Thomas Gaffney reviewed The Ruins by Scott Smith
Review of 'The Ruins' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A great horror novel at its finest. For a story whose main plot structure is group of people sitting around on a hill, it still manages to be fast-paced and pulls no punches. Not knowing anything about the story going into the book, I was disappointed that the synopsis on the back of the Mass Market gave away the "antagonist" of the novel. Besides that, I was still surprised by many of the twists and turns throughout.
My one displeasure with the book is the four, main, American characters. They're horrible and self-centered that I didn't want to see any of them succeed. If I didn't know any better, I would think that the author, Scott Smith, was half-Greek and half-German, because the characters of Mathias and Pablo, whose thoughts we aren't privy too and whose backgrounds we are unfamiliar with, are the only characters that I could tolerate. The …
A great horror novel at its finest. For a story whose main plot structure is group of people sitting around on a hill, it still manages to be fast-paced and pulls no punches. Not knowing anything about the story going into the book, I was disappointed that the synopsis on the back of the Mass Market gave away the "antagonist" of the novel. Besides that, I was still surprised by many of the twists and turns throughout.
My one displeasure with the book is the four, main, American characters. They're horrible and self-centered that I didn't want to see any of them succeed. If I didn't know any better, I would think that the author, Scott Smith, was half-Greek and half-German, because the characters of Mathias and Pablo, whose thoughts we aren't privy too and whose backgrounds we are unfamiliar with, are the only characters that I could tolerate. The American characters came across as brash, arrogant, and unlikable. Much like what other countries think of us.
Still, the book kept me hooked and the paged kept turned thanks to the tight narrative and quick pace, but the sense of fear/terror that rang on every page.
