This is a gothic coming of age story. The characters are awful. There is child abuse in the narrative. I don’t really have anything positive to say.

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

This was an okay read, i didn't love it but the action and drama was good for the most part. I felt that the characters were written fine but they lacked a little something to really make them stand out to me. I wish that this had gripped me more and was bit more of a fast paced read as this was too little of a slow burn overall for me. I liked what it did for the most part but it wasn't fully there.

I loved Madam by Pheobe Wynne so I held high expectations for The Ruins and it both met those expectations and didn't in different ways. In Madam there was a strong atmospheric gothic tine throughout and whilst The Ruins isn't in the same setting there was still an air of mystery and intrigue with Wynne's writing style that I thoroughly enjoyed because it sucked you into the story from the word go. The plot itself took more unearthing than I'd have liked, there was a question mark on what the mystery actually was until a considerable way through the book - although once it became clear I did see the connections and appreciated the approach. Characters are always a specialty of Wynne's work because not only are they well-rounded you find yourself having complex relationships with them as if they were real - sometimes I was convinced I'd never like a character but bit by bit Wynne changes your perception of them through their motives or underlying emotion - but that isn't to say she can't write an excellent villain.

The Ruins is a gothic novel about Ruby, a young woman holidaying in her family's home in France. However, underneath the glittering sun not is all as it appears and with the appearance of unexpected guests this summer will change things for ever.

I loved this slow burning, dark and gothic novel. Having loved Madam by Phoebe Wynne I eagerly await her next; 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

A mysterious lady - her identity will be discovered fairly late in the book - widowed, travels to the south of France, determined to buy the mansion that belonged to a rich English family, in which, little more than a child, she spent the summer that most influenced her life. The novel seesaws between past and present, between that summer so full of events and the present in which the woman finally manages to question what the events of that time led her to become. And it is incredible the progressive pressure that superficiality, hypocrisy, the inability to curb the most abject instincts, misogyny and indifference in the face of the most insidious paedophilia exerts on the reader as the story unfolds. Blood and death arrive, finally, welcome and liberating. A disturbing work in some ways that is hard to get out of your head.

Another books with unlikeable characters that were just forced to be unlikeable. I really tried to read this but I only managed to go through the first half of it. I had high hopes for this one as I have head that Madamm (the author's other book) was exquisite. Thank you Netgalley but this was not for me.

A very gripping book that covered may difficult topics in a sensitive and compelling manner. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

This book was certainly dark and I found myself not connecting to it as it wasnt what I was expecting. I did find it to be repetitive in places and found there was way too much characters to keep track of.

A great dual timeline thriller/drama that is also a coming of age story, touching down on very sensitive and difficult topics.

The pitch had me at French chateau, but Wynne's atmospheric writing delivered more than I could have hoped. The novel feels like living in a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, and is the perfect escape for upcoming winter evenings...

I had such high hopes for this book and although I was intrigued and kept reading it did sadly miss the mark for me.
The parents weren’t just unpleasant they were positively vile and their vitriol was incessant. It did become a little predictable.
I wanted to like this book but with the abuse and dislike of all the characters I did struggle.
I think Wynne is a superb writer and Madam was one of my favourites last year.
I’ll definitely be reading the next book and hope I love it more
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and share an honest review

Im not sure this book was exactly what I was expecting, it is very different in tone from Madam. Its told in two timelines, a 1985 French summer and 2010 when one of the summer guests comes to the same villa in their adult life.

I am the same age as the three girls in the book but their childhood felt so alien to me, the lack of parental affection or care, the burying of emotions and being a good guest, meek and polite to their elders - it was painful to read and so damaging to the girls. I wanted to know more about what made their mothers in particular tick, they were uniformly vile and uncaring - why? And the awful behaviour by the fathers too, each of them fighting for acceptance and bullying each other as they went, It felt more 1950s than 1980s to me- but looking at the author's notes, I guess that its more like what she experienced or heard about. I felt overwhelmingly sorry for the girls caught up with all of this horrendous atmosphere, money being thrown around at a rate of knots, but noone allowed to have fun or have any freedom.

Not a particularly pleasant read for all the reasons outlined - and the more recent storyline with the return to France was a bit bewildering, it was there to give closure to the events in the chateau but didnt really work for me, I would have been happy to have the story entirely set in 1985.
3.5 rounded up

I’ve not really heard anything about this one, and didn’t know much about it before going in, so I wasn’t sure what to expect really. I was left feeling a bit disappointed - it’s an extremely slow burn and not much seemed to happen for a long time. I did enjoy the writing, beautifully descriptive, but didn’t warm much to the story or characters.

After truly adoring Wynne's debut, Madam, I was beyond excited to have a chance to read this book.

This story is told in dual POV, one in 1985 and another 2010, as we slowly learn the story of what happened at a rural Chateau in France.

What this book does a really good job at, is create a very tangible sense of place, the reader can 100% picture exactly what this Chateau is like and the area that these events are taking place. We also haven't a really great sense of dread building as we know that something awful is going to happen but, beyond the author's note at the begin which gives us a small hint, we really have no idea of what unfolded that summer.

What I didn't enjoy so much was that the characters didn't feel too well defined. I felt like I had a really good sense of who the younger characters were and their insecurities but I had really difficulty with having a sense of who the older characters were and how they related to the younger characters. It somewhat took me out of the story that every time an older character was mentioned, I had to remind myself whose parent they were. This was particularly important given the themes throughout this story.

I also did not enjoy that a lot of the important things that happened that summer were told through implications and through subtext, I am not for a moment suggesting that anyone should have to explicitly detail these scenes but I just felt as though I was missing crucial bits of information. I can somewhat appreciate though that this could be a stylistic choice as these are young characters who can not fully name what is actually happened.

I went into this book with an expectation that the 2010 POV would be a lot more prevalent but this is a story almost completely set in 1985 with just a few flashes forward sprinkled throughout. This is not something that I have any strong feelings about one way or another but it obviously meant that this book was not quite what I was expecting.

What I really, really enjoyed about this book was that I didn't see the twists and turns coming as well as there being one particularly satisfying moment which was somewhat like an easter egg for those who have read Madam.

I think that this is a pretty well-crafted novel and I can definitely admit that this might not be the right read for just before sleep as it will require so level of concentration and that could have impacted my overall enjoyment.

Wynne is an incredibly gifted storyteller who is able to produce incredible gothic thrillers which fill the reader with the most amazing sense of dread and I am certainly looking forward to seeing what she produces next.

I found this difficult to follow. I don’t know if it was just me, but I just couldn’t get into the story at all.

I loved the setting of the French estate. And the atmosphere and descriptions were written so well, it came alive for me in my head.

It’s a very dark book, so if you’re sensitive to triggers like child abuse, I would give this one a miss.

The plot, for me, just didn’t work and unfortunately that’s shown in my rating.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

“The Ruins”. is billed as a gothic, feminist coming-of-age tale. I am not sure I would have used those words to describe this story. Especially 'gothic". However the book was very atmospheric in it's setting (a chateau in France). This was the type of book that creeps up on you. I wasn't sure I was going to throw in the towel or keep reading as I was finding the story difficult to get into, but the more I read the more invested I became. Nobody in this book is likable. The parents are atrocious. Even the three young girls (except maybe Annie) are unlikable. Yet there was something that drew me in and kept me reading. I needed to see how everything ended. I needed to see if these nasty people got what was coming to them. Overall i think this one deserves a solid thumbs up.

Readers should also be aware that there is sexual abuse of minors.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

This book won't be everyone's cup of tea (and that's not a criticism) I loved Phoebe's debut book Madam and loved the little nod to it in the end of this book.
It's well written. We are transported to the lush sun drenched France during the summer holidays. But it is far from idyllic and appearances can be deceiving.
This is an uncomfortable book to read, with the worst parents/adults in the world. But I really liked the child characters.

I really enjoyed - if enjoyed is the right word to use - this gripping novel about coming of age during a hot holiday in france and how one young woman's experience can have a ripple impact across friends and generations, in the most tragic of ways.

I found this a very powerful, moving read, that accurately depicts the way society treats and fetishises teenage girls - as if they are fully grown women, with no cognisance or recognition of the damage this does.

I couldn’t put The Ruins down! Phoebe Wynne takes a hugely difficult subject and lays it out for examination, all whilst incongruously setting the story in a beautiful French Chateax in the middle of a hot summer. It makes for a brilliant story and one that will stay with me for a long time.

• masterfully told using a dual timeline (1985 & 2010) to highlight the traumas of revisiting memories.
• at times an uncomfortable read for several reasons, but ultimately all as a result of the adult-child relationships.
• hedonistic, unlikeable characters (mostly the adults), but also bringing in the children & how the adults in their life shape them.
• set during a summer in France - therefore quite a few French phrases which I loved! (Easy enough to understand with basic French but also paraphrased in English afterwards usually)
• offers insight into the world of the rich & corrupt
• a little treat at the end in the form of a link to the author’s first novel, Madam!

In my opinion, The Ruins is an absolute must-read this summer!

Thank you @quercusbooks for sending me one of my most-anticipated books of 2022! It did not disappoint!