The Ruins (Vintage) (Mass Market Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1993, Scott Smith wowed readers with A Simple Plan, his stunning debut thriller about what happens when three men find a wrecked plane and bag stuffed with over 4 million dollars--a book that Stephen King called "Simply the best suspense novel of the year!" Now, thirteen years after writing a novel that turned into a pretty great movie featuring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, Smith is back, with The Ruins, a horror-thriller about four Americans traveling in Mexico who stumble across a nightmare in the jungle. Who better to tell readers if Smith has done it again than the undisputed King of Horror (and champion of Smith's first book)? We asked Stephen King to read The Ruins and give us his take. Check out his review below. --Daphne Durham

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Guest Reviewer: Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of too many bestselling books to name here, but some of our favorites include: Cell, The Stand, On Writing, The Shining, and the entire Dark Tower series. King also received the National Book Foundation 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, has had many movies and television miniseries adapted from his novels, short stories, and screenplays, and is a regular columnist for Entertainment Weekly. Keep your eyes peeled for Lisey's Story (October 2006), a new television series on TNT based on Nightmares & Dreamscapes (July 2007), and a graphic novel series based on the Dark Tower books coming from Marvel (2007).

When I heard that Scott Smith was publishing a new novel this summer, I felt the way I did when my kids came in an hour or two late from their weekend dates: a combination of welcoming relief (thank God you're back) mingled with exasperation and anger (where the hell have you been?). Well, it's only a book, you say, and maybe that's true, but Scott Smith is a singularly gifted writer, and it seems to me that the twelve years between his debut--the cult smash A Simple Plan--and his return this summer with The Ruins is cause for exasperation, if not outright anger. Certainly Smith, who has been invisible save for his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the film version of A Simple Plan, will have some 'splainin to do about how he spent his summer vacation. Make that his last twelve summer vacations.

But enough. The new book is here, and the question devotees of A Simple Plan will want answered is whether or not this book generates anything like Plan's harrowing suspense. The answer is yes. The Ruins is going to be America's literary shock-show this summer, doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island. Is it as successful and fulfilling as a novel? The answer is not quite, but I can live with that, because it's riskier. There will be reviews of this book by critics who have little liking or understanding for popular fiction who'll dismiss it as nothing but a short story that has been bloated to novel length (I'm thinking of Michiko Kakutani, for instance, who microwaved Smith's first book). These critics, who steadfastly grant pop fiction no virtue but raw plot, will miss the dazzle of Smith's technique; The Ruins is the equivalent of a triple axel that just misses perfection because something's wrong with the final spin.

It's hard to say much about the book without giving away everything, because the thing is as simple and deadly as a leg-hold trap concealed in a drift of leaves…or, in this case, a mass of vines. 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.

Well, two out of three ain't bad, according to the old saying, and in this case; what's waiting in the jungle isn't just bad, it's horrible. Most of The Ruins's 300-plus pages is one long, screaming close-up of that horror. There's no let-up, not so much as a chapter-break where you can catch your breath. I felt that The Ruins did draw on a trifle, but I found Scott Smith's refusal to look away heroic, just as I did in A Simple Plan. It's the trappings of horror and suspense that will make the book a best seller, but its claim to literature lies in its unflinching naturalism. It's no Heart of Darkness, but at its suffocating, terrifying, claustrophobic best, it made me think of Frank Norris. Not a bad comparison, at that.

One only hopes Mr. Smith won't stay away so long next time.--Stephen King

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Four American tourists vacationing in Cancun make friends with a German traveler and join the hunt for his brother, who has mysteriously vanished after following a new flame to an archeological site. But inadequate planning, horrendous conditions and unforeseen dangers quickly turn this jungle adventure into a fight for survival. The novel itself is creepy, compelling and simple in scope, but the audiobook adaptation doesn't quite succeed in relating the feeling of dread the text imparts. Wilson reads in an assured (if somewhat flat) voice in the tenor range, but his tone often seems too light to properly convey the novel's dark and foreboding mood. He also doesn't do much to differentiate between the characters; although Smith has characters who feel very real and distinct, listeners could have used more help from the narrator to distinguish one point-of-view from the next. A book like this one—which presents the story from several different POVs—would have benefited from a team of talented narrators to help bring the narrative to life. Regrettably, Wilson goes it alone, delivering a sufficient but mediocre performance.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307389715
• ISBN-13: 978-0307389718
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,021 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,149 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Plot in Ruins, March 29, 2007

By	H. F. Gibbard "Noir Guy" (Dark City, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Ruins (Hardcover)

There came a point about halfway through Scott Smith`s "The Ruins" when it suddenly struck me how implausibly ridiculous and one-dimensional the plot line had become, and how likely it was that the remainder of the book would consist of just more of the same. At that point, I had to make a decision: either shut the book and accept the loss of several good hours of reading time, or suspend disbelief and soldier on to the bitter end. Eternal optimist that I am, I chose the latter option, hoping that the author would pull a rabbit out of his hat in the remaining 150 pages. I finished the book, but the rabbit never appeared. The only question remaining, for me, is whether the author was toying with his readership by writing a novel deliberately designed to frustrate their expectations (like Michael Haneke's movie "Funny Games," for example), or whether the book just turned out that way, by accident. More on that below.

My complaint about this book does not lie with the writing style, which is good for the genre and reads like a combination of Stephen King and Michael Crichton. My complaint lies with the plot, which (notwithstanding some initial, well-crafted suspense) becomes increasingly one-dimensional and absurd as the novel goes on. Not only does the plot enter a dark, claustrophobic tunnel, the tunnel it enters is not even an interesting tunnel to be in. Worse, in order to set up his characters` predicament, the author relies on a series of implausible contrivances, which become increasingly jarring as the book grinds on to its inevitable denouement.

Here are some examples of what grated on me about this book. (Caution, plot spoilers ahead.) The book features an archaeological excavation that apparently has uncovered nothing and never will but that nevertheless attracts archaeologists from as far away as Europe. There is a half-hidden trail to these "ruins" that exists for no apparent reason other than to be discovered by its victims. The trail to these "ruins" is guarded by a tribe of Mayan Indians who make only half-hearted and disorganized efforts to prevent tourists from discovering and pursuing the trail, but who suddenly become extremely organized, efficient, and deadly once the foolish tourists press on and begin to climb around on the mountain where the "ruins" are located. These tourists are starving and dying of thirst but unwilling even to ask not entirely unsympathetic Indians for food or water, simply assuming that any such request would be summarily denied. Last but not least, the ruins are found on a hillside populated by a biological monstrosity that is so intelligent it could easily have devoured the tourists immediately upon their arrival. Instead, it chooses to pick them off slowly, one by one, waiting until near the end of the book to reveal its superhuman capabilities, while we lose any interest in the increasingly whiny and defeatist characters. The author makes some efforts to explain some of these plot peculiarities. These attempts at explanation, however, were not very convincing and only highlighted the implausible aspects of the plot. The monstrous thing's increasingly unbelievable behavior and capabilities virtually cry out for some sort of metaphysical or psychic explanation that never arrives.

Though the book does not work well as a thriller, it could perhaps be viewed as a philosophical exercise, an existential allegory or meditation on human responses to the inevitability of death. The author does do a good job of creating a claustrophobic sense of doom and loss. The characters have some depth to them, but not quite enough, to pull this off. The fact that at one point, they sit around discussing who would play "The Boy Scout," "The Slut," "The Virgin" and "The Villain" in the film version of their ordeal shows how horror movie archetypes have invaded this book and keep its characters from being truly unique.

Scott Smith's previous book, "A Simple Plan," was so well-plotted that I can't imagine how he missed the boat here unless this was a case of a "sophomore slump" or unless he was deliberately toying with his readers. Here's what makes me think the latter could be the case. One intriguing facet to the book is the design of the tunnel into the "ruins." Could the author have been playing with us by leaving us a roadmap for the structure of the novel itself? (More spoilers here.) The tunnel descends past an unexplored side-cavern containing what looks like rails for a mine train, rails that wind out of sight and are never discussed again. The main tunnel then continues its descent to a simple dirt platform below. Branching off from the platform is a single horizontal tunnel that leads to a deadly pitfall covered by poisonous vines. Below these vines, we glimpse only whitened bones. Beyond the pitfall lies a dead end. This, to me, is the structural essence of the last half of the novel: bones, deadly vines, and a dead end. But what about the side-tunnel up above, that no one ever entered? Perhaps it represents the reader's real expectation, for a thriller about a real excavation of real ruins, instead of some "Little Shop of Horrors" remake. The author shows us just enough of that side-tunnel to catch our attention, while relentlessly refusing to explore it. That's what really turned me off about this novel.

24 of 29 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."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Horror of The Cat and The Mice, March 23, 2007

By	Mark Eremite "This Is A Display Model Only" (Seoul, South Korea) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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This review is from: The Ruins (Hardcover)

When it comes to literary horror, most of the fear is found in the head. It doesn't take much to come up with a scary idea (killer clowns, bumps in the night, the walking undead, Republicans ... ha, ha ... I tease, I tease), but it DOES take a lot of skill and creative juice to give those scary ideas life and dimension, to give them the ability to crawl off of the page and into the mind. After all, many people respond the same way to fear as they do to boredom: they look away. A truly great horror story not only frightens its reader, but it makes that fear a delicious, narcotic experience, something that glues your eyes wide open.

"The Ruins" won't glue your eyes open; this reviewer found his drifting to half-mast through most of the book. The story concerns six people (two American couples, a jolly Greek fellow, and a stoic German) who go on an ill-fated journey through the jungles of Mexico in an attempt to find the German's wayward brother. What they find instead is a small hill populated by an "insidious, horrific other" (in the words of the dust jacket). Trapped on this hill and pursued by this odd, malevolent force, the six are forced to confront their fears, their weaknesses, and each other as they try to survive both the unforgiving jungle weather and the creeping terror that seems to surround them on all sides.

Is it really all that scary? I'm sorry; no, it's not. Smith seems to be aware of this. The "villain," such as there is one, has two goals: end the lives of our six central characters and, inexplicably, frighten the bejeezus out of them first. Most of the story is prolonged by this needless "tension." It's like watching a cat toying with a mouse; there's no doubt that the cat can kill the mouse. It's not a nail-biting, "will it - won't it?" experience. Even if I accept the idea that the Bad Guy in this book likes to play with its prey, I still fail to see how that's entertaining. It's the equivalent of watching a rodent get batted between paws for 300 pages.

Just as the six ill-fated trekkers are trapped on this hill, so is the story trapped by its premise, hedged in by its own limitations. Some might argue that most of the story's weight comes in the conflict between and within the characters, but that's small consolation. There's very little about these people that's unique or intriguing. In fact, at one point in the story, the Americans discuss how they would be represented if their Tale of Terror were turned into a movie (Smith wishing outloud, perhaps). They boil themselves down into six stereotypes: the class clown, the slut, the boy scout, the stoic, the ne'er-do-well, and the goody two shoes. The conversation may be Smith trying to snub gross generalizations, but all it really does is show just how remarkably flat these people are. They really ARE stereotypes.

As they struggle to survive, they also struggle against the dross and drek that floats up out of their souls when exposed to the flame of Certain Death. Hopelessness can test the mettle of even the hardiest of hearts, and it is in the face of deep, abiding fear that all people prove what they're made of. These people, it turns out, are made of very, very little. The only thing all of them seem to have a lot of is blood and paranoia.

It's possible this is a direct result of Smith's writing style. He pens his tale with an unadorned and straight-forward prose that becomes steadily more repetitive and cartoonish, although I grant that it does keep the pages turning (that, and the fact that he chose not to break the story up into chapters). It's even more possible, though, that this was simply a bad idea for a novel, poorly populated and grossly overdone. The cat, the mice, "The Ruins." You might enjoy watching them fight for their lives, but I doubt you'll ever be scared or surprised.