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Guest Reviewer: Stephen King
But enough. The new book is here, and the question devotees of A Simple Plan will want answered is whether or not this book generates anything like Plan's harrowing suspense. The answer is yes. The Ruins is going to be America's literary shock-show this summer, doing for vacations in Mexico what Jaws did for beach weekends on Long Island. Is it as successful and fulfilling as a novel? The answer is not quite, but I can live with that, because it's riskier. There will be reviews of this book by critics who have little liking or understanding for popular fiction who'll dismiss it as nothing but a short story that has been bloated to novel length (I'm thinking of Michiko Kakutani, for instance, who microwaved Smith's first book). These critics, who steadfastly grant pop fiction no virtue but raw plot, will miss the dazzle of Smith's technique; The Ruins is the equivalent of a triple axel that just misses perfection because something's wrong with the final spin.
It's hard to say much about the book without giving away everything, because the thing is as simple and deadly as a leg-hold trap concealed in a drift of leaves...or, in this case, a mass of vines. You've got four young American tourists--Eric, Jeff, Amy, and Stacy--in Cancun. They make friends with a German named Mathias whose brother has gone off into the jungle with some archeologists. These five, plus a cheerful Greek with no English (but a plentiful supply of tequila), head up a jungle trail to find Mathias's brother...the archaeologists...and the ruins.
Well, two out of three ain't bad, according to the old saying, and in this case; what's waiting in the jungle isn't just bad, it's horrible. Most of The Ruins's 300-plus pages is one long, screaming close-up of that horror. There's no let-up, not so much as a chapter-break where you can catch your breath. I felt that The Ruins did draw on a trifle, but I found Scott Smith's refusal to look away heroic, just as I did in A Simple Plan. It's the trappings of horror and suspense that will make the book a best seller, but its claim to literature lies in its unflinching naturalism. It's no Heart of Darkness, but at its suffocating, terrifying, claustrophobic best, it made me think of Frank Norris. Not a bad comparison, at that.
One only hopes Mr. Smith won't stay away so long next time.--Stephen King
Craving an adventure on their Mexican holiday before they return home, a group of four friends impulsively set off in search of one of their own who has travelled to the interior to investigate an archaeological dig in the Mayan ruins.
After a long journey into the heart of the jungle, the group come across trail. A hillside covered in bright red flowers lures them closer. A Mayan horseman approaches behind them. But this is no friendly welcome: he has agun and orders them fiercely away.In the midst of the confrontation, one of the group steps inadvertently backwards, into the flowering vine.And at that moment their world changes for ever…
‘This tense, dense, oppressive thriller takes the reader into new dimensions of fear…Every time you think the book has hit a high in terror, it somehow gets more unbearable’ Guardian
‘A tour de force of terror, a novel that seduces, shocks and dares you to keep reading’ Washington Post
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. No Jacket. Limited Edition. Sewn binding. Gold gilt lettering and edging. Includes illustrations. 336 p. Audience: General/Trade. "A" of 52 lettered copies. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # ABE-1708371332560