Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Ruins

I usually end up liking the books that my favorite author Stephen King praises, but not this one. I felt that it dragged on for too long; might have worked better as a short story or a novella.

Also, I can't get over how there were no signs or sentry posts or something warning people not to go near the vine-covered hill since at least one entire village and one driver knows exactly how dangerous it is. I've seen reviews saying the Mayan villagers don't care, but that doesn't seem to be true given how much they attempted to stop Jeff's group from going up the hill.

I simply don't understand. It's clearly inconvenient and disruptive for the Mayans because when strangers unknowingly decide to climb to their deaths, the Mayans have to mobilize a lot of their fellow villagers to surround the base of the hill and stand guard 24 hours a day for at least a few days to make sure no one escapes. Surely they're not having fun doing that?

Another thing — did nobody really think of trying to set fire to the vines and seeing what happens? Jeff saw how the tendrils retreated from the flames of his makeshift torch when he and Amy were looking for the "cellphone" down the shaft, so I find it odd that it didn't cross his mind again.

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings