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The Ruins

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The Ruins

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. Action & Adventure Horror Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Exciting

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It took a while for me to get in to, but this is an entertaining enough listen, the best thing about it is the well written characters, like in all the best horror you start to feel like you know them and therefore it raises the stakes when danger happens. It was well read by actor Patrick Wilson. I don't want to give anything away but there's one aspect of the book I found unsatisfying, but it would be a spoiler to get into that. Basically it's a decent enough horror that'll keep you entertained, but that you'll probably forget about not long after you've finished it, that said, I wasn't sorry I listened to it.

Entertaining if a little unsatisfying (no spoiler)

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This was a decent horror novel - it was gross, I felt sweaty and disgusting just reading it and I could feel the pain the characters were going through. However, I just felt it wasn't totally my kind of book as it was a bit boring and repetitive as it went on. Just not for me. Loved Patrick Wilson doing the narrating and happy I used Audible to be able to listen.

Decent horror novel

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tldr: Not a bad book, but too bloated

It's not a bad book, but is basically the short story "The Raft" only stretched for 14 hours more.
Also, spoiler, meanwhile "The Raft" was a very good short story about people stranded on a lake upon the titular raft, beset by a monster that was equally incapable of reaching them and so had to be "creative" in order to kill his victims, in this book the "monster" could easily have killed the protagonists in the initial chapters but choose not to because of... reasons, I guess.
And these reasons made the book longer by 14 hours.

Basically "The Raft" by Stephen King, but longer

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The characters are fairly one-note, I can't say I particularly cared for any of them. The prose are good, nothing special but they get the job done. Some of the concepts it introduces in the second half to make the characters situation worse were very enjoyably horrific.

Trashy and somewhat un-engaging but fun mostly.

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The story is a little slow but gets better as it goes on. If it wasn't for the narration though i may have struggled to finish this as it was a little difficult to follow at times

Great Narration, story above average

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