Picked up The Ruins by Scott Smith on Friday. It was cheap, I'd read a good review and liked the movie A Simple Plan based on Smith's other book.
While the novel kept me flipping the pages, I was pretty disappointed. Two young couples on vacation in Mexico meet another vacationer who is in search of his brother. The five of them, with another fellow traveler - a Greek who has named himself Pablo and speaks no English - head off into the jungle with nothing more than day packs and a hand-drawn map in search of the missing brother who has become smitten with an archaeologist working in the wilds.
Here's the thing - while being watched by some Mayan natives during their hike, one of them mistakenly touches a plant growing on a hillside. Well, the plant is evil. The Mayans won't let them down the evil plant hillside since they are "infected" by the evil plant. The vines snag their legs; the vine mimics them. It is an damn evil vine. A battle for survival against the vine ensues.
Maybe I'm not a horror fan. Dunno. The story moves along, but ultimately it was pretty miserable, hopeless and not as interesting as it could have been. That said, I was sort of freaked out sitting in my back yard the next day! Here.
