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The Ruins, the long-awaited second novel from the author of the acclaimed A Simple Plan, is more horror than thriller, a shift that most critics found intriguing. A few reviewers, ample with praise, even compared it to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Readers who approach Ruins as genre fiction and expect plenty of gore and fear will get just what they're looking for. Although the novel does include a fair amount of character development and analysis, readers hoping for in-depth psychological

The Ruins, the long-awaited second novel from the author of the acclaimed A Simple Plan, is more horror than thriller, a shift that most critics found intriguing. A few reviewers, ample with praise, even compared it to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Readers who approach Ruins as genre fiction and expect plenty of gore and fear will get just what they're looking for. Although the novel does include a fair amount of character development and analysis, readers hoping for in-depth psychological studies (or who are disturbed by grotesque violence and bodily fluids) will probably be disappointed. This is not a novel about "why": you'll have many questions that will go unanswered. That left three critics severely disappointed, and it's up to you to figure out if you're ready for the slasher portion of the novel. Regardless of genre, Scott Smith remains a skillful and incisive writer.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.