Thicket (novel)

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Thicket is the second novel by the American author Scott Smith . The thriller first appeared in the United States in June 2006 under the title The Ruins . In 2007 the German-language first edition appeared in the translation by Christine Strüh .

The book became an international bestseller. In Germany it was on the bestseller list of the news magazine Der Spiegel for several weeks .

Brief summary

The four young American tourists Jeff, Eric, Stacy and Amy are on their vacation in Mexico on a trip to an archaeological site near Cobá . You will be accompanied by the German Matthias and the Greek Pablo. Matthias wants to look for his missing brother there. On the way to the excavation site, they are advised not to visit it several times. They encounter two men from a neighboring Maya tribe in front of the hill on which they suspect some archaeologists have camped. You want to keep the group off the hill first; but when Amy accidentally steps into it, she and her companion are chased up the hill.

The group is looking for a way out, as the hill below is surrounded by the Maya. They find a heap overgrown by a plant, which is the bones of Matthias' brother. The plant, a tendril, grows almost everywhere on the hill. You hear a ringing from an excavation shaft. Pablo lets himself be abseiled immediately. Halfway through, the rope he is hanging on breaks and he falls from a great height. He injured himself badly. Stacy and Eric free him, with Eric pulling an open wound on his leg.

The next morning, Pablo's leg is half eaten by the tendril and it is also overgrown by Eric's wound. This is the first time the group gets to know the special abilities of the tendril. Not only can it perceive food, it can also move. Because of the risk of infection, Jeff and Matthias decide to amputate Pablo's leg. This is already paralyzed from the back and therefore does not feel any pain during the operation.

The tourists have very little food, especially water, which is particularly unsettling among Amy, Stacy and Eric. You get drunk on Pablo's tequila. After an argument with Jeff, Amy is found suffocating the next morning. Eric continues to be tormented by the booms of the plant in his knee, believing it has spread throughout his body.

While Matthias on watch is briefly distracted, Pablo is also suffocated by the plant. Jeff tries to escape a little later and is shot by the Mayas.

Matthias removes some tendrils from Eric's body that have actually spread there. Eric thinks this is not enough and mutilates himself madly with a knife. When trying to take this away from him, Matthias is stabbed in the stomach and dies. Eric begs to be killed, and Stacy brings herself to stab him.

When she is alone on the hill, she gives up hope of rescue and cuts her wrists.

action

The book is primarily about four young Americans: Amy, Jeff, Stacy and Eric, in their early to mid- twenties, who want to go on a typical beach vacation in Cancun , Mexico . They get to know Matthias, a tourist from Germany who is also on vacation with his brother. In addition, they make the acquaintance of three Greeks who have given themselves the (probably wrong) Spanish names Pablo, Don Quixote and Juan.

Matthias brother Henrich has disappeared, which Matthias explains to his new acquaintance as follows: Henrich met a woman on the beach who is an archaeologist by profession and wanted to follow her to a Mayan excavation. The brothers got into an argument about this plan, and when Matthias woke up the next morning his brother had disappeared. He had left a map that marked the way to the excavation sites to which Henrich had set out. Henrich has not seen anyone since. In search of some excitement and variety, the four friends decide to accompany their new acquaintance Matthias there in search of his brother. Everyone is assuming that they will meet Henrich on the same day or the following day at the latest and be able to bring him back to the hotel in good time before his and Matthias' departure. They are also hoping for an adventure. On the way to the exit of the hotel they run into Pablo, one of the Greeks. He joins the group of five and leaves his two friends a copy of Henrich's self-painted map, in the hope that the two of them will follow them when they return from a fishing trip.

On the way to the excavation sites by bus, taxi and finally on foot, there are some unusual and frightening incidents in the jungle for the protagonists. First, on the way to Cobá, Stacy's hat and sunglasses are stolen from two young boys. When they set off for the jungle in a taxi, a dog on the back of the taxi scares them. Once at the destination, the driver makes strange hints about the path and describes it to Amy as “not good”. Nevertheless, they set off into the thicket, still hoping to find Matthias' brother with his new "love" at the Mayan archaeological site. The destination is shown as a cross on the hand-painted map and is said to be about 11 miles from Cobá near a Mayan village. The six friends set off through the jungle. When they reached the Maya village, according to the map, they walked too far, but on the way could not find a path that could lead to the excavation. The Mayans themselves turn out to be unfriendly and dismissive, they seem unwilling to communicate.

The six decide to examine the way back more closely and are followed by two boys on bicycles. At the edge of the path you will find the entrance, which was also marked on the map, hidden with a few sheets of paper, as if someone wanted to block this path. The friends clear the undergrowth out of the way and walk through another piece of jungle until they finally arrive in a clearing.

You suddenly notice how some Mayans are standing around the hill in the clearing and try to keep the six friends away from the hill. The two boys on the bike must have called the Mayans. Amy pulls out her camera and wants to take a picture of the five in the clearing together, but when she tries to get all five into the picture she comes into contact with a vine on the hill. Now the Mayans do not want to stop them from going up the hill, they rush the six friends with their bows up the hill.

The friends withdraw to the hill. Once at the top you will find two abandoned tents. There are rucksacks and sleeping bags in the tents. The tendril plant had also already spread in the tents and the six realize that the hill must have been deserted for a long time. The tendril has spread over the entire hill. It has large "hand-shaped leaves" and large and small "blood-red flowers".

The six discover the excavation pit, the depth of which cannot be estimated from above. Inside it is very dark and there is a regular flow of cold air from the pit. Jeff discovers a heap overgrown by the vine a little further down the hill. It looks like the tendril is tinkering with something there. Matthias and Jeff walk down the hill in the direction of the clearing to the tangle of tendrils, but the Mayans immediately draw bows and arrows and point them at the American and the German. But they don't shoot, but watch Matthias bend down to pick up the tendrils and try to remove them. Immediately they notice a sneaker, then the tennis sock and the corresponding shin. You untangle the tendrils and a skeleton appears. The corpse's skin has been completely eaten off, only tendons and bones are left. Matthias immediately recognizes his brother in the corpse.

Amy, Jeff, Eric, Matthias, Pablo, and Stacy gather up on the hill by the tents next to the pit. The group hears a cell phone ringing from the pit. Pablo goes to the pit and looks inside. He pretends to be on the phone. The rest gathers around the shaft. You know: the noise comes from below. Next to the pit there is a rope hoist, the rope still rolled up. Pablo hangs the rope under his armpits and wants Matthias and Jeff to let him down. Jeff and Matthias let the Greek into the pit, but halfway down Jeff yells that he should be pulled up again because Jeff notices that a tendril is snaking along the rope and the rope with its sap is loosening it. But it's too late: A few seconds later, Pablo hits the bottom of the pit with a thud and begins to scream.

The friends decide to free Pablo from the pit. Jeff and Matthias pull the rope out of the pit and check it for cracks. With the help of one of the tents they make an extension for the missing piece of rope and Eric is chosen to go down into the pit. Eric pulls the rope under his armpits and Jeff and Matthias let him down into the pit. The rope doesn't reach the bottom of the pit and Eric jumps the last bit into the darkness. He lands on Pablo and injures his knee with a sharp piece of glass - an open wound. Eric examines Pablo and notices that he probably broke his spine in the fall. Jeff and Matthias start to build a stretcher for the injured Greek from the tent poles and the remains of the tarpaulin. While the first day is drawing to a close, Eric waits in the pit. The others decide that Amy should be lowered into the pit with the stretcher, as Eric cannot lift the Greek onto the stretcher on his own. Eric and Amy rescue Pablo from the pit and are pulled out of the pit one by one.

Matthias and Jeff build a shelter for Pablo because he can no longer hold his excrement due to his paraplegia. They put the Greek, who has now passed out, into the shelter. The night has gone on and the rest of them come up with a plan for how to proceed. Jeff takes over the leadership of the group, he divides food and drink and makes a plan about the night watch with Pablo. One should stay with the Greek, the others should lie down in the remaining tent. The smell of barbecue pervades the air while the Mayans cook over a campfire down on the hill. The friends take turns with the night watch. Matthias takes over the last shift before dawn. As he inspects Pablo's legs, he screams and the others, apart from Eric, run out of the tent. The tendril ate the flesh off Pablo's shins that night. Tendons and bones are bare below the knees, but the Greeks are still alive. Amy takes a closer look at the Greek's legs and vomits. When the vomit hits the floor, a huge branch of the tendril snakes up and begins to suck up the vomit. At that moment, Eric calls for help from the tent. He shouts that the plant is in him and that a knife should be brought to him. Stacy goes back into the tent and sees Eric lying on the sleeping bag on the floor. The plant has bored into the open wound below his knee and is already penetrating him deeper. Together they pull the plant out of Eric's leg through the open cut, but Eric doesn't believe that this was the only piece in his body and tries to convince the others that the plant is still in him.

Hoping that Pablo's friends Juan and Don Quixote will come and save them, the friends try to come up with a common plan: someone should keep watch down the hill and Jeff rations food and drink so they can survive a few days. All work that has to be done is distributed among those who remain. The most serious problem is Pablo's legs. The friends fear that he might die of an infection. Jeff got the idea to amputate his legs. The friends vote and Matthias and Jeff get to work. The Greek faints again and does not notice anything of the work below his knees, he keeps waking up and screaming, but cannot really express himself.

Little by little the friends realize that they have little chance of survival, Pablo's friends would not come. And even if it did, it would be too late. In the meantime, the plant learns new skills. It imitates the mobile phone noise from the pit and distributes the scents of freshly baked or grilled food in the air. She can even imitate voices and thus incite friends against each other.

Jeff and Amy start arguing about the amputation of Pablo's legs, and the plant incites them against each other. Amy sits down on the ground a little way off the hill and pouts. Jeff watches her but thinks she just wants pity. But that's a mistake, because Amy is fighting for her life against the tendrils, and Matthias finds her dead the next morning. She suffocated, the plant had grown in her mouth.

Pablo dies next. The plant grabs both corpses and eats its way through their flesh. Eric still has the feeling that part of the plant is in him, which is why Matthias and Jeff operate on him and cut the tendrils out of his body. Jeff has the next shift down on the hill and tries to escape, but he is discovered by the Mayans, and an arrow hits him in the neck and pierces him. The plant also grabs his body and pulls him back up the mountain.

Only Matthias, Stacy and Eric are left. When Eric finally wants to remove the plant from his body and mutilates himself massively, Matthias tries to take the knife away from him. He dies of a stab wound. Stacy and Eric are now alone on the hill, Eric still feels that the plant is in him and asks Stacy for his death. Stacy then rams a knife into his chest. After Eric's corpse has been removed from the plant, Stacy takes the last bottle of tequila from the Greek's backpack, takes the knife smeared with blood and sits down on the hill just in front of the Mayans.

Stacy realizes that the Mayans know that only she is still alive. The Mayans were already tidying up their things and slowly starting to leave. Stacy takes a long swig from the tequila bottle and cuts his wrists. While she is bleeding to death, her body is being dragged up the hill from the plant. After all the invaders are dead, the Mayans withdraw to their village.

Epilogue: On the third day, Pablo's friends, the Greeks, come. They had met three Brazilians on the way and went to look for Pablo together. Completely fascinated by the splendor of the tendril, they too walk across the clearing up the hill and call for Pablo, but receive no answer.

expenditure

filming

The book was written by the US director Carter Smith titled Ruins (Engl. Ruins ) filmed and came in June 2008 in German cinemas. The film received mixed reviews, while Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter described the premise as "silly", James Berardinelli praised it as "good psychological horror".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Ruins , Review by Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter ( June 9, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed July 31, 2008
  2. ^ Review by James Berardinelli on reelviews.net , accessed July 31, 2008

Web links