Reviews with content warning for Vomit - The Ruins

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

frances_frances's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Phew! This book is bleak as hell, but overall, I really enjoyed it. It's gory and deeply unsettling. The physical and psychological anguish experienced by each character is relentless. The pacing is slow and meticulous but somehow manages to be consistently engrossing throughout. The "monster" in this book is refreshing in its originality. I found it much more disturbing than an actual monster, ghost, etc. And the constant shift in perspective was expertly pulled off.

There were a few things that bothered me about this book. The biggest problem I have is when Jeff accidentally sees Stacy's breast and then contemplates the differences and similarities between Amy and Stacy's nipples. I really hate when male authors include that kind of shit. The women characters are sexualized for no reason and in ways that the men never would be. Amy and Stacy are written as Madonna/whore stereotypes. I guess there's some "commentary" about this when Eric describes how Hollywood would write their story, but still, the only two women in the book are comparatively two dimensional and clearly written from a male perspective. The shallowness of the women and the references to their bodies really made this book go from 5 to 4 stars.
I thought the whole pretext for the group to be in the jungle in the first place was weak and could've been fleshed out more.
I feel uncertain about how the Mayan community was portrayed. They are nameless, voiceless, and for our purposes basically interchangeable. And like the environment itself, the Mayan people are a lethal threat to our (white) main characters, with unknown motives. On one hand, the way the Mayans were presented felt realistic to how the main characters would view them. At the same time, it's hard to say where the characters end and the author begins.

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duke_elligos's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's hard to put this book down, it draws you in and doesn't let go.
It is raw and brutal, even though it's not overly grotesque, if you're used to the genre. The characters are far from perfect, they make mistake after mistake, and yet it feels like things anyone could do.
Also, if you've watched the movie, don't worry, it's nothing like it.

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ssummar's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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rainstar's review

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dark tense

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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underscoremeg's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Amy, Jeff, Stacy, and Eric are two couples who go on a vacation to Mexico. Here, they meet Mathias, a German who speaks English, and Pablo, Juan, and Don Quixote, three Greeks who do not speak English. Mathias’ brother had disappeared a few days prior and Mathias decides to go to the ruins of a mine shaft in the jungle to find him. Amy, Jeff, Stacy, and Eric go with him, and so does Pablo. Once they get to the jungle (an extremely remote area inhabited by a traditional Mayan village) they find a weird clearing surrounding a hill covered in vines and red flowers. Despite the locals trying VERY hard to prevent them from climbing this hill, the friend group goes up anyway. Then, the Mayans refuse to let them leave. Surrounding the base of the hill, they show that they will shoot anyone who attempts to escape.

Spoilers; shortly after coming onto the hill, they find abandoned tents and supplies from an earlier group. Then, they find bodies (or, what’s remaining of bodies) including Mathias’ brother. There is a mineshaft on the hill that they try to explore, but Pablo breaks his back falling down it almost immediately and they struggle to take care of him and survive with minimal supplies.

I expected this book to be way more about actual ruins and potentially ancient civilization(s), but it was literally just a hill with a very big hole. The book was GREAT for suspense and body horror, but it was too slow and almost boring for my personal taste. I’m glad I read it, I just was expecting something else.

The death scenes were extremely unsettling, and the whole book was well written and uncomfortable. The antagonist of the novel was the vines - they are somehow alive? Going so far as to make noises that mimic speech, create traps for the people on the hill, and eventually eat any organic material on the hill.

The whole novel takes place over, roughly, four or so days and there are no chapters to separate events. This makes the book EXTREMELY unique in the sense that it’s continuous - readers get to see nearly every moment of every character the entire time they’re on this hill. The characters make matters worse for themselves over and over again, and I loved the problematic characters. I saw an earlier comment that claimed the female characters were written in a sexist way and I agree, but only somewhat - none of the characters are particularly lovable or enjoyable altogether, but they each have strengths and individual irritants AND positives. I liked to see this mix of what felt like realistic early-20-somethings.

Overall, I liked this book. I would definitely recommend it to friends and encourage others to read it, but I want to be clear - this is a SURVIVAL HORROR. Much of the book is simply waiting around for death to come, despite active efforts to survive. It’s a hopeless and desperate situation where the reader is more or less watching these characters succumb to something beyond themselves.

Conversely, I was under the impression it would be more ancient-ruins-curse feel, with a “real” villain or antagonist. This book is very unique, but I think it accidentally makes itself look to be slightly different.

I will be checking out other Scott Smith work! The writing was awesome - engaging and descriptive without dragging things out and getting boring. I read this in about three days total.

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