Welcome to Litsy!

While reading The Stand last night I put on The Ruins in the background to run. I forgot how decent it was. The book is exquisite. Talk about an exercise in characterization AND alien killer plants. Which reminds of this episode of The Drabblecast where the story is about an alien plant and its symbiotic relationship with an elephant. Try it. https://www.google.com/search?q=trunk+to+trunk+the+drabblecast&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8...

I was spoiled for this by watching the movie first. The book is slightly better, however the characters are incredibly stupid. The horror is well done though. 3⭐️

This novel reminded me of Stephen King's short story, "The Raft." Smith does a great job conveying tension and peril, along with what being in these conditions brings out in people (spoiler: it's mostly negative). Not all of the characters are distinct personalities. The two main guys and the two main women seem interchangeable, and I kept mixing them up. Matthias is an individual, and perhaps the only likeable character in the novel.

This is late, but I‘m doing it anyway! 😁
1. Tagged book. I couldn‘t put it down and I‘m still thinking about it.
2. Either Fourth Wing (🤞 I don‘t have a great track record with wildly popular books 😬) or Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
#Two4Tuesday

I had heard repeatedly that this was a genuinely creepy book, and they were right! I had trouble putting this down. I got annoyed with some of the foolish choices of the characters, but who in the hell could be expected to fully understand what they were up against? Very gripping horror story!

This was a great read. Super creepy and atmospheric, with a good amount of gore and psychological horror. I didn't know too much going into it, so the villain in the story wasn't what I was expecting. It really worked though. #SummerHorrorReads

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Prompt: Pet Sematary

When I think of a book that truly scared me, “The Ruins” always rises to the top of the list. Maybe because I was reading this when I was also a young tourist (in Greece, though, not Mexico). Smith‘s writing is so well-paced, and his characters convincing. The monster here may be otherworldly, but the true horror is how quickly we can lose our humanity in desperate situations. #scarathlondailyprompts #scared #teamslaughter

I love October- scary movies and scary books 👻 I am re-reading on of my favorites! The atmosphere in this book is fantastic!

Great book! The straightforward story was horrific enough then add into the human and psychological element and it made it a very intense read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love the plot of this book, any kind of horror involving plants/nature is awesome to me. That being said, I hated all the characters in this book. I cared nothing about any of them and there was a few parts in this book that were weirdly sexual and it just seemed so ridiculous. Trapped at gun point, starvation, self mutilation, amputation, stress, fear, death but yeah you got the headspace to entertain the idea of sex 🙄

Chile Relleno and diving back into my TBR shelf

If a person speaks a different language than your native tongue & they muster the full capacity of their English lexicon to give you a warning, “that place bad”…
If your taxi cab driver waives his fare and is willing to take you some place other than “that bad place” for free…
If none of the people in the tiny obscure village will look in your direction when you stumble into their locale & they assign a lookout to see where you go from there…
👇🏽

I hope that this book is not going to creep me out. I‘m starting to get vibes similar to The Troop and I didn‘t enjoy that grossly disgusting story at all.😳

This is a hard one for me to review. I enjoyed the plot, premise and setting. I thought it was well-paced and had a few nicely placed suspenseful moments. But I didn't find it scary at all, which was disappointing but not necessarily a deficit of the book- I think i just had different expectations based on reviews I read prior to reading this. But overall I did enjoy the story itself. 3.5 ⭐⭐⭐💫

In the mood for some summertime horror! #currentlyreading

#LitsyHumor post 4/4! 😆

I discovered the #horrorseason challenge a bit late. But I figure there‘s nothing wrong with having to watch two movies on some days 😁

The atmosphere reminds of me The Ruins, another story with an adventure-gone-wrong. Both have very claustrophobic, helpless atmosphere and, of course, are heavy on the gore.

#scarathlon #teamslaughter

Here are #3books that have been made into movies.

I have mixed feelings about Picnic at Hanging Rock, so I haven‘t attempted a movie version yet. I loved Battle Royale and The Ruins. I liked the movies, but as usual the books are better. Pulling them out for this photo makes me kind of want to reread them.

“Maybe there isn‘t a way,” he said. “Maybe all we can do is wait and hope and endure for as long as we‘re able. The food will run out. Our bodies will fail. And the vine will do whatever it‘s going to do.

Wow! This was incredible! Turns out fifth times the charm. I can‘t believe I never made it past that 70 page hump where it escalates so much. It just builds and builds and is so clever. I loved it.

Honestly, as far as nihilistic horror goes, this was a real page turner. It has its flaw for sure, but@overall pretty solid. Not good enough for a “pick” but enough of a page turner for a “so-so”. Very quick read. Creepy, dark and a bit gruesome.

In Scott Smith‘s book, The Ruins, #green vines attack some campers in a Mexican jungle.

#chillingphotochallenge #scarathlon @Clwojick

How do you girls feel about this one?

#HGPBC #TeamCthulhu

@MaleficentBookDragon @jillannjohn @BookwormAHN

Review video for the week is up!

Check it out here:
https://youtu.be/ESdTW7Q5YaU

Very very well done and I highly recommend it to those with a strong stomach and a love of horror.

Please read my full review here:
https://thereadingmermaidsreviews.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-ruins-by-scott-smi...

Okay here's my tentative stack for the weekend. I have already finished Isla Emerged so I will be removing that one from my final stats. I'm hoping to finish a couple more before the read-a-thon begins. But we will see! 😃

#24B4Monday @Andrew65 @jb72

This started out a touch slow for me but once it got going it didn't stop! A group of friends vacationing in Mexico decide to accompany a fellow traveler to look for his brother at an archaeological site. As soon as they get there things go downhill and every attempt to get out just escalates things. Lots of survival and #bodyhorror 😳😲😱

⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really enjoyed this one. I saw it years ago as a movie first and remember loving the movie. I'm not sure it I found it all that terrifying but I liked the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen next.

Okay, the evil plant book I read earlier this year doesn't have a lot to do with the communication-focused Loud As A Whisper, but, counterpoint, the plants whisper a lot because they are Evil. (They also graduate to screaming fairly quickly. But every evil plant has to start somewhere!)
#startreksummermay

Lovely morning, iced coffee, and #HPB sale - my long weekend is off to a pretty good start!

Book 43 woot woot this one I chose to read because of the Stephen King quote lol I haven‘t seen the movie but maybe I will after I read this 🤓

I found the pace slow, the plot predictable, and in the end a waste of time. I skipped many pages and it didn't even matter.

This was a book that my library recommended in my personalized reading list. I liked what the ancient horror is and its abilities. Would‘ve liked to learn more about how it came into being.

The most frightening part is there are real life people that are as idiotic as 4 of the 6.
I do think there are a few plot holes, so a 3/5 stars for me. #horror #idiotas

A decent enough horror novel that was way better than the films. It‘s hard to be frightened of a killer vine but the author did a good job building suspense and psychological threats. The book doesn‘t really do anything new but it is competent with the way it rolls over different tropes. The movie is absolute garbage though.

1) Science Fiction/Dystopia
2) Cormac McCarthy
3) The Road
4) Romance
5) Tagged. It‘s good enough, very suspenseful.
#HelloThursday @wanderinglynn

I give this book 5/5 Evil Hat Placements.

Nearly 200 pages in and the plants have only been vaguely sinister so far. The real horror? Failing to pack appropriately for a tropical hike!
(I am enjoying the book. I also muttered "Oh no" to myself when these fools barely brought any water.)

Next up: PLANTS 🌿🌴🌿
(Did I select it because its mass market paperback nature makes it easy to carry to work while I am having to shuttle in? Only the plants know!)

“It waits till we‘re weak before it reveals its strength.”

This book is wonderful. I don‘t know what people are talking about here who call this a B-list guilty pleasure or what not. The characters are amazingly distinct and their decisions make sense in the context of how they were brought up and who they are. It is tragic, brutal: both a compelling and literary existential horror story. I love this book. Don‘t let genre snobbery get the better of you.

I tried to read this book but I was so creeped out that I had to bail. For those who are less squeamish about such things, grab this #GoodreadsDailyDeal for #Kindle

I spent the first part of this story being (mildly) annoyed that I couldn't really tell the characters apart. But the tense survival atmosphere was fantastically written, especially since you already could tell as soon as they're stranded that it isn't going to end well for anybody.

My 3.5 year old has a pretty extreme speech delay and just recently started actively speaking and listening. He was pretty curious when I put my book among leave and when I explained I was trying to find a good picture because the book is about crazy plants, he wanted to help with a "gool" (cool) picture for the "gook". ?. So I give you Luca's handpicked cool picture spot.