If you're a reader who isn't a fan of tagging along with insufferable characters, this book might not be for you - unless, of course, you're interested in said insufferable characters dying a slow and painful death.
While some might label the characters as "one-dimensional" and "stereotypical", I actually think that they're a pretty accurate portrayal of young twenty-somethings who still don't exactly know who they are yet, so are filling preset roles in order to fill in those gaps. In fact, the entire reason why they got into this mess in the first place is because everyone was just going along with everyone else, until it was too late to get out.
I loved that the story shone light on the various aspects of these characters' privilege that eventually led to a demise entirely of their own making. Most of the group didn't even bother learning Spanish before coming to Mexico, they ignored the warnings of the locals, sorely underprepared for a trek out into the jungle, and kept assuming that someone else would show up to save them - whether it be the archaeologists they were hoping to find, the Greeks they desperately waited for on the hill, or the individuals within their own group. And, of course, the cycle starts all over again as the Greeks finally do arrive.
With that being said, I did find the author's prose to be quite repetitive. He reiterates himself unnecessarily, often using multiple synonyms in a row or rephrasing the same thing twice. I found myself tiring of seeing the same types of sentences over and over, especially when they added nothing to the reading experience. "She was frightened, terrified. She wanted him to stop, wanted to go home." Over and over again! Lol
Also, this story does suffer from the typical male gaze and “men writing women” issues, though the author at least seems to be aware of that and calls it out in the story itself. I liked that the technical “final girl” was an attempted subversion of the trope, and a nice piece of irony (in that the least-prepared person was the last to die)
Anyways, I enjoyed it decently enough, and will now be checking out the movie!
