Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
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.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
maybe im just not a fan of horror but this book absolutely sucked. i hated all of the characters and it was so predictable. i found myself skimming through the last few chapters just to get it over with.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I might have enjoyed this book more if I had read it in the original language. The Dutch translation wasn't any good and that distracted me.