The Ruins: A

A refreshingly black-hearted novel this summer, Scott Smith's first book in nearly 12 years is definitely worth the wait, if not the depression it will cause you while reading it. His 1994 debut A Simple Plan was not only triunphed by critics and audiences alike, it was also adapted into an academy-award nominated film (written by Smith himself) starring Billy Bob Thorton. He's back with a new horror novel that focuses on the group dynamic between 6 tourists: Jeff, Amy, Eric, Stacy, Pablo, and Mathias that stumble upon a nightmare in the jungle that comes in the form of sleepy vine and flower covered Mexican ruins. Smith's perfectly crafted prose is something to be savored, like a cool glass of water after a hot day, but what is even more thrilling is the way he portrays people in crisis and the roles that they refuse, with almost chilling indifference, to vacate. Amy, the pessimist, whines while Stacy daydreams and all the while Jeff is too busy desperately trying to concoct a plan and be a hero to stop and actually you know, think. Smith's novel is cooly, almost surrealy, intelligent and he has a brilliant knack for pschosis. When one of them (the victims, I mean tourists) thinks they have become a breeding ground for the killer vine that surrounds them the book takes a slow but deadly turn towards the nauseatingly horrific and delightfully gory. It's like having a rope tied around your middle and being slowly but constantly pulled towards a big sign marked DOOM. Praying on our fears of super bacteria and global warming Smith creates a book around the most terrifying modern concept of all: that nature is fighting back. Part Micheal Crichton and part Stephen King this amazingly assured voice in horror literature manages still to emerge, over and over again, with a style that will leave you chilled to the bone and aching to read more.