Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Ruins by Scott Smith

16 reviews

eternalbutt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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rorunyon96's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I wanted to like this book way more than I actually did, the premise is good but the execution is shockingly bad. I didn’t care about ANYONE, so I had no stakes in how the book went. All the characters are paper thin and two dimensional, and I just don’t find plants scary.

Maybe I would, but this book doesn’t sell it at all. Also, there’s NO RUINS. That just makes me annoyed, they’re mentioned but never actually a plot point in the book at all. 

I did cringe (positively) at some of the stuff that happened, but even the body horror wasn’t that good. It wasn’t convincing or compelling enough for me to be grossed out- I can’t feel/enjoy the main attraction of this book. I would rate it lower but I enjoyed parts of it. 

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aidanactor's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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rissasreading's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.7 - This was definitely exactly what I expected but also exactly what I didn't expect. I really enjoyed this one and every page was a different experience. I also found the characters easy to get into and enjoy reading. I also got so invested in this I was feeling so angry at Any for drinking the water, it was such an enjoyable reading experience. Even with what Eric went through.... My chest hurts thinking about it.

The ending was exactly what I expected unfortunately but it still had great twists and I didn't really know how it was going to end but I was so engrossed in the story I needed to know and it kept me reading.

Would recommend!

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gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Horror Summer Camp Book Club / June Pick

The Details:

Narrated by Patrick Wilson
Unabridged 


I really wanted to take part in this group read so for the first time, I purchased more credits!

This was a fun read. Once we got into the meat of the horror, it had me in mind of the Day of the Triffids. I think I'd be interested in reading more plant based horror.

The body horror was quite grim (in a good way), but I didn't find that it made my stomach turn or had me feeling nauseated.

There were no distinct chapters, which made it hard to pause but helped to amplify the blurred lines of time as terror set in for the characters.

The characters themselves weren't very likeable but felt believable for the most part, though some feeling more 2D (or more caricatures of a person) than others. I think my favourites were Matthias and Pablo.

I don't think this will be a strong story that would be very memorable long term, for me, but it was fun for whilst I was listening, I'd recommend it to others and I'd be interested in giving the movie adaptation a go.


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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Okay maybe I just don’t love horror novels, and that makes me sad. I love love love, like live and die for, horror films. It could arguably be stated that they’re my whole personality. But I have yet to ever be blown away by a horror novel and this was supposed to be the one. It’s just….. meh. The characters are one dimensional and I constantly got them confused because they’re all the same person. And they’re stupid? If one of these stereotypically dumb girls acts stereotypically dumb one more time i swear to god. The ending was the best part and this book was far too long for that to be the only part I liked. 

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bccorrea's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Do you like being stressed out about lost in a jungle kind of book? Oh boy do we have the book for you. The book is actually well written. But there are a lot of weird parts that made me go well I can't wait to be rid of it. I hated as a Latina reading about descriptions of Mexico from a WASP perspective. Parts of the text made me feel hated and gross. Take that as you can. The horror is there, but there is also a certain amount of inevitable predictability. 

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kdrupp's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Loved the concept for the plot. Realized half way through that this was going to be a more character driven story than it is a mystery about what is actually going on, as the majority of the story is about how these 6 characters interact with eachother during a life or death survival situation.
I did like how it's never revealed what the plant is or how it got there, leaving the audience to assume it's something that's always been here, spreading its malice to whoever happens to step foot in it's home.
The main thing that dropped the rating for me is how the two female characters are written - they're written with no personality to the point that the only distinguishing factor between them is that one of them is more promiscuous. This was a huge turnoff for me.

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kermit_the_wrong's review

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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