The Ruins by Scott Smith is an amazing piece of literature. Here’s the plot in a very small nutshell: group of friends go on vacation to a foreign country, they get lost on a hike and stumble upon a huge abandoned Mayan temple. Their curiosity gets the best of them and they decide to scale it. Once they start climbing up it, the locals start emerging from the woods and surround the temple with weapons and pretty much force them to stay on top of the temple. Obviously the friends are confused as to why they are being forced to stay atop the temple and the adventure begins. Scott Smith’s book not only is an adventure in basic survival but a tale of morbid horror as certain “things” start taking the friend’s life one by one.



