The Ruins by Scott SmithPlants are not scary. Sure, the potential creepy things that plants house may be scary (bugs, webs, man with a book), but living organisms that get nutrition from the sun and give us oxygen in return are actually pretty neat. Until you read The Ruins. And of course there is more than meets the eye to these creepy vines. They can mimic human speech or cell phone rings; they can move as fast as a person can run; they have acid that slowly digests its victims (and we ain’t talking about sunshine here); and they have a group of native villagers that protect them (you can visit them, but once you do, you can’t leave). Granted, this is one tough plant, and it sort of mimics animal characteristics, so I guess you can’t say they are entirely plant-like. There are a few scary/gross moments in the book, but none that kept me up at night. Still, if you’re looking for a gory alternative to human psychos, check out The Ruins, or the movie which came out last summer.
Oh, what pretty flowers you have.
