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Title: The Ruins - SPOILERS
Review: This isn't the kind of story where the characters find themselves in an impossible situation but figure out ingenious ways to escape. Once the identity and properties of the mystery killer are revealed it's fairly obvious what's going to happen, and hopelessness runs through the tale-- things are bad, then worse, then worse still-- the killer is too smart, too lethal, too powerful for the (mostly unlikeable, immature, selfish, stupid) victims to overcome. I kept waiting for the problem-solving part of the story to kick in, but Smith bombards his characters with problems that cannot be solved-- threats from which they cannot possibly protect themselves-- and the inevitable carnage ensues.
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