The Ruins (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Scott Smith |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Peter Mendelsund |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror novel, Thriller |
| Publisher | Vintage |
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Publication date
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July 18, 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 384 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 62878416 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.M5379759 R85 2006 |
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 ().
A film adaptation of the novel was released in the United States and Canada on April 4, 2008.
Four American tourists — Eric, his girlfriend Stacy, her best friend Amy, and Amy's boyfriend Jeff, a medical student — are vacationing in Mexico. They befriend a German tourist named Mathias and a trio of hard-drinking Greeks who go by the Spanish nicknames Pablo, Juan, and Don Quixote. Mathias convinces "Pablo" (his name is actually Demetris Lambrakis) and the Americans to accompany him as he joins up with his brother Heinrich who had followed a girl he'd met to an archeological dig. The six of them head down to the rural Yucatan in search of Heinrich. The driver of the pick up truck who takes them to the outskirts tells one of the girls that the place to which they are going is 'not good'; the girl doesn't quite get the message and leaves anyway, despite the driver's offer to take them to a different and new place. Near a Mayan village, they discover a disguised trail which leads to a large hill covered in vines and surrounded by bare earth. The group approach the hill, ignoring the warnings of a young boy who had followed them to the village. The boy soon returns with armed adults who force the group to stay on the vine-covered hill. Among the underbrush, they discover the body of Heinrich, already overgrown with vines.
They realize that the vines contain an acidic sap that burns their hands after they pulled the vines away from Heinrich's body. At the top of the hill is a camp with tents, a campfire and windlass and rope that leads down a mine shaft. Much of the camp is overgrown with the same acidic vines. Hearing the ring of a cell phone from the bottom of the shaft, they use the rope to lower Pablo down in an attempt to retrieve it. However, the acid from the vines has weakened the rope, which snaps, sending Pablo falling down the shaft. His back is broken and the group raises him on a makeshift backboard.
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