First off, I really enjoyed this book. Very dark and disturbing. Four pretty typical American college students who have never even considered their mortality are suddenly confronted with their own (and each other's) horrific deaths. None of them are particularly likable, but not so awful that their deaths didn't bum me out. Poor Pablo suffered so much that his death was more of a mercy at that point. Amy's struck me as particularly tragic, but that might just be because it was unexpected.
What do you think would've happened if Stacy had held out til the Greeks and Brazillians got there? Would they have run into the hill to try and help her only to have gotten trapped? Would they have tried to run away only to be murdered by Mayans?
What do you think about the Mayans? At the beginning, I thought they were trying to warn them away, but the language barrier made it impossible. When people got trapped on the hill, they didn't let them leave because they didn't want the vine to escape. But if tourists kept showing up and wandering back to the old mine, I would think they would make more of an effort to at least learn Spanish. Now I kind of think they were feeding it… the cab driver said it was a bad place.
Anyway, very cool book. The tension was there from the beginning and only escalated from there. If you like horror at all, I highly recommend it.
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Read this a couple of times and definitely enjoyed it. The amputation scene is unforgettable and definitely loved the psychological angle of playing the characters against themselves. Worth a third read for sure.
I always wondered how the indigenous people managed to contain the vine in the first place. It must have existed in a natural state prior to the arrival of humans in the region, unless it was the product of some kind of agriculture.
I just finished this book last night. I enjoyed it for what it was but I was hoping for some more dark, claustrophobic ruin exploration.
How do you explain the Mayans’ clear attempts to stop them from going on/near the ruins if they were trying to feed it? I get that learning some key Spanish phrases would go a long way to warning off tourists but the behaviour prior to Amy stepping in the vine to me was so clearly an effort to get them to walk away that the alternative just didn’t seem likely. Not having a pop, just interested in your take!
I liked it! So often in these thriller/horror novels the characters whip out some insane knowledge/abilities that are totally unbelievable for the character, but not in this book. The author establishes pretty early on that all these characters are dumber than a big bag of rocks, and he sticks to it! They make consistently stupid choices throughout, thus, narratively, they “deserve” to die and that makes their deaths fun, or at least cathartic, following the rules of classic horror. Good book!
Scott Smith’s other book is just as good, A Simple Plan, and just as dark, in an absolutely different kind of way. I think he’s a talented storyteller. Pity he’s only written two novels. Loved The Ruins. The dread was real.