I love an atmospheric location, especially one that involves a mysterious house. The Ruins seemed like an obvious draw to me. However, I struggled to get engaged with the story or to keep track of the many characters. When I felt stalled, I read some reviews, and the content warnings confirmed that this isn't a fit for me.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick. I just reviewed The Ruins by Phoebe Wynne. Our library purchased and our patrons have been checking out and and enjoying the book. I see it is a popular book club choice as well we hope to have more oppurtinies to support authors like Phoebe Wynne

"For all the women and girls who were made to sit on men's laps without wanting to - and still remember it."
So reads the dedication page of THE RUINS. Following on the heels of MADAM, Phoebe Wynne returns to the realm of 80s British aristocracy to tease out another plot thick with secrets and dark intentions.

First, I want to be very clear about something, you need to read the content warning of this book. While I had a good idea of the scenarios I would encounter in this story, I could not have foreseen how they would conjure questionable memories and situations. Be kind to yourself and read at your own comfort level.

In THE RUINS, Wynne takes readers away from the misty Scottish coast to the French Riviera in the height of summer. Holding true to the themes set in her first novel, readers are tossed into a privileged world largely unrecognizable. Our main character is 12-year-old Ruby Ashby who is spending the summer at her parent’s chateau in Saint-Tropez while they host a rotating cast of friends from their university days. Ruby is just old enough to beginning picking up on the more adult themes of the grown-up conversations around her. This is thrown into sharp relief when readers are introduced to the other pre-teen and teenage female characters surrounding Ruby this summer. Their collective experiences run the full gamut of the coming-of-age spectrum. Wynne gracefully tackles and executes a complex tale about sexual awakenings, confusing and inappropriate situations, and ultimately, agency.

I only have two complaints about this book. The first is the inclusion of the B-narrative told from an unknown narrator for most of the book set in 2010. I didn’t feel like this back and forth between this character and Ruby in the 1980s and served the overall story or enhanced the mystery. In fact, it detracted from it. This was a painfully slow story to get into. The characters were difficult to keep straight (all the adults are neglectful and horrible) and the motivations behind some of the actions were weirdly obtuse. I imagine this is because we are seeing events through Ruby’s eyes, but it made for distracted reading.

I also would not qualify this as a Gothic tale. There is a house with a past that holds sour memories, but some of the other key elements of Gothic lit fell flat for me. While the sunny atmosphere didn’t help exactly, it also didn’t hurt it. The looming danger didn’t seem integral to the location or seeped into the foundation of the building, but rather the “evil” was from those living casting shadows in doorways. The setting could have been anywhere, the house didn’t need to have a past, as the real horror of this story can happen anytime and anywhere. This might be a quibble and those more versed in the genre can come talk to me, but I retain my reservations.

Overall, I think Wynne is an author I can rely on to make me look long, hard, and inward at the darkness at the heart of her characters and for that I am grateful.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Ruins is a novel that blends mystery with feminist themes. While the novel was intriguing , I found it to be sluggish many times and had difficulty finishing the book.

This book was a haunting psychological thriller. It made me uncomfortable, which could be a good or bad thing as far as books go. I didn’t feel the description accurately portrayed the book.

I was so excited to read this one because I absolutely LOVED Madam.

I thought I was getting a Gothic coming-of-age thriller type story. Instead, it was a book with absolutely terrible parents who did not at any point give a shit about their children - who were repeatedly sexually abused by the creepy-as-fuck dads.

Ruby and her family are spending August at their chateau in France, something they've done all of Ruby's life. They've come from England, as have some of her parents friends, who bring their daughters as well. To say they are wealthy is an understatement, and they all spend August being absolutely horrible to one another. The girls are abused, or all but abandoned as their parents do whatever they want without thinking of their children.

The story is told in two timelines, the main story taking place in 1985 and then the secondary one taking place in 2010. Honestly, 2010 was totally unnecessary, except to show how the trauma followed those girls throughout the rest of their lives. Otherwise, it added nothing to the book. The timeline felt very strange, as though the events in 1985 actually happened much earlier, and the events of 2010 could've happened in the 80s. It all just felt very weird and off.

There is a mystery, somewhat, but with all the secrets everyone had, it was still quite dull. The parents were always drunk and so many scenes took place during dinner, and everyone was just awful. All the time. It was never-ending.

I think of course this was not meant to be an enjoyable book, given the contents, but it was somehow disjointed and there was a disconnect I just can't put my finger on. I don't want to say it was the writing style, because I loved Madam so much and the style wasn't all that different.

Maybe part of it could be that I did not and could not connect to any of the characters. This is not a bad thing when considering how terrible all the adults are, some of whom seemed to actively hate their children, but the same is true for the girls. There was no connection and they were not always terribly nice either.

Obviously the story can not end well and comes to a rather violent conclusion. Many of the parents are old friends from college and over the course of the story it becomes very obvious that there are some simmering resentments and all sorts of terrible things just below the surface.

I will not spoil it, because I do think that others may like the book more than I do. And honestly, maybe I had this one built up so big in my head because I did love Madam so much.

Cautiously recommended, but if you really liked her previous book, temper your expectations.

This book made me wildly uncomfortable.

The main storyline takes place at a chateau in France in the 1980s. We follow a young girl named Ruby as she is exposed to countless abuses from a predatory friend of her father to neglect by her parents.

This book offered very little resolution and I thought about DNF-ing several times. I wish there had been more development of the mysteries surrounding the chateau, and some justice for the young women who were subjected to truly horrible behavior by the adults in their lives. Unfortunately, there was no justice to be found. I can't say that I recommend this book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow burn and in none of the ways that keep you engaged and wanting to read more. I realize this was meant to be a sharp look at elite, pampered adults who take what they want when they want it with no consequence but the way in which this dragged on left me wholly not invested in the outcome.
I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I read this one and kept giving up on it, kept trying but for some reason it just did not draw me in. So this was a DNF (Do Not Finish) for me.
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I enjoyed this novel but some things seemed “off” to me and I hated that the adults were always fighting. It was an interesting story however and I’m happy to have read it.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was good but has a slow burn to it. It just wasn't fast paced enough for me but some people enjoy that kind of book.

Who doesn't love a good book set in France? The locale was a lot of fun but the book wasn't. I did find it a little difficult to get into because all of the adult characters were uniformly horrible. I thought it was going more of a mystery or something along those lines but it was really about awful people, child abuse, and weird traditional life. It was difficult to read and seemed sort of gratuitous or meant to be shocking which was offputting. It felt sort of cheap.

I loved the Gothic/Du Marier feel that this book gave and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I would highly recommend!

This wasn't my favorite, but I am a picky reader. I think other readers will enjoy it, and this is an obvious addition to the collection.

Unfortunately, I have been locked out of my netgalley account for a few months and was not able to see which books I had on my list or even know to check if they downloaded properly, in order to properly read and review. I do apologize and am doing a 3 for neutral. Will update once I’m able to obtain a copy and read!

I like Wynne’s debut, Madam, so I was interested in checking out her sophomore effort. And well…what a disappointment. Not just a dud, not just a read that dismays, but the one that actively causes disgust. (more on that later). I’d love to be able to say that you can see the traces of Madam in here and that the book merely missed something, but that would be a lie. Because this obnoxious, tedious, pretentious stab at a murder thriller is a sad excuse and a waste of talent/promise, etc.
Yeah, sorry, this is harsh, but the thing is, I hated this book. In concept more so than in the execution, meaning objectively Wynne CAN write, she just needs stronger stories.
Meaning, a tale of a bunch of young girls vacationing with their utter disgusting parents and family friends isn’t that strong of a story.
Sure, Wynne dragged it out into one, but she did so by selecting the nastiest aspects of it and dragging it out into a very specific brand of tedium.
And now, for some specifics: this is a book about child abuse. (And no, I’m not one of those squeamish readers who only wants tales from the sunny side of life; fact is, I usually prefer the other kind, but…) The adults in this story are TERRIBLE.
You have three male friends from way back and their respective families, wives, kids, all of it. All are wealthy English, vacationing in the French chateau belonging to one of them. And yes, it’s set back in the mid 80s and yes, the British are notoriously withholding and polite and all that, but at least one of the adults exhibits active peado behaviour, molesting girl after girl, often in plain view of others, including the kids’ parents and no one says Boo, or if they do, it’s barely a reprimand, more like…Oh, you. It’s just him being himself, etc. And this goes on and on and ON.
The bulk of the story takes place in the past and that’s most of the past.
Adults bicker, fight, and misbehave and kids cower in terror of them. On repeat. Yey, what fun, Wynne, what fun.
And while Wynne can indeed write, here she very deliberately chooses a very tedious, poshly pretentious tone of the upstairs portion of the upstairs/downstairs dynamic that makes the novel read like something decades and decades older than it is.
The overall effect is obnoxious (stupid?), like teens who dye their hair grey.
Also, because of all the childrens’ perspectives, the novel reads oddly young at the same time.
And slow, so very slow. Same thing repeat over and over, after we long established the adults are perverts, and the kids are playing out their own dramas that read like BBC historical tv series at their most drawn-out and maudlin.
This entire novel is a stuck up fifth digit holding up a starched crisp serviette. Affected pretension personified. With not enough of a story to excuse itself. Infuriating. Slow. Frustrating. Waste of time. Pass. Thanks Netgalley.

It’s August, 1985 in the south of France and young Ruby Ashby is not enjoying the summer at her beloved chateau. Following a music camp, several of her parents’ friends arrive (some with other children) and the whole feel of the place Ruby usually loves best is off.

The parents are caught up in their own dramas and behaviour, leaving the youngsters to their own devices in general, although the abuse (physical, emotional and sexual) of the young girls is very hard to read.

As time goes on, tension builds between the families as past events and the present collide resulting in a shocking event.

Part of the story takes place twenty years later when one of the youngsters from that summer, despite her memories of that shocking time, returns to consider buying the chateau, now abandoned and for sale. But there’s someone else from the past there as well who may challenge her purchase plans.

I found this story started slowly and I almost quit reading it, but once the author had the groundwork in place, the pace picked up, the tension increased, and my need to know what would happen next kept pace with it. This is not a light read, but the author builds the psychological tension well and makes you want to know how it will all end.

Incredibly well written, but very difficult subject matter. For some reason I thought this would be a mystery. It's more of a coming of age story in a very difficult time. This book needs many trigger warnings: abusive parents, alcohol abuse, neglected children, physical and sexual abuse, I think many people may find this book shocking, but you see stuff like this all the time in the real world. It was hard to read at times, but overall I would recommend it to my bestie.

Fan of the gothic atmosphere? This book is for you. Sooooo dark. I don't know how Phoebe Wynne does it, but I loooove the dark, and this was dark. The story seemed a bit drug out for me, but I still really liked the plot. It was a very interesting group of characters that you just loved to hate--which I love.

I chose this book based on the description. I wondered whether I would like a contemporary Gothic tale, and what made it Gothic and contemporary. I will say that I had a bit of trouble getting rolling with this story. It wasn’t the story’s fault. I was resisting the pull of the intrigue of the events at the open of the book. But I finally succumbed and was not disappointed.

The author created a solid environment for the reader. The story was interesting and had a touch of glamor, a hint of reality, and the strength of a fascinating plot. A summer holiday in a beautiful, historic home, and yet the writer somehow makes us aware that things are not as nice as they seem to be. By the end we discover a picture of the atmosphere we’ve been traveling through, and it is surprising… or not? I truly enjoyed this contribution from Phoebe Wynne. I will certainly be on the lookout for more of her work. As for contemporary Gothic? I like it, and you’ll have to discover for yourself what makes it Gothic and contemporary.

A copy of The Ruins by Phoebe Wynne was provided to me by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an honest review.