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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

 Eerie, terrifying, and unputdownable, The Ruins is Scott Smith's first novel since his acclaimed debut A Simple Plan earned rave reviews and stormed best seller 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

Critic Reviews

"A stunning horror thriller." (Publishers Weekly
"The book of the summer....Smith intends to scare the bejabbers out of you, and succeeds." (Stephen King)
"If you love ABC's Lost and the novels of King and Thomas Harris, you'll love this book." (USA Today)

All stars
Most relevant  
Well-realised characters & body horror that made me squirm. An underlying current speaks to what we as people will do to care for one another, despite our numerous flaws and whatever horrible circumstances we might find ourselves in.

A viscerally palpable tale of hope and despair.

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Loved the way that story went. quite sad at the end. it's a thrilling experience listening to this audiobook

loved it

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I love the creature in this book, I think its exceptionally original, and I can see why the book has so much praise.
if your a fan if horror like me, you will love the creature.
That however is where the love stops.
The characters in this book are the stupidest bunch of f***tards i think I've ever come across.
I wanted them to die, they where that piss poor.
if you can get past that the book is pretty great.

Awesome idea, let down bybad characters

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The performance is the best thing about this book. The characters are idiots and i couldn't wait for them all to die.

Standard horror fiction.

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This book absolutely hooked me in from the second chapter onwards. A gruelling page turner. I was obsessed with knowing the outcome. Great naturalistic characters in a very original and very tense scenario. An incredible read.

Incredibly compulsive dark thriller

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its a good read and an interesting story ... but nothing good happens...at all. great narrator though..

suspenseful

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Really good story, all round brilliant concept , you will really like this one , good characters and a great story , well structured and twists and turns and always waiting for the next thing to happen - truly enjoyable

Good Story

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This book was a joy to listen to. The characters were so well written and the horror/gore scenes had me genuinely feeling sick! And the narrator was brilliant too! A must for horror fans

Amazing, scary, shocking!

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And I guess I kinda wanted to be ruined… it was a slow burn and a tense journey. Some people have said that the protagonists were ‘just stupid’ but I thought they just weren’t very proactive. It was a slog of a story with some extremely graphic details that many will find very upsetting. But ultimately, I felt like I was waiting for something big and almost action-packed to occur and it never did. That’s not to say that it wasn’t very effective; I often felt the sun-burned, stale and starving feeling of the characters and the book had a way of leaving me in that place with a longing to fight or run or be frenzied. But the ‘monster’ in this story (if you can call it that) is one that can’t be fought and so encountering this steady journey into not-quite-the-chaos-I-was-looking-for, left me feeling a bit restless when it was all over.

Great performance from the narrator (as is to be expected from Patrick Wilson) and overall, I do recommend it if this sounds like your jam.

Left me exhausted but not ruined…

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10 out of 10 and Patrick Wilson’s performance storyline was awesome bit of a slow burn but totally worth it

Slow burn but worth it

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