The Ruins [Paperback]

Scott B Smith (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Corgi Adult; New Ed edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552152706
• ISBN-13: 978-0552152709
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,056 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,257,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did we read the same book?, July 29, 2010

By 

A Reviewer (DeWitt, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ruins (Vintage) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm not sure what some of the reviewers on this site are smoking, but I found this to be an excellent horror story. I suspect many of them read the author's first book, "A Simple Plan" which was a crime drama, and expected something similar. I am not much of a fan of crime dramas, but I do love horror, and this is good horror. Horror is internal, it's about visceral fear and dread. It's not about nonstop action or contorted plot twists. This story is not primarily about the flowering plant from hell (not available at your local florist). It is about survival, and the way people really react to a life-threatening and seemingly hopeless situation. Whereas the characters in many horror stories are virtually indistinguishable from one another, the characters here are vividly and realistically drawn. They are recognizable as individuals, and seem like living, breathing humans (I think I may have dated Stacy at one time). How their relationships change as things go from bad to worse is also quite believable. And about that plant...it clearly isn't a plant at all. It is carnivorous, can live in complete darkness, can move, and eats with its flowers and leaves, none of which a plant does. It can mimic sounds and smells, why couldn't it also mimic a plant in its appearance? And if an alien life form were to find itself in a tropical rain forest, what better thing to mimic than a flowering plant? The fact that it might not be a plant is alluded to by Jeff in a conversation late in the book, but the author leaves it to the reader to draw his/her own conclusion. Anyway, this is a good read and I think Scott Smith is taking an undeserved beating here.

59 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Long on Verbiage, Short on Plot, and Ultimately Pointless, November 16, 2006

By 

D. R. Jeanclerc "Reader, Listener & Obsessive... (Brunswick, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ruins (Hardcover)

The book jacket for "The Ruins" offers a can't-miss premise: a group of post-grad American tourists at play in Mexico jump at the chance for a little adventure among Mayan ruins but find but then find themselves in unimaginable danger. It's the stuff of great Summer thrillers ready to be taken to the beach. But 319 pages later, the reader is left to wonder whether or not the publisher put the wrong book in the jacket.

Almost immediately, you'll notice that Smith's writing is as dense as the jungles that make the setting. However, despite the endless stream of words, his descriptions are often threadbare. Plus, there are no chapter breaks, which eventually pushes the pace until it feels like an assignment to continue.

Next, the characters themselves begin to fall flat. There are only really two couples to keep track of, and yet it's difficult for the first third of the book to distinguish them. There is little to keep you interested in what they're doing or why they might be doing it. Smith's attempts at developing these four as characters come in fits and spurts. This seems obviously haphazard and hurried - the author is jamming in backstory whenever needed to explain characters' actions as if he were patching leaks in a dam. By the end of the book, the foursome seems to be as disinterested in each other as the reader is in them.

And for the readers who are hoping to discover something of interest in the setting such as Mayan mythology or archeological lore, forget it. Aside from language barriers with the locals, there is no reason why this fantastical story couldn't have been set in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, the Saharan desert, or anywhere else. The danger posed has nothing to do with Mexico, archeology or mythology at all.

Ah yes, the danger posed. Well, I can't say much at all because anyone could give away the entire book with one line of explanation - that's how thin the plot is. The numerous other reviews that fault this as a short story masquerading as a novel are exactly right. Suffice it to say that when you do realize what the danger is (and you'll realize it well before any of the well-educated characters do), it's a real eye-roller, as if to say "I read this many pages for THIS?".

By the time the story concludes, it's more irritating than suspenseful. The characters take so long to blithely undertake any course of action at all that you'll start rooting against them. Eventually scenes of gore start piling up in an obvious and lazy attempt to interject some action, but even aside from being misdirected, it's too little too late.

This book could have been an adventure, a supernatural thriller, a survival tale, or a horror screenplay. It could have even taken the high road as an examination on people's reactions to situations of extreme stress: some take the lead, even enjoying the challenge, while others whither into a shell of hopelessness. But none of the possibilities ever come to fruition in this disappointing effort.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a "renter", December 4, 2006

By 

Amy "Hateful Harridan" (East Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ruins (Hardcover)

Some movies are worth a trip to the theater. And some are perfectly good renters. By the same token, "The Ruins" isn't worth the price of a new hardcover. But unless you crack open only a few books a year, this one is worth reading if you can buy a used copy, borrow it from the library, or wait for the paperback.

It contains a few moments of true creepiness. The villain is highly original. And the author skillfully portrays the dynamic of a group under duress. He's also nearly brilliant at capturing each character's inner dialog, fears, and regrets as the story plows unrelentingly to its conclusion.

That's what makes the story compelling in some places and boring in others. Human nature is fascinating, but how terrified can we be when Jeff is reminiscing about the CPR class he took in high school, or Amy is wishing for a shower and a hot meal? And somehow, interesting and intimate as some of their thoughts are, it's hard to care about the characters.

The author's use of detail plays out the same way -- at times it's incredibly effective and gut-wrenching. Other times it's so workmanlike, gruesome scenes become mundane.

That's why this book will probably succeed as a movie. We won't have to listen to endlessly whirring thoughts or read details about braiding strips of nylon tent together to make a rope. A visual medium will let us focus on the best parts of this book: the external terror, the horrible events that unfold, and the evil protagonist.

Read the book and when the movie becomes a blockbuster, you can threaten to ruin the ending for your companions unless they pay for your ticket, too.

And in case you got this far into the reviews without reading the premise, I've cut and pasted Stephen King's summary here: "You've got four young American tourists--Eric, Jeff, Amy, and Stacy--in Cancun. They make friends with a German named Mathias whose brother has gone off into the jungle with some archeologists. These five, plus a cheerful Greek with no English (but a plentiful supply of tequila), head up a jungle trail to find Mathias's brother...the archaeologists...and the ruins."

By the way, this is a nitpick, but there's an annoying continuity error in the book: on page 5, the four main characters "rode horses" and on page 254 one of them muses that if they were back at the hotel "maybe they'd have gone horseback riding. Stacy had said she'd wanted to try it before they left. Amy, too."