The Ruins

Infobox Book |
name = The Ruins
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Scott Smith
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Vintage
pub_date = July 18, 2006
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 384 pp
isbn = ISBN 1-4000-4387-5
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Ruins" is the second novel by American author Scott Smith, whose first novel was "A Simple Plan". "The Ruins" is a horror story set on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It was released on July 18 2006 (ISBN 1-4000-4387-5).

A film adaptation of the novel was released in the United States and Canada on April 4 2008. [ [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809878396/info The Ruins (2008)] ]

Plot summary

The novel follows a group of tourists on vacation in Cancún who decide to visit a set of Mayan ruins.

Two American couples (Jeff and Amy, Eric and Stacy) decide to help a new-found German friend, Mathias, look for his brother, Heinrich, who has supposedly joined an archaeological dig. A Greek they met at the hotel, who they know only as Pablo, follows them. Pablo leaves a copy of Heinrich's map at the front desk for his two friends to follow later.

They find their way through the jungle to the ruins of an old mine, a large hill which is covered by vines with red flowers. A group of armed Mayans try to get them to leave until Amy steps into the vines, at which point they force the group onto the hill. The Mayans surround the ruins and set up camp to prevent them from leaving. The hill is covered with mounds of vines that turn out to be corpses, including Heinrich's.

After hearing what they believe to be a cell phone ringing at the bottom of the hill's abandoned mine shaft, the group sends Pablo down to find it. The rope breaks, weakened by the vine growing on it, and he falls down the shaft, breaking his back. Eric goes down to help him, but cuts his knee. Amy follows them down, helping to get Pablo out of the shaft but injuring his back further. Pablo is bedridden while the group tries to figure out what to do.

The group learns that the vine can move when Amy vomits and it sends out a tendril to suck it up. They figure out that vine has at least some measure of sentience and left the rope hanging over the shaft as a trap. It also pulls down a sign Jeff erects as a warning to anyone else who comes by.

Amy and Jeff go down the shaft to investigate the ringing cell phone, but find that the flowers can mimic sounds and are making the noise. The vines try to pull them down another shaft but they escape. That night, the vine works its way into Eric's cut. Mathias cuts the vine out, but Eric remains convinced that there is still some of the plant inside him. He makes his wound worse, cutting at it with the knife, and even goes so far as to cut open his chest, as he thinks he feels the vine there, too.

Also during the first night, the vine eats away the flesh of Pablo's legs. In an attempt to save him, Jeff convinces the others that they need to cut off his legs. Later that day, Eric, Stacy, and Amy get drunk and Pablo's condition worsens. They all get into a fight and the vine throws their voices back at them, making the situation worse. A very upset Jeff tells off Amy and she goes off on her own to cry. That night, he sees her vomiting and reaching out for help in the dark, but he ignores her. In the morning, Mathias finds her dead: the vine was choking her as she threw up.

The vine works its way back into Eric's cuts in the night and Jeff cuts it out before stitching his wounds shut. It's revealed that the vine can mimic smells as well as sounds and it torments the group with smells of food. The following night, the vine makes sounds of Stacy and Mathias having sex in order to further drive the group apart. While they're distracted, it smothers Pablo. Meanwhile, Jeff thinks he can get past the Mayans but they shoot him with arrows during the attempt and he is killed.

The next morning, it's revealed that Eric was right and the vine really was still inside him when several growths of it show up under his skin. Mathias cuts them out and the vine tells them of Jeff's death. Stacy and Mathias go to look for Jeff, leaving Eric alone. Eric takes the knife to himself in an effort to remove the vine and slashes himself until he's near death. Stacy and Mathias return and try to take the knife from him, and he stabs Mathias in the ensuing struggle before asking Stacy to put him out of his misery, which she does.

The only one left, Stacy eats the rest of their food, heads down the hill, sits herself in front of the Mayans, and slits her wrists.

Not long after that, the other two Greeks finally arrive, with some friends. They walk across the clearing and towards the hill, presumably to suffer the same fate as the others did.

Critical reaction

Entertainment Weekly reviewer Gillian Flynn gave The Ruins an A-, calling it "Thomas Harris meets Poe in a decidedly timely story", continuing, "Smith has tapped into our anxieties about global warming, lethal weather, supergerms — our collective fear that nature is finally battling back — and given us a decidedly organic nightmare."

References

Differences Between the Novel and the Movie

In the novel, the ruins are a large hill with a mining shaft at the top of it. In the movie, the ruins are a Mayan pyramid.

In the movie, it's Mathias who breaks his back falling down the shaft and has to have his legs amputated instead of Pablo. Stacy is the one who follows him down, cutting her leg in the process instead of Eric. In both versions, Amy is the third one to go down.

In the movie, the character Pablo is named Dimitri, and is shot by the Mayans at the base of the hill.

In the movie, it's Stacy who has the vine growing inside her instead of Eric. After she cuts herself up, it's Eric she accidentally stabs instead of Mathias. Jeff fills her role from the novel as the one who kills her afterwards.

In the novel, none of the characters escape the ruins alive, while Amy escapes in the movie (in the end she has the vine growing in her too, indicating her probable death).

External links