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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is excellent survival horror. Smith does a good job of getting us invested in the group and hoping for a miracle I was invested until the last page. For me, the only downfalls of this story are the weak contrive reason that they seem completely unprepared when voyaging to a small unknown town. it’s strange that they thought of this as a fun day trip. Also, there’s a fair amount of xenophobia. The boisterous over friendly Greek, the practical and stoic German, the dull superstitious Mayans. The Americans are the only ones who get to be full people also the women are just children. they are impulsive in a way that strains my belief. They fantasize like children. They behave like children and it’s not just the stress of the situation. This these are the attributes as described by the author. This book share several plot points with another survival horror that I read earlier this year and I like the other novel better.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This book was painfully slow for me in the beginning and the characters made it difficult for me to sympathize with them. They were unfortunately very one-dimensional. I almost dropped it multiple times. However, I'm glad to have powered through; by the 25% mark, the pacing started to pick up, and it suddenly became a page-turner for me. The events that unfolded were cruel and horrific, and the ending is bleak. Maybe it's the softie in me, but I even started to feel some pity for the characters by the end.
If you can get past the characters' stereotypes and the slow start, it's a good horror novel, and maybe even a must-read for fans of the genre, or just those who love books about ruins and carnivorous plants.
If you can get past the characters' stereotypes and the slow start, it's a good horror novel, and maybe even a must-read for fans of the genre, or just those who love books about ruins and carnivorous plants.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNFed on p. 93 out of 319 (29%)
Yeah this just isn't my type of horror. The women are actually insufferable like they have no personality outside of insecure, annoying, and whiny. They're framed so differently from the men (who are also annoying but significantly less so). This is why I don't usually read male authors bc not only are the women vilified, but one of them is also IMMEDIATELY SA'ed and then expected to brush it off like nothing happened. We get to read her internal monologue of gaslighting herself about overreacting. It's horrendous. The other women is basically described as a total bitch, which is a label that she lets dictate her actions in an attempt not to upset anyone meanwhile the men still constantly just monologue about how much she sucks. It's actually so frustrating to read.
And yeah, this is horror, so you could make the argument that the characters are supposed to be insufferable and that reading it is supposed to make you feel bad. If that's the horror you like, then this is probably a great book for you! Bc it did actually make me feel unwell. Like the tone is very well established. I just hate every character, and it's pretty much impossible to root for them, so the mystery of the vines and the hill are simply not compelling enough to convince me to keep trudging through the constant stream-of-consciousness monologues.
Yeah this just isn't my type of horror. The women are actually insufferable like they have no personality outside of insecure, annoying, and whiny. They're framed so differently from the men (who are also annoying but significantly less so). This is why I don't usually read male authors bc not only are the women vilified, but one of them is also IMMEDIATELY SA'ed and then expected to brush it off like nothing happened. We get to read her internal monologue of gaslighting herself about overreacting. It's horrendous. The other women is basically described as a total bitch, which is a label that she lets dictate her actions in an attempt not to upset anyone meanwhile the men still constantly just monologue about how much she sucks. It's actually so frustrating to read.
And yeah, this is horror, so you could make the argument that the characters are supposed to be insufferable and that reading it is supposed to make you feel bad. If that's the horror you like, then this is probably a great book for you! Bc it did actually make me feel unwell. Like the tone is very well established. I just hate every character, and it's pretty much impossible to root for them, so the mystery of the vines and the hill are simply not compelling enough to convince me to keep trudging through the constant stream-of-consciousness monologues.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was just watching 6 people slowly die for 370 pages.
I think the premise is good. The setting is good. And the vine horror, especially the growing inside of people, is good. But that's about where the good stops for me.
The characters are insufferable, and I could not find myself rooting for any of them except maybe Mathias and Pablo but Pablo becomes such a non-existent character after the first 100 pages and Mathias doesn't even get any POVs so I don't even think he counts.
And it doesn't help any that they are written in such archetypes, or that the 2 women of the 6 characters are the only ones written with no redeeming qualities. Stacy is "spacey" and a "slut," and Amy is crybaby complainer with no backbone. And nothing was done, even in their own POVs, to contradict this or provide more dimension to this. And even though Amy is supposedly just as smart and talented as Jeff considering they both got into medical school, she's absolutely useless and does some of the dumbest shit of all of the characters.
But the male characters aren't any more dimensional, they just are archetypes of stereotypically masculine qualities. Pablo is happy-go-lucky and gets the worst fate of all of them for no reason. Mathias is stoic. Jeff is skilled at everything and a natural leader. Eric is basically a himbo. And that's all they are. There's no character development apart from the deterioration at their literally unsurvivable circumstances, and there's no sympathy for them apart from the fact that they got into the situation in the first place.
And it also doesn't help that there is such a clinical detachment in the narration even when it switches third-person POVs, so we don't even really get any character voice coming through, and since we know everything happening to everyone except Mathias, there's no uncertainty to add to the horror of it all and no character for the reader to empathize with. And on top of all that, the prose is just fine. Nothing special.
Theoretically, I could have liked this book. But after the 100 page mark, you're just watching 6 people sit on a mountain slowly dying to sentient vines and doing the absolute dumbest shit while doing so. There's no hope that anyone is going to survive. There's no explanation of the vines or the Mayan's relationship to it. There's no effort to try and overcome the vines. It's just them sitting on a mountain the whole time lamenting their situation. And i found it so incredibly predictable. I knew someone was gonna try to make a run for it and die. I knew Eric was gonna die by trying to cut the vines out of him. Pablo is basically dead as soon as he falls down the shaft. Figured someone was gonna murder someone else, and that someone would be the last one standing and commit suicide before holding out for hope that the Greeks were gonna make it and then it would end with the Greeks falling into the same situation.
Like there was absolutely nothing that surprised me about the plot except maybe the way Amy died.
And you could take out at least half of the book and it would still be the same book ultimately.
And also, 370 pages with relatively minimal amounts of dialogue is far too many pages for there to be no chapter breaks.
However, maybe wilderness survival horror is just not for me. Because I've read three this year (This Wretched Valley, The Woodkin, and now The Ruins) and every single one of them has gotten two stars from me. So maybe this really just isn't my subgenre.
I think the premise is good. The setting is good. And the vine horror, especially the growing inside of people, is good. But that's about where the good stops for me.
The characters are insufferable, and I could not find myself rooting for any of them except maybe Mathias and Pablo but Pablo becomes such a non-existent character after the first 100 pages and Mathias doesn't even get any POVs so I don't even think he counts.
And it doesn't help any that they are written in such archetypes, or that the 2 women of the 6 characters are the only ones written with no redeeming qualities. Stacy is "spacey" and a "slut," and Amy is crybaby complainer with no backbone. And nothing was done, even in their own POVs, to contradict this or provide more dimension to this. And even though Amy is supposedly just as smart and talented as Jeff considering they both got into medical school, she's absolutely useless and does some of the dumbest shit of all of the characters.
But the male characters aren't any more dimensional, they just are archetypes of stereotypically masculine qualities. Pablo is happy-go-lucky and gets the worst fate of all of them for no reason. Mathias is stoic. Jeff is skilled at everything and a natural leader. Eric is basically a himbo. And that's all they are. There's no character development apart from the deterioration at their literally unsurvivable circumstances, and there's no sympathy for them apart from the fact that they got into the situation in the first place.
And it also doesn't help that there is such a clinical detachment in the narration even when it switches third-person POVs, so we don't even really get any character voice coming through, and since we know everything happening to everyone except Mathias, there's no uncertainty to add to the horror of it all and no character for the reader to empathize with. And on top of all that, the prose is just fine. Nothing special.
Theoretically, I could have liked this book. But after the 100 page mark, you're just watching 6 people sit on a mountain slowly dying to sentient vines and doing the absolute dumbest shit while doing so. There's no hope that anyone is going to survive. There's no explanation of the vines or the Mayan's relationship to it. There's no effort to try and overcome the vines. It's just them sitting on a mountain the whole time lamenting their situation. And i found it so incredibly predictable. I knew someone was gonna try to make a run for it and die. I knew Eric was gonna die by trying to cut the vines out of him. Pablo is basically dead as soon as he falls down the shaft. Figured someone was gonna murder someone else, and that someone would be the last one standing and commit suicide before holding out for hope that the Greeks were gonna make it and then it would end with the Greeks falling into the same situation.
Like there was absolutely nothing that surprised me about the plot except maybe the way Amy died.
And you could take out at least half of the book and it would still be the same book ultimately.
And also, 370 pages with relatively minimal amounts of dialogue is far too many pages for there to be no chapter breaks.
However, maybe wilderness survival horror is just not for me. Because I've read three this year (This Wretched Valley, The Woodkin, and now The Ruins) and every single one of them has gotten two stars from me. So maybe this really just isn't my subgenre.