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  • The Ruins

  • Written by: Scott Smith
  • Narrated by: Patrick Wilson
  • Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (91 ratings)

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The Ruins cover art

The Ruins

Written by: Scott Smith
Narrated by: Patrick Wilson
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Publisher's Summary

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

What the critics say

"A stunning horror thriller." (Publishers Weekly
"The book of the summer....Smith intends to scare the bejabbers out of you, and succeeds." (Stephen King)
"If you love ABC's Lost and the novels of King and Thomas Harris, you'll love this book." (USA Today)

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What listeners say about The Ruins

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best horror novel

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!!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The story

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

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A worthy matured successor to Lord of the Flies

The complexity sneaks up on you in such a way that when the classic horror truly begins, it is overshadowed by the horror of the human mind. In any other scenario, the classic horror elements would be terrifying enough, and even more so than the typical horror story if you focus on those elements on their own. But the fear comes from the deep dive we take into the minds of the protagonists. Most simply, this is Art.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

eerie and stays with you

really good survival horror. effective, heart wrenching, relentless. body horror heavy so if that's not your thing, be warned

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Don’t let the film deceive you

This book was incredible. Tense, nail-biting, and included body horror (for those that are squeamish).
The film adaptation threw me off completely and it just goes to show that the book is usually much better.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Ruins Ruined me Goooooood

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

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Survival Horror, a perfect vacation book

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?!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Grossed out—in a good way!

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!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unique Story, Well Told

Love the way this story unfolds. If you were to summarize the story to a friend, it would sound pretty implausible, maybe even absurd. But the author tells it in such a way that it's easy to suspend disbelief, and the characters are developed in such a way that it's easy to invest yourself in their survival. Excellent, albeit unconventional, horror/suspense/survival story. Narration was great, too.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story but…

Though the story is great and I liked listening to the narrator, they really should have thought about the cutoff points for the chapters. I know that the physical book doesn’t have any chapters, but it does have spaces where they could of cut off rather than cutting in the middle of a sentence. It interrupts the story if you are only listening from ‘chapter’ to ‘chapter’ and not the whole thing in one go. Other than that, I like the story better than the movie. It really dives deep into the psyche of each character in a survivor scenario.

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