Scott Smith’s The Ruins gained high praise from one of the masters in the horror genre, Stephen King. When it comes to horror novels, it can be hard to convey terror through words in a way that sends chills down the reader’s spine. It can be eerie, but not terrifying, as this is a craft itself. King does that meticulously, and this helps him recognize a good horror book when he reads one. This book happens to be among his favorite horror novels, but why exactly? Let’s find out.
What Makes A Good Horror Book To Stephen King?
In Danse Macabre, a book that collected lectures that Stephen King gave while teaching a horror fiction course. King categorized three different approaches that a horror writer could use to build a truly terrorizing piece.
The Gross-Out: It is a grotesque scene that makes you uncomfortable just looking at it. For example: A scene of a severed head falling off the stairs or a sticky splattering you sense on your arm when it’s dark.
The Horror: It is a paranormal scene that challenges your brain, and scares you because you’re unable to make sense of it. For example: Seeing shadows in the halls or hearing unexplainable noises coming from a seemingly empty room.
The Terror: King named this to be the most horrifying type, and “The highest on the craftsman’s hierarchy”, as he put it. It feels as if you are being manipulated by some invisible entity into hearing, seeing, and feeling things that are not there. For example: Being alone, but feeling like you are under some sort of scrutiny of something or someone invisible.
In The Ruins, Smith checks all these three boxes. He manages to truly terrorize his readers. How so? Let’s learn more about this book.
Summary of Scott Smith The Ruins
Note: This section contains spoilers.
Jeff, Amy, Eric, and Stacey thought that traveling to a resort town in Mexico could be the perfect break they needed before embarking on their adult life journey as college students. All was going in their favor, and they even managed to make some friends there. One of them was a German named Mathias, and another was a Greek named Pablo.
At first, the vacation seemed to be heavenly, but things were about to go down hill. Mathias was worried about his brother. He did not hear anything from him ever since he left with an archaeologist to see the ruins. Mathias needed to find his brother so they could go back to Germany. Jeff refused to let Mathias go to the ruins by himself, and asked everyone to tag along.
The group was not enthusiastic about accompanying him to find his brother, but they pushed through with it. Some were more excited about this little trip being a mysterious adventure they could brag about when back home. If they ever made it back, that is. But they did not know that yet.
On their way, many locals kept trying to warn them from approaching the ruins but as they could not speak English, all their warnings got lost in translation. And the group did not retreat.
As they arrived at the ruins, they found they were covered with vines. It was deceivingly picturesque, and they could sense it. The air was already thick with strange discomfort and uneasiness. There was something about this place that was extremely unsettling, and they gradually started doubting this entire adventure.
Their doubts proved to be right. The vines did not save them any time before introducing them to its hellish nature. They turned out to be more than just regular plants covering the ruins. They were a malevolent entity that was enraged by their audacity to step into its territory. Now, the group was in their grasp, and the vines did not plan to let them go. They made a fatal mistake, and they would live through the brutal consequences of it.
Although the group did not understand exactly what they were dealing with at first, and they had a sliver of hope that they could escape, it did not take them long to realize they were truly doomed. To each their own. Tension and blame started rising between them, and the vines were feeding off their fear and the havoc they were causing. Things kept getting from bad to worse as the group also figured out that this wicked entity could manipulate them and imitate human voices.
They could not differentiate reality from illusion anymore, and their despair was growing by the second. They were under the vine’s mercy, and they were almost certain there was no way out of this fatal predicament. It was a fool’s paradise, but they decided to try for one more last time to escape. These attempts turned into a suicide mission. The vine could control them and hit the most sensitive points they had. It used their utmost fears and insecurities against them and destroyed them internally before it finally did it externally.
How Does The Ruins Fit Into King’s Hierarchy
The Gross-Out: There are several scenes in the book in which one feels utterly grossed out simply by picturing it. But personally, there was one that elicited an absolute disgust sensation inside me.
The vine could get under the human skin. It tortured them physically and caused them injuries. These wounds would later get infected, and grotesque plants grew from them. Smith painted this mental image in a way that makes one’s skin crawl. Additionally, the characters’ death scenes were gruesome and sadistic. Each lost their life differently, but all made one want to erase the mental image Smith so vividly portrayed.
The Horror: The horror element in this book was the vine itself. A malevolent, demonic, and destructive plant was not exactly something one’s brain was used to. Even the group at the very beginning could not comprehend the enemy that was arranging their doom. They could not wrap their heads around the reality that it was all executed by a seemingly regular plant. It did not make sense, but it horrified them.
The Terror: This element manifested through the mental ability the vine had. It could manipulate them into hearing and believing things that were not there. It could imitate their voices, and that made them lose confidence in each other. It was an absolute torture that they could sense, hear, and see in themselves and each other but the perpetrator was invisible.
They were fighting the unknown, and this kept escalating until they almost lost their sanity. They knew it was there, but they could not prove it to anyone else but each other, and they weren’t even sure they were reliable anymore. This was my favorite element in this book because it was executed in an intriguing manner that elevated the experience of reading it.
Conclusion
If you love Stephen King’s books and have been looking for a good horror book that induces your adrenaline for quite a while, The Ruins is for you.
I’ll be honest, the first few pages might come off as too tame and even borderline boring to some. But once you get into the essence of the book, it’ll be a page-turner. Add to that the fact that the book is not divided into chapters, you will find yourself flying through the pages not only because you don’t want to stop, but because you cannot stop. Stephen King puts it best, “The Ruins is your basic long scream of horror.”
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