Book review - 'The Ruins'

Wow.. this is really one great book indeed. As I said earlier in my previous blog, when my friend gave this to me he warned me on two things - 1) it was really a scarry story 2) that I should not be skip the lines; there were lot of information written in it. So when I opened the very first page itself, I prepared myself for surprises.

This book is written by Scott Smith and the wiki says that a movie was shot based on this one. I had not heard about this American author, but looks like he is one famous guy who had written few other thriller stories. Alright, added them to my to-read list now onward. Just because I do not know anything about this author (though he appeared cute in the picture present in the book he he he) let me skip about him and jump on to the book.

whew!! it is very difficult to write about the book, you know. because I should outline the story, yet should not reveal the mystery. So have tried my best, by any chance if you think I have leaked anything, forgive me. I am of course, a poor writer!

The story is about two couples (i meant 'couples', so 4 of them in number and not 2, ok) going over on a vacation to Mexico. There they have nice time in the beach and other places. They befriend fellow tourists - a German and few other Greeks. The brother of this German gets lost leaving the only clue - a piece of paper with a hand drawn route map leading to some hill inside some jungle. They all agree to help this German to bring back the brother. They set off to the jungle inspite of receiving bad omens. Then they were being warned by the Mayans asking them to leave at once, but situations lead the group to keep moving.

Once they step on the hill they see that the German's brother was being killed. Slowly they realize that they were trapped on to the hill and cannot find a way to come out. What actually happened to the German's brother, the group that he came along with, and to this new group that had stepped up on to the hill... is the story!! (oh my god!)

I am sure these questions are popping on your head -
1) Were they alive?
2) How did they survive?
3) Why or how did they get trapped on the hill?
4) Did the Mayans attack them?
5) Is there any animal from jungle attacking them?
Actually the story is beyond our imaginations.

The story is too good to keep the book down. The characters introduction are a bit traditional, slow in fact. Later the very few pages later it takes on top gear and flows like on highway. But at one point of time, I got bored. I tended to skip few lines but remembered the friend's warning . The climax of the story arrived without any announcement, except that the pages left out were less. I feel as if the author himself got bored to keep on writing that he decided for very quick climax and rushed to finish the story. This book reminded me one of Indira Sondar Rajan's fiction.

Anyway, it is good that the book kept me busy for two weeks with night mares and imaginations about the story. Good one indeed!