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Title: Ruined!
Review: Scott Smith does a decent job of setting-up the premise and creating some palpable suspense. However, the novel is ruined by having not one likable character. These punk kids are all trapped on this mysterious Mexican hill in the middle of nowhere and home to some man-eating vines, and quite frankly, you don't really care what happens to them. The book goes nowhere, full of red-herrings, and some mildly interesting details (like the second-mind shaft or the story of the archaeologists) that never lead to anything. The storyline becomes very repetative and is only good for a few laughs during the well-written gross-out sections. Otherwise, Smith's novel is a huge disaster.
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