to stumble across. I can't believe it was ever even published. It's junk like this that make me feel that no matter how bad my writing is, if drivel like this can earn money, than there is no reason why anything I slap together can't make money.

Horror story? Nope. Didn't scare me one bit. Didn't even make me uneasy. Extended character study? Yep. But did it make me care about a single character? Nope. Maybe it was the author's intent to people his novel with an entire cast of throw-away characters. If so, then the book was a raging technical success.

Strangely, the movie trailer does look good compared to the book. This is surely a case where the movie has to be better than the book. The only other example of this I ever found was the movie Excalibur. Great movie, bad book. (20+ years later, I'm still not convinced that the duo Gil Kane and John Jakes could write their way out of a paper bag, although John Jakes did a fine job with North and South. Kane must've been the limiting facter in Excalibur.)

There are two reasons why I finished it: 1. Instead of actually reading a book, I mostly listen to books on tape, and I have a very hard time finding stuff at libraries that I want to listen to (can't afford to buy/rent books on tape). I usually end up listening to books of which I would never have read the hard copy. 2. Everything about the story was so bad that I naively thought there had to be a gold nugget hidden somewhere because, after all, the stupid thing WAS published. I kept thinking that the next chapter would take off like a literary rocket and the auther would finally deliver on the promise made by the praise heaped on the silly thing on the cover. Never happened. Nunca.

Wait... I just thought of something good to say. All aspiring writers should be encouraged, even emboldened, by this terrible little novel whose only horror lies in its horrible failure. Truly, if this is all it takes to make a name for oneself and to get a movie deal, then dazzling success is just right around the corner for all of us.

I'd love to hear from someone who liked this book. Anyone. Maybe they can explain to me what I missed in about 10 hours of listening.

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Apr 07, 2008 Sara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Let's start with the good. Or the less bad. The idea of the story is interesting. Being in another country is scary and this capitalizes that idea. I wish the metaphor of language barrier and communication had been played out more fully.

My chief complaints with this book are as follows:
- The characters were cardboard cutouts of real characters. Two dimensional and stereotypical.
- The women in this novel are useless. 100% USDA uselessness. See above.
- Honestly, why didn't the Greek speak Eng...more

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Apr 17, 2008 Brandon rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: adults

Recommended to Brandon by: My friend Evelyn

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. WOW!! this book is terrible. Castaway meets Little Shop of Horrors, and there aren't even any ruins. Oh, and it's not dramatic or scary in the least. I wasn't even grossed out at the gore. It starts off with some promise and just gets worse, not to mention that the author has no concept of how to write women. I was so irritated at his obnoxious portrayal of the brainless/spineless women in this story that I had trouble paying attention to any sort of redeeming quality that may have made the char...more WOW!! this book is terrible. Castaway meets Little Shop of Horrors, and there aren't even any ruins. Oh, and it's not dramatic or scary in the least. I wasn't even grossed out at the gore. It starts off with some promise and just gets worse, not to mention that the author has no concept of how to write women. I was so irritated at his obnoxious portrayal of the brainless/spineless women in this story that I had trouble paying attention to any sort of redeeming quality that may have made the characters likable. Oh, and let's not forget that in the middle of a time of crisis, I like to think about male genitalia or how bad things smell...ya' know, because that's important. It's appalling how much men wish these things go through women's heads. I just wish he was the only author I can think of that does that to female characters, but sadly, he isn't. Even the male characters in this just kinda give up on survival. Again, I don't understand it because if my friends left out of the blue in a foreign country, it wouldn't take me 5 days to try and find out what happened to them. The ending did sorta cling to my psyche, but I have a thing about self mutilation. It wasn't the imagery, it was the thought of doing it that got me, and the fact that it almost seemed as if Stacy didn't give into the hopelessness of the situation but more like she didn't want to get off the hill if the rest of them didn't. But I can't go too deep into it because she was also killing herself in an act of defiance against a plant, which has no reason to be evil or sentient, it just kinda is. That's right, he doesn't even give a why here. And let me just remind you that there are no ruins and this book isn't frightening at all, in case you've forgotten my first and foremost complaint. I didn't want my moment of compliment-giving weakness confusing anyone on how I really felt of my book. It's about 6-8 hours of my life I'll never get back that I could have spent reading something decent.(less)

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Oct 18, 2007 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who dig horror

*SPOILER ALERT*
I consider myself a fiend for horror stories, but this has to be the most challenging horror story I've ever walked myself through.

The four Americans are pretty stereotypical characters, and they are all very unlikable, but I think this works well for the story. The characters are very bland, and with their names and their relationships to each other, it was hard at first to differentiate from them. But I think this was Smith's intention, though I can't say why. It takes a page b...more *SPOILER ALERT*
I consider myself a fiend for horror stories, but this has to be the most challenging horror story I've ever walked myself through.

The four Americans are pretty stereotypical characters, and they are all very unlikable, but I think this works well for the story. The characters are very bland, and with their names and their relationships to each other, it was hard at first to differentiate from them. But I think this was Smith's intention, though I can't say why. It takes a page before you even learn their individual names, and in the very first paragraph he refers to them only as "they." They are a collective. I don't think you're supposed to sympathize them.

The ending is predictable (as far as giving away if they're going to win or lose,) but this is good for the sort of reader who wants to know "How." Some readers like to be surprised by a story, whereas others are interested in the "how." I have a friend who reads the end of the book before he starts reading it, because he's mostly curious about how the story is going to arrive at this ending. If you are that sort of reader (and if you don't mind being incredibly grossed out) then this is a good book for you.

I also thought the slow pacing of the book is what makes it scary. It becomes clear that the vine is hunting them in a sense, and this is what tortured me as a reader, how long the characters would suffer (especially Pablo) until they got it.

I have to say, too, that what Smith does with Pablo was great. Pablo breaks his back after taking a long fall and suffers far more than anybody else in the book. But Pablo does not speak English, and nobody knows his real name-"Pablo" is a nickname he took as a joke. This is convenient for the Americans, who are shallow as it is, to avoid relating to him. It makes it easier for them to just set him aside or make a certain decision without his input. Had it been one of them that suffered this injury, say Eric or Amy, then the ordeal would be a lot closer to home. It makes it easier for them to ignore his everpresent excrement and bile or to cut off his legs, when they have that limited of a connection to him.(less)

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Jul 28, 2007 Tressa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

I am always amazed at the low ratings this book gets. I thoroughly enjoyed it and even listened to the book on CD, which made the story even more intriguing.

Four young Americans about to enter graduate school or begin new jobs back home are relaxing in Cancun, Mexico, soaking up too much sun and tequila. At their hotel they befriend a group of Greek men and a German. The German’s brother has gone missing after becoming smitten with a woman and following her to a Mayan archaeological dig in the j...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Trudi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, survive-this, 2007-reads, made-into-movie, scary-as-hell, man-vs-nature, group-in-peril, infection, books-i-want-to-marry, stephen-king-recommends

***Please indulge me while I float this older review for a horror novel that remains near and dear to my heart. If you are looking for some genuine thrills and chills this Halloween season, this may be the book for you. Happy All Hallow's Read!

I just don't get the storm of criticism aimed at Scott Smith's second novel, The Ruins. Why do people love to hate this book? I found the story to be brutally convincing and the characters believable (if not always very likable). These are college-age kid...more

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Jan 15, 2008 Brooks Yelverton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Anybody out there ever been to Mexico? Any of you ever gotten sick of sitting around on the beach and decided to trek through the jungle to see some of the Mayan ruins? A few years back, I was in this position, but then I decided (since I'm fat and lazy) that lying around on the beach beat hiking around. After reading this thriller, I know I made the right decision.

The summary above covers about the first twenty pages of the book. The remainder is fascinating, but I don't want to risk ruining an...more Anybody out there ever been to Mexico? Any of you ever gotten sick of sitting around on the beach and decided to trek through the jungle to see some of the Mayan ruins? A few years back, I was in this position, but then I decided (since I'm fat and lazy) that lying around on the beach beat hiking around. After reading this thriller, I know I made the right decision.

The summary above covers about the first twenty pages of the book. The remainder is fascinating, but I don't want to risk ruining any of the story for future readers, so my apologies in advance, but this review will be short on substantive information. However, I can tell you that the plot is outstanding, original, and very well orchestrated.

Without a doubt, the highlight of this book, along with the plot, is the atmosphere. Never before have I read a novel with such a sense of foreboding and despair. The longer the story goes on, the more intense these feelings become. The inevitable conclusion only deepens this growing desperation . This is one of those books that you have to set down every so often just to take a deep breath and relax from the intense emotions it creates. The setting was integral to the creation of this atmosphere and could have been a character itself. In fact, the setting was a better “character” than the remaining shallow people that populated this story.

My only complaints with this book were the pace and the characters. The characters were like a broken ankle, and the pace was the uncomfortable crutches that helped the story limp along. The atmosphere carried the pace for the majority of the story, but in other spots, especially those involving dialogue between some of the characters, the book dragged to a crawl. Fortunately, it seemed Smith knew these scenes were lacking, because they were few and far between; but when they did occur, it was very noticeable and inevitably induced this reviewer to take a smoke break. In case you didn't catch it, the biggest weakness was the characters. They were cardboard cutouts with very few, if any, redeeming qualities, and were easily forgettable. Fortunately, this story was not character driven, and as it went along, the characters themselves became less and less important.

I'll give this one 3.5 stars. Even with its faults, this novel is original and better than most of the stuff I've been reading lately. If you have the extra cash, go pick it up when you get a chance. Otherwise, wait a few months for the paperback. (less)

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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2006

THE RUINS BY SCOTT SMITH: For this book to be classed a mystery (at least it is at Borders) is a grave injustice to the genre community: The Ruins is outright horror, through and through; I mean it has a blood-sucking vine for crying out loud!

Scott Smith has written a most unusual book with The Ruins, starting off kind of slow with the necessary character set-up, but then suddenly kicks into high gear and goes from scary to crazy to outright impossible yet riveting. Our cast is a group of five...more THE RUINS BY SCOTT SMITH: For this book to be classed a mystery (at least it is at Borders) is a grave injustice to the genre community: The Ruins is outright horror, through and through; I mean it has a blood-sucking vine for crying out loud!

Scott Smith has written a most unusual book with The Ruins, starting off kind of slow with the necessary character set-up, but then suddenly kicks into high gear and goes from scary to crazy to outright impossible yet riveting. Our cast is a group of five twenty-something characters: two couples who went to college together (including a German and a Greek) hear about some ruins nearby while they are vacationing in Cancun. Following the paths, they end up on a plateau and find themselves trapped by a group of armed Mayans at the bottom of the hill who will shoot to kill if they come too close.

The next few days are an experimentation in the devolving of civilized humanity, as they soon find skeletons of past occupants in the area – all mysteriously stripped of any flesh. As water and food supplies dwindle, they must stick together and ration themselves to ensure survival, all with the hope that their friends back at the hotel will eventually come and find them. Then they discover that the dense green vine surrounding the camp area is not your usual foliage. As more is discovered about this plant, the story goes from bizarre to preposterous, as the vine eventually imitates sounds and smells, then their actual voices to pit them against each other. One by one, the vine gets them and causes a slow but painful death. Eventually there is one girl remaining who chooses to slash her wrists and die before she can feel the vine taking her. Three days later the friends arrive and the book ends with them being trapped in exactly the same predicament.

I have mixed feelings about this book, because there were certainly some good parts that had me wanting to keep reading on ahead, but near the end it really became far fetched from the emergency surgery that was performed – leg amputations and slicing open of bodies because of the vine – to the farcical nature of the omniscient vine that was actually speaking German to enrage the German character; though kudos are deserved for a book that dares to kill off all its characters. Nevertheless, no reason is ever really revealed for why the Mayans are keeping them there. One character hints that it might be that the vine is some sort of god that the Mayans have “sacrificed to” for hundreds of years, and this whole effort just comes off as racist.

But if it’s a blood and gore horror story you’re looking for that pushes you to your limits and makes you think how far you would go in this situation – even though nothing like this could ever really happen – then The Ruins by Scott Smith is the book for you. Now I’m just wondering why the slasher movie of this book hasn’t been made yet?

If you liked this review, and would like to read more, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Nov 03, 2007 Caroline rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, read-in-2007

The entire time reading this book, I kept telling myself "It'll get better...it has to get better! It can't all be this bad!" It did get better, for about the last 50 pages where everything just goes crazy and finally we get some consistent action.

The characters (a group of fairly dense 20-something-year-olds, a German, and some Greeks) journey deep into the jungles of Mexico to find an archaeological dig where the German's brother is supposed to be. Instead, they find a strange village of Mayan...more The entire time reading this book, I kept telling myself "It'll get better...it has to get better! It can't all be this bad!" It did get better, for about the last 50 pages where everything just goes crazy and finally we get some consistent action.

The characters (a group of fairly dense 20-something-year-olds, a German, and some Greeks) journey deep into the jungles of Mexico to find an archaeological dig where the German's brother is supposed to be. Instead, they find a strange village of Mayans that none of them can communicate with, and the path to the ruins obviously attempted to be hidden. They find the ruins, and that's when Bad Things begin to happen...so very very slowly.

I love suspense--I love the building up of worrying what's going on and wondering how the characters are going to survive their ordeal. But in The Ruins? I just wanted it all to get over with and then to die in some horrible way, because it was just dull and repetitive. The characters all have their worries they repeat over and over, and Smith loves using the technique of having them dwell on single words. It was fairly irritating for me, considering it was obvious what the characters were obsessing over without him taking up the time to do this.

I knew I was in trouble when it took an entire 50 pages of argument, debate, and repetition of "he screamed, and then stopped screaming, and the stopping was worse" when one of the characters falls about 30 feet into the ruins themselves. Seriously, it took a whopping 50 pages for them to figure out how to get him out of the whole, the entire time him screaming...and stopping...and then starting up again. I assumed it would get better after that point.

No, no it didn't. I kept teasing myself with "It should get better after this!" until about the last 50 pages, where things just go really awful and there's no more dwelling on small details that don't matter.

I had picked this book up because it had received some pretty amazing press and reviews back when it was released, and even made it on the bestseller list...and I've been craving some good old-fashioned horror. The only reason I can imagine this had so many good reviews is that those last 50 pages were actually quite good, and quite probably left a lasting impression on the early readers. That's the only reason I can come up with, since the majority of the rest of the book is so dull.

I give it two stars based on the fact it was a bit on the addictive size--Smith does a great job with the Dan Brown writing style of teasing you with bits to keep you reading a little longer, only to tease you again. Oh, and watching the characters break down and go pretty crazy towards the end was actually fairly well-done. Other than that? It felt like dredging through a whole lot of garbage to get to the nugget of gold, and honestly I wish I hadn't taken the time to do so.(less)

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Sep 11, 2007 Linda Gosslin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of horror, jungle, friendships

I was excited to read this book because "A Simple Plan", Scott Smith's previous book, is one of my all-time favorites. I have reread it many times, and always own a copy.
The Ruins also attracted me because it's set in the jungle of the southern Yucatan, not far from the Coba ruins. This happens to be where we live. We could drive to this locale in an hour. And people do disappear periodically from this area, without any solution to the disappearance ever being known. So Scott Smith's imagination...more

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Apr 08, 2008 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, horror

The title is a bit of a misnomer - there aren't really any ruins to speak of, just a hill with a mine shaft in it. It IS horrific, though, when a group of tourists end up on this hill and aren't allowed to leave.

These tourists aren't particularly brave, which makes this horror novel interesting. Rather than being about a group of heroes who rise up and face the terror head on, The Ruins seems to be about normal people who end up in a terrible situation. It was kind of refreshing, because as ann...more

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Jun 09, 2007 Jill rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ingredients for a mediocre, predictable "horror" movie in book form:

- Unlikable characters with troubled psyches
- "Evil" I don't feel personally threatened by at all
- Gore
- Discussion by the characters of "what this would be like if it was made into a movie, and what actor would play who"
- Death in all kinds of flavours (murders, accidents, self-inflicted)
- Gratuitious boobie shot(s)
- Predictable ending

I gave one point for descriptive writing and one for the fact that I did actually finish the b...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Monique rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: disturbia-murder-and-nightmare-book

So this book was one I had written down to read several times after great authors like Stephen King and Ruth Rendell count him as an author to watch--I have tried many times to watch the movie adaptation of his first smash hit novel "A Simple Plan" but never quite got into I want to read it..nevertheless this book is interesting, scary and insightful all at once. The premise is simple, easy and scary enough--a group of couples take a spring break trip to Mexico and end up going where even the lo...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Barbara rated it 1 of 5 stars

After having read Scott Smith's' "A Simple Plan", which I found to be clever, riveting,suspenseful and WONDERFUL; I eagerly anticipated a follow-up."The Ruins" is a horrifying, grueling story about 4 young Americans who take a trip to Mexico. When the brother of one disappears on an archeological dig, they pursue him.Their trek takes them through the jungle, which is a place far beyond one's worst nightmares. Unbelievable consequences result from their decision to become detectives.
This tale is...more

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May 19, 2012 John Wiswell rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book forced me to reassess one of my oldest and least popular literary opinions. I enjoy passive prose. Even if I don’t write it often, I’m fond of the styles that recorded most of our great myths. The action is taken out of pacing, trapped in a sort of literary amber where unique characters and ideas are everything. Through use of voice, "telling" can be equally entertaining and artistic as "showing." It’s a similarly great medium for thorough journalism and science. Yet The Ruins is perha...more This book forced me to reassess one of my oldest and least popular literary opinions. I enjoy passive prose. Even if I don’t write it often, I’m fond of the styles that recorded most of our great myths. The action is taken out of pacing, trapped in a sort of literary amber where unique characters and ideas are everything. Through use of voice, "telling" can be equally entertaining and artistic as "showing." It’s a similarly great medium for thorough journalism and science. Yet The Ruins is perhaps the worst example of passive writing I’ve ever read.

The opening simply tells us about the characters. We don’t see them arrive, get drunk or argue. The novel even relays the gist of conversations instead of letting us hear them. And because these are all well-to-do tourists with hormones and romantic drama, they bleed into two groups. The core group is Eric, Jeff, Stacy and Amy, a troupe of young, mostly interchangeable Caucasian tourists. Then there are the Greeks, who even on the last page of the book don’t develop into more than a group of foreigners who like to bang. And we’re told that they like to. The novel insists on telling us that they leer at a pretty girl and maybe had a night with her; we’re never taken into a moment to see any of it. This passive reportage follows us into the ruins of an ancient temple and saps the tension from this Horror story.

The detachment from action is at its worst in the first hundred pages. Pretty much anyone who picks up this book has been told it’s about a giant killer plant. Thus, you spend those first hundred pages waiting for it to crawl out of the jungle. Since we have such a superficial bunch of characters, we might root for them to all get eaten – but the novel doesn’t even get on the premise quickly. Instead we’re told they’re nervous, we’re told their thoughts about the Greeks coming for rescue, we’re told about rationing. When the creepy natives show up, they sit there and do nothing. We’re then told they’re creepy.

I’ll argue that passive writing can illuminate great stories. Hercules’s labors are novel even relayed as dry history. But in The Ruins, we’re trapped with some petty characters doing very little. Amy dominates a hefty chunk of the first third of the book. She’s not particularly bright selfish about food and water rations, and instinctively spiteful toward anyone who might judge her. Put into motion in a sitcom, that could be funny. If you’re just told that over and over, or read these descriptions of her transparent thought process, you’re begging to toss her to the plant. It worsens further as the characters set into despair over their situation and grow similarly hysterical. You’re left with a passive account of an unsympathetic group being obnoxious until they escape or die. Even that might work in a Horror-slasher movie, but not one that spends ten pages painstakingly going through a twit’s anxiety over sipping water.(less)

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Aug 28, 2008 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Oh, The Ruins! This book saved my life during an agonizing VIA train ride from Jasper, Alberta to Winnipeg, Manitoba that took about 5 hours longer than its already-excruciating 22-hour timeframe.

I already knew from the outward trip how dull and painful the trainride could be, so right before departure, I walked into some crappy touristy gift shop in Jasper and went right to the "Bestsellers" rack to look for a book that would let me ignore the smell/noise/delays/uncomfortable seats that seem to...more Oh, The Ruins! This book saved my life during an agonizing VIA train ride from Jasper, Alberta to Winnipeg, Manitoba that took about 5 hours longer than its already-excruciating 22-hour timeframe.

I already knew from the outward trip how dull and painful the trainride could be, so right before departure, I walked into some crappy touristy gift shop in Jasper and went right to the "Bestsellers" rack to look for a book that would let me ignore the smell/noise/delays/uncomfortable seats that seem to be a staple of VIA train service. Two books caught my eye; The Ruins, and The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom (what! another global-evil-conspiracy-based-in-the-past-that-wants-to-take-over-the-world book?? I know, I know, I've promised never to read another one of those again...but I was desperate and it was almost 700 pages, so it was tempting). Unable to decide between the two of them (and worried that a single book wouldn't be enough) I bought 'em both.

The better book BY FAR was The Ruins. Much more enjoyable. I'll review The Machiavelli Covenant later, but suffice it to say that it was terrible. The Ruins, on the other hand, was a very taunt, entertaining thriller. Reminded me a lot of some old-school Stephen King stories (like The Raft) or thriller/horror movies where the action is all that matters; there is hardly any character development or backstory. Now, in some books, where the author tries to be serious and/or 'deep', this is a problem. But in a book like this...? Not a problem at all.

It's classic: take a group of young people, put them in an exotic location, have them do something wrong, try to fix it, have more and more things go wrong, have some evil force work against them and kill them off one by one...it's an old formula but it works. The Ruins follows it almost exactly and does it well. I can see why they made it into a movie (which I may have to go rent now).

So, obviously, this isn't a book that is going to break any boundaries or really impact your life in a meaningful way. But when all I needed it to do was help me ignore the guys playing guitar for 8 straight hours on a damn train...it was heavenly.
(less)

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Aug 04, 2008 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

You may never take another Mexican vacation after reading this high-end horror novel about four young Americans who have clearly never been to a horror movie or read a book by Stephen King. If they had, they would know that if the natives turn pale and tell you not to go to a place (“That place no good!”), you should probably not go to that place. But they do, of course, go to the off-the-map Mayan ruins, and boy do they wish they hadn’t. Author Scott Smith is actually a pretty serious novelist...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Grainne Rhuad rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teen aged boys

Recommended to Grainne by: goodreads readers

You think I would have learned by now that the writers I like ~Stephen King~ don't necessarily read the things I like and are therfore not to be trusted when they write reviews or recommend books.
This book was very one dimensional although one got the sense that the writer tried very hard to overcome this. But like his charactors he just couldn't find a good way out of the situation he had found himself in...
Wait a minute......That was probably the most profound thing about the book!
Seriously th...more

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May 27, 2008 Deidra rated it 1 of 5 stars

I love horror stories, and I'm no purist, but I could not get into this story at all. After hearing all the raves about this book I picked it up to read on a flight. It did not hold my attention at all; it was bland, slow-moving, and filled with completely unsympathetic characters. The opening chapters do a good job of setting the scene and building a certain sense of dread, but after that, it all goes down hill.

Many other readers have complained that the reveal of the 'monster' is stupid, but...more

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Apr 25, 2008 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: cynics, students of human behavior, sadists

Decent page turner by a good author, but hugely frustrating due to a hard-to-swallow "reveal" at the halfway point, in addition to having characters that are well-written but difficult to like. At a certain point in my reading I had to pretty much remove myself from any identification I had with the characters and instead start to see the book as an allegory about human frailty, or as I like to look at it, "human jackassery."

The book actually succeeds as an allegory about our shortcomings and t...more Decent page turner by a good author, but hugely frustrating due to a hard-to-swallow "reveal" at the halfway point, in addition to having characters that are well-written but difficult to like. At a certain point in my reading I had to pretty much remove myself from any identification I had with the characters and instead start to see the book as an allegory about human frailty, or as I like to look at it, "human jackassery."

The book actually succeeds as an allegory about our shortcomings and the argument could be made that it is a critique of smug American culture abroad, along the lines of the more forgiving reviews of the film HOSTEL.

A lot of backlash exists against the book due to a reveal at the midway point that the novel isn't a suspenser per se but more of a horror novel with supernatural elements. The copy I bought used was dogeared and well-read up until the very page where this reveal occurs, as if the previous owner gave up at that turning point.

Of the handful of characters trapped in the jungle setting and surrounded by hostile "natives" I only sympathized with two of them, one being "Mathias" the aloof-thus-unknowable German, but mostly "Jeff" who is determined to save the other characters, despite their profoundly useless and shortsighted natures. I saw in them exactly what he saw: an utter lack or preparedness for not only their jungle excursion but life in general. Especially the character "Stacey" who is a complete waste of skin, who wears sandals on a jungle trek and allows small children to rob her, through simple distraction, of her glasses and then her hat; she is oblivious to her surroundings and relies entirely upon others to guide her through life, yet is stubborn and frustrating whenever someone gives her advice that does not include comfort or convenience. It is a wonderful characterization of a decidely unwonderful bumpkin.

Equally encouraged to die soon by this reader was Jeff's girlfriend Amy, a slightly-better prepared person than best friend Stacey, but crippled by a tendency towards complaint and stubborn pouty withdrawal, again paradoxically dependent upon more-prepared friends, yet refusing to "follow" them when she should. Whenever left to their own devices while Jeff is either foraging or seeking oputside help, these bozos fall to pieces and either get stinking drunk or make idiotic decisions that imperil everyone.

Largely it is the population of aggravating characters that keeps this book from a higher rating, as I did enjoy the writing style but found the company unpleasant. I'm sure this was the point but I already knew about most people what the book seeks to educate, so its no five-star read IMHO. It *is* worth a couple bucks, give it a shot if you dig reading about morons who deserve to die.(less)

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topics	posts	views	last activity
What DID make the vines talk and come to life?	5	28	Mar 05, 2013 12:50am
Different	37	107	Oct 03, 2012 03:31pm
My Theory About the Vines spoiler	5	89	Jul 02, 2011 08:23pm

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