"The Ruins" by Scott Smith

Oh wasted time, what can I do to win you back?

I didn’t read Scott Smith’s first book, but if I had, I would have stayed away from this one. No, seriously, what were the publishers thinking? What was Mr. Smith’s agent thinking? What happened to professionalism, intelligent plots, believable stories? I mean, common, a talking vine? Mr. Smith, you could have done so much more with this book? You could have taken the ruins and actually combined them with the history of the ancient Indians (invent one if you don’t know it, that’s what you are paid for), then woven it with contemporary superstition and this book could have been worth reading. Did you really think you will win fans with a plain trip to Mexico and a bunch of urine-collecting, tequila drinking youths?

I’m not surprised though - this is what commercialization does to the literary world. Mr. Smith got his advance check and the readers paid for it. Thankfully, there are libraries and I didn’t spend a dime on this book…now if I can only find a way to get someone to pay for the time I wasted reading it…

-by Simon Cleveland