The Ruins    by Scott Smith Order:  USA  Can Knopf, 2006 (2006) Hardcover, e-Book Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth Eons ago, when I broke my right elbow, my mother sat up all night and read Edgar Allen Poe's stories to me. The Pit and the Pendulum, and the Telltale Heart are the ones I especially remember. To me, a twelve-year old, they were the epitome of horror stories. I just finished reading The Ruins by Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan. For me, The Ruins has just supplanted Poe's works for the ultimate horror/thriller. Whew! What a story. Action starts almost immediately. Every page reveals a new horror. Four young friends travel together to Cancun for a leisurely vacation before starting grad schools. On a lark, they break their way through the jungle to reach an archeology site, accompanied by a German looking for his brother and a Greek who just tagged along. Mayan villagers try to wave them off, but not having their language, the hikers persevere, and the unimaginable happens. And happens. And continues to happen. I won't give away the plot except to say that if the Mayans were able to run this group off, there would have been no book. This is a gripping story that seems very real most of the time. The author explores his characters' motivations and deepest thoughts, as well as their flights of fancy and sense of fun. At the same time, he provides a chilling scenario that won't loosen its vise on your imagination after the last page has been read. 2nd Review by Tim Davis (Rating: 2): Meet four young Americans who are on a vacation in Cancun. First you have Amy (attractive and petulant) and her boyfriend Jeff (rational and self-assured). Then you have Amy's very best friend Stacy (impulsive and distracted) and her boyfriend Eric (sanguine and enthusiastic). Amy and Jeff will be going on to medical school at the end of the summer; Stacy will be going to graduate school where she will study social work; and Eric - well, he is simply living too much in the present to be very much concerned about his future as an English teacher in a Boston prep school. As their idyllic and intoxicating escape from their perceived rigors of life back in the States is coming closer to an end, these four Americans - having been befriended by several Greek and German tourists - find themselves drawn into a spur-of-the-moment adventure: One of the Germans, Mathias, is concerned that his brother Henrich is overdue in returning from an excursion to an ancient Mayan archeological site; moreover, Mathias wants to go looking for his brother. So - with Jeff taking charge and relying upon directions on a hand-written map left behind by Henrich - the four Americans, accompanied by Matthias and one of the effusive Greeks who has been calling himself Pablo, leave the comfort and safety of Cancun and travel several hours on bus and taxi to the jungle west of Cobá. When they arrive at a spot several miles from their apparent destination, however, the pickup truck taxi driver drops them off and warns them: 'This place no good. No good you go this place.' Undeterred by the departing driver's warning, the six adventurers press onward in their search for the missing Henrich. After trudging through several miles of jungle, they come upon a small Mayan village where the inhabitants seem strangely indifferent about the group's arrival and presence. Then the six international travelers finally arrive at their destination, the abandoned Mayan ruins, a place that is remarkably enlivened by a profusion of beautiful vine-like plants, especially unique in their appearance because of their vivid hand-shaped leaves and their tiny poppy-sized flowers, each the color of brilliant red stained-glass. As the members of the group makes their approach to and their ascent of the ruins, the six travelers make a series of life-changing discoveries: First, it appears as though the Mayan villagers - seemingly unconcerned earlier about the outsiders' presence - are now quite determined to focus all of their considerable attention upon controlling the movements of the outsiders. Second, there are troubling signs that others - including Mathias's brother - have also recently been at the ruins, but nobody can be found - at least not right away. And third, there is something else at the ruins - quite other than the Mayans - that is quite powerful and horrible, something that is determined to keep each of the six summer travelers from ever again leaving the ruins. Well, with all of that being said (and after having finished reading The Ruins), I found myself confronting a question: What exactly is The Ruins? Is it a horror novel? Is it a parable? Is it science fiction? Is it a character study? Is it a post-modern cautionary tale about the fragility of civilization? It may be all of those things. However, if you want to think of Scott Smith's novel in terms of a larger thematic scale - if that is not too much to impose on The Ruins - imagine H. P. Lovecraft, William Golding, and Stephen King collaborating on something like a gothic travelogue in which human nature - naïve, egocentric, and feckless - finds itself confused, debased, and finally victimized and defeated by the cosmic irony and ineffability of Nature's cruel, deliberate, and merciless progress. However you finally categorize the novel, you will find that The Ruins is a darkly fascinating and compelling novel that you will want to read in a single sitting, but when doing so you may want to make sure that you first take measures to keep yourself and your environment quite clear of the kinds of terrors that are at the root of Smith's disturbing story. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews