I have a few words to say about the book The Ruins, by Scott Smith. This is going to reveal a lot about the plot of the book, so if you plan on reading it, stop reading this. I picked it up because it received good reviews, it sounded exciting, and I needed something to get my mind off of work. Let me preface my review by linking to some other reviews (their rating of the book, if given, is in parentheses):
etc.
Steven King even gave it a good review - you can find it on the Amazon link, I believe. But having said all that, of course I didn’t like it. Here’s why.
Before I go any further, I’ll say that I value two parts of a book - 1) the story (plot), and 2) the way that story is presented (writing style/diction). So let’s do the story part first.