The Ruins by Scott Smith: Audiobook

Title: The Ruins
Author: Scott Smith
Narrator: Patrick Wilson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (July 18, 2006)
Source: Library
Genre: Mystery/ Horror Fiction
Listening time: 14 hours approx
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

My Thoughts:
I borrowed this book from the library after reading a review by Amy. Since I wanted to try out audio books for a long time and since this was a huge book, I thought audio book was the best way to approach it.

The Ruins is a story of a group of friends, Jeff, Eric, Stacy and Amy, who are on a holiday in Mexico. They become friends with the German’s and decide to follow Mathias in search of his brother who has gone off into the jungle with an archeologist. His brother left a map of the archeological dig and they think it would be an adventure to look for him. What they didn’t anticipate was the trouble they would be and the hell hole they would be stuck in.

It’s difficult to tell you much without giving the plot away but it suffices to say that I was disappointed with the “horror” element and the overall plot, if there was any. The Ruins is more of how different characters behave in the time of crisis than having a concrete story. The first 2 hours of the book I was hooked, I was scared and couldn’t wait to find out what lied at the base of the horror. Needless to say it was not what I expected. If any book could be described as ‘excruciatingly detailed’, it would be this. I mean really. We know what all the characters were thinking at all times, about their present, their future and their past as well. At times, they also went tangent and remembered things form their childhood as if all the thinking that was already going on wasn’t enough. As Amy said it’s a survival drama but I wished there were at least a few twists and turns to keep me interested.

The Ruins was scary and fun at the beginning but then it started getting boring, monotonous and repetitive. There is only so much repetition you can take without a story to take it forward. The human drama was worth reading but then again only up-to a certain point.

I wish I had loved this more, but I guess this book just wasn’t for me.

The Narrator: Patrick Wilson: Oh he was good. I loved his voice, I found it soothing and even. The only time I didn’t like it was when he read the female dialogues, he read them in an exaggerated female tone which was quite funny. Other than that I don’t have any complains.

Would physical book change my opinion? Probably. I might have abandoned the book halfway through or just skimmed it. But since it was an audio book which I listened to while doing housework or traveling it didn’t really cut into my reading time. So in this case, the audio book actually worked for me.