The Ruins

By: Scott Smith

Narrated by: Patrick Wilson

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Eerie, terrifying, and unputdownable, The Ruins is Scott Smith's first novel since his acclaimed debut A Simple Plan earned rave reviews and stormed best seller lists.

The Ruins follows two American couples enjoying a pleasant, lazy beach holiday together in Mexico. On an impulse, they go off with newfound friends in search of one of their group, the young German who, in pursuit of a girl, has headed for the remote Mayan ruins, site of a fabled archeological dig.

This is what happens from the moment the searchers, moving into the wild interior, begin to suspect that there is an insidious, horrific "other" among them.

©2006 Scott Smith. All rights reserved (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"A stunning horror thriller." (Publishers Weekly
"The book of the summer....Smith intends to scare the bejabbers out of you, and succeeds." (Stephen King)
"If you love ABC's Lost and the novels of King and Thomas Harris, you'll love this book." (USA Today)

Excellent Listen

This was a scary novel. The sense of doom was flawless. I recommend this novel if you want to be scared. The only problem is we never get to know what vines really are. They remain a mystery.

They think....

Overall this is a great book. It can be down right creepy, disgusting, and horrific. The characters are human as they can be. However, the writing can be a little annoying. There is a lot of use of "Jeff, blah blah blah, he knew". The author uses "he knew" and "she knew" at the end of a sentence quite often. In fact you can almost predict when he will use it.

The story is fantastic. The dread, the hope for survival, the things in the ruins...this is a book you do not want to miss.

Mid

Nothing really happens. Characters are pretty shallow. I would not recommend. Proceed at own risk.

Dragged on but enjoyed it

The characters were a little flat, but the premise was fun. Easy casual reading though it dragged on after a while.

highly anticipated listen for me

i love dark and disturbing, sometimes gory books. i love the movie adaptation of The Ruins so was excited to finally get into the original source. i really liked the way the timeline seemed to jump around just a little bit to give us a full picture of what the 4 main characters were thinking/doing leading up to various big events. Patrick Wilson was wonderful as the narrator, that was a pleasant surprise for me when the book started. Overall i enjoyed it, but feel that the book was hyped up to be more disturbing than it really is, for me at least.

Drawn out

This book has a good storyline but a bad ending. It was overall too long. Good description but was drawn out.

Dread!

The story gave a GREAT sense of dread and doom, and generally liked the progression. However, the two female characters seem more like caricatures than actual women and could have been written better.

Enjoyed the story!

This was very entertaining! I had seen the movie and OF COURSE I was let down. But the book is so good!

a mayan lord of the flies?

I won't dismiss this book as trash like some others. It had it's objectionable and perhaps trashy moments, but it's not all bad. I actually thought the book contained excellent character development, some of the best I've "read" in a long time. It reminded me of "The Lord of the Flies" and what happens when people are stripped of the modern conveniences which often hide their monstrous sides. In my humble opinion, the "ruins" mentioned in the title might refer to the lives of the characters themselves, not necessarily a place.

I'm only giving 3 stars, but I still say give it a try, especially if you like horror movies that aren't really all that scary but still make you think for a few days after you watch them.

didn't care for the narrator, the story was good

I really enjoyed the story itself, however the narrator was very boring which can make it hard to listen too.