The Ruins is a fast-paced thriller I've returned to several times since first reading it a number of years ago. It's a horrifying story that hooks you with its character depictions. Two young American couples are (mostly) enjoying a vacation in Mexico, where they venture with a couple other tourists to the site of an archaeological dig. They are warned by a local that the place they're headed is no good, but do you think they listen? If they did, there wouldn't be much of a story! I won't go into detail, but once there they find themselves trapped and in peril.
The twists keep on coming with this one, but what I love so much about it is the insight we get into the minds of the four main characters. The perspective moves from one to the other and you really get a sense of who these people are and what motivates them. Their reactions to the increasingly dire situation make sense.
The sympathy he builds between the reader and the characters makes it all the easier to imagine yourself in their place which really opens the doorway to horror. What the young people are facing is ever decreasing hope and the realization that they may not survive their vacation. It makes you wonder, if in their place, who would you be?
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