Scan barcode
A review by sisteray
The Ruins by Scott Smith
3.0
The Ruins is a fine little survival horror story that felt a bit stretched thin over 500+ pages. It was a decent read. I enjoyed it.
I have to admit with a name like The Ruins I had a real expectation that there would be some exciting exploration or fun revealed historic backstory. But the book pretty much is some annoying tourists make foolish decisions, and get in WAY over their head and end up trapped on a hill. Once that is set-up, most of the book is Waiting for Godot with carnivorous vines.
The book spends a lot of time in the heads of 4 of the 6 characters. So we get a lot of rationalization of bad choices and petty bickering for the first half of the book. There are some memorable gruesome body horror bits, but for the most part this is a character study of people being trapped in an inhospitable environment.
The vines were genuinely creepy, and the book is punctuated with some great plant interactions. All that element was really enjoyable. But, I grew tired of 3 of the 4 "main" characters we were following pretty early on.My favorite character, Mathias, who was equally present never was shown in his headspace. His internal story would have been a bit of a relief that never came, but the author wanted tension, so I get it.
It's fine. I think it's worth reading. I probably would have liked it more if he chopped it down to 300 pages, or added another hundred pages of discovery.
I have to admit with a name like The Ruins I had a real expectation that there would be some exciting exploration or fun revealed historic backstory. But the book pretty much is some annoying tourists make foolish decisions, and get in WAY over their head and end up trapped on a hill. Once that is set-up, most of the book is Waiting for Godot with carnivorous vines.
The book spends a lot of time in the heads of 4 of the 6 characters. So we get a lot of rationalization of bad choices and petty bickering for the first half of the book. There are some memorable gruesome body horror bits, but for the most part this is a character study of people being trapped in an inhospitable environment.
The vines were genuinely creepy, and the book is punctuated with some great plant interactions. All that element was really enjoyable. But, I grew tired of 3 of the 4 "main" characters we were following pretty early on.My favorite character, Mathias, who was equally present never was shown in his headspace. His internal story would have been a bit of a relief that never came, but the author wanted tension, so I get it.
It's fine. I think it's worth reading. I probably would have liked it more if he chopped it down to 300 pages, or added another hundred pages of discovery.