The Ruins - Book Rant

 

The Ruins

by Scott Smith

What is it about:

Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine. Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation–sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site . . . and the terrifying presence that lurks there.

What did I think of it:

*spoilers ahead*

I read this book for the Horror Book Club I'm part of.

So... 

In the first chapter the characters are introduced. There's a German with an eagle tattoo among others... Not long after the adventure begins once again attention is steered towards the 'creepy' tattoo. This all turns out to be a big fat red herring, leading nowhere.

Then there's the Greek who is so flat as a character (he can't even communicate with the others as he only speaks Greek), you just know he's the red shirt.

The two young couples are not much better. All of them act so stupid you actually want them to die a terrible death.

All of this might be overlooked if the actual danger would be cool.

Alas...

The 'terrifying presence' lacked any real horror for me. At times it seemed that even without it everything would have gone to shit anyway with how stupid everyone acts.

No real explanation about why the 'presence' is there and is doing what it does, is given. And seeing as it does some pretty unbelievable things I really wanted an explanation for it to make any sense.

And I don't mind an author using another language (even though it felt like a lame way to try to up the creep factor here), but if they do: please check if it's right! (And yes: I know my English isn't always flawless, but I'm a reviewing amateur (and a piggy at that), not a published author)

All in all the only reason I finished this book is because I wanted to see if there was an explanation for what's happening, and to see if maybe it would get better.

You bet it won't be a reread.

Why should you read it:

Yeah... I got nothing.