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The Ruins

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The Ruins

Written by: Scott Smith
Narrated by: Patrick Wilson
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About this listen

 HE EAGERLY AWAITED NEW THRILLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF A SIMPLE PLAN

Eerie, terrifying, and unputdownable, The Ruins is Scott Smith's first novel since his acclaimed debut A Simple Plan earned rave reviews and stormed bestseller lists.

The Ruins follows two American couples enjoying a pleasant, lazy beach holiday together in Mexico. On an impulse, they go off with newfound friends in search of one of their group -- the young German, who, in pursuit of a girl, has headed for the remote Mayan ruins, site of a fabled archeological dig.

This is what happens from the moment the searchers -- moving into the wild interior -- begin to suspect that there is an insidious, horrific "other" among them....©2006 Scott Smith. All rights reserved; (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. Horror Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Exciting
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I truly felt like I was in the story with the characters. Everything was described so well and each characters were so real to me. This just got added to my top reads this year!!

Best horror novel

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The beginning is very dry and hard to get into, but once it gets good I couldn’t put it down.

The story

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I love this book and this was an amazing listen. It’s so dynamic and gripping. You will never regret it.

The Ruins Ruined me Goooooood

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I am filing this book under, "good vacation reads", it's not too heavy, or too wordy, just a nice light and compelling story that any seasoned horror/occult fan would enjoy.

Spoilers:
The story invites us to join a group of identifiable characters who are enjoying a typical tropical vacation. Then they make the very poor decision to embark on a journey to visit ancient ruins. One of them is wearing flimsy sandals, another has two bottles of tequila and a hangover...

The author details the groups decline in morale along with psychological and physical degradation in terrifying detail.

After the book was done I lay awake for a few nights thinking of what I would do in such a situation... would I be the hero? The final girl? What would I do to survive?Part of me still wants to know what lay beyond the dark, cold chambers beneath the temple. What exactly was the driving force behind those evil vines?

PS - I also saw the movie and that alternate ending keeps me wondering.. what would happen if the vines escaped?!

Survival Horror, a perfect vacation book

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This book gave me the heebie-jeebies on more than one occasion. I enjoyed listening to how things slowly began to fall apart, trust started to break, and madness slowly started to set in. There were several times in which I said, “oh snap!” at what the characters said and did. I thought it was pretty realistic how not everyone was instantly good at the whole “survival” aspect. And while some complained about the lack of actual “chapters”, I actually enjoyed it! It gave a sense of urgency, and I could feel the tension building as time went on.

The only things I had issues with were the poorly written female characters—quite flat and one-dimensional. Granted—I’d probably be a crying hot mess, too. And there were several instances where things got a bit repetitive, and probably could have been cut down.

Overall, a great book! I’d recommend!

Grossed out—in a good way!

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