The Ruins by Scott Smith

Rating: 5.0

The Ruins is relentless! I lost myself in these pages for hours at a time. Four college students, along with a German and a Greek tourist, are trapped on a vine covered hill. The Mayans surrounding this hill won't let the tourists leave. They are being quarantined and they don't know why. But they soon learn that something about these vines just isn't right. These vines are much creepier than I can describe.

But The Ruins isn't just a horror tale about a plant that acts more like an animal. It's about a small group of people struggling to survive and watching as page by page their hope for rescue slowly dwindles with their food supply. I thought the characters were well written with their own strengths and weaknesses. The pacing was unrelenting....something was always going on. And I loved the whole stuck on an ancient ruins in the Mexican jungle atmosphere. The Ruins is gory and not the most cheerful novel out there but it will make you appreciate a cozy chair and clean glass of water.

I like what The Washington Post had to say about it: "… there's a more timeless fable at work here, one that prompts thoughts of Heart of Darkness . Courageous in its pessimism and its embrace of horror, Smith's powerful tale, like Conrad's masterpiece, cautions against such reassuring conceits as civilization, conscience, morality, superiority -- and yes, good and evil. Hidden somewhere in the vines of The Ruins , like those of the Congo, beats the heart of an impenetrable darkness."