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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1150339.The_Ruins?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Ruins" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1191117412m/1150339.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1150339.The_Ruins?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Ruins</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12505.Scott_Smith">Scott Smith</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7006095?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars 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.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/244267?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Caroline's review
rating:
bookshelves: 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 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. Th...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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