A day at the beach sounds pretty damn good right about now. I don’t know about you, but where I am there’s currently a heat wave. What would you rather deal with: extreme heat, or aliens?

Because in Black Tide by K. C. Jones, it’s not a dreamy beach getaway. While that’s what Beth might have envisioned when she sighed up to house sit for a family who live right on a beautiful ocean-view lot, what she got was a horrific fight for survival, where her only ally is Mike, the dude next door she just wanted a one-night stand with.

Instead, they end up stranded on the beach in what can only be described as War of the Worlds meets A Quiet Place. If you’re a fan of either of those, you’re going to want to pick up this book. It has:

✨ Messy characters
👽 Alien creatures
🐶 The goodest dog, Jake
😱 Gore, blood, and severed bodies
💕 A desperate need for human connection
💪 And an unwavering fight for survival

I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect from this book, but holy shit, once the story start it just kept going! It’s an incredibly fast-paced book that could easily be read in a single sitting (especially if you’re like me and need to know what the hell is going on!). The characters are stubborn, but so are the terrifying creatures that have landed on Earth, and they’re all willing to do whatever they have to in order to survive. This book is such a trip!

Thank you so much Tor Nightfire for sending me a digital copy of this book to read and review via NetGalley. I gave 4 stars to this cosmic horror story, and would love to see it adapted for film.

Black Tide by K. C. Jones came out on May 31, 2022 and can be purchased wherever books are sold.

TRIGGER WARNING: animal violence
This story starts with two strangers meeting and hooking up for the night. During the night a meteor shower occurs and that's when things start to take a turn. I knew this book was horror and it did not disappoint. This is exactly what I expect when reading horror. It had the unknown, it had monsters and it had the tide. The storyline itself was very unique to me and I was on the edge of my seat for the majority of this story. I read this story months ago and I still frequently think about it. I'd recommend you give it a try!
Thank you NetGalley for the advance arc copy!

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read Black tide by KC Jones. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It started out ok, but I soon found myself constantly putting it down and picking up another book to read. I just couldn't get into the story. I didn't like the characters, and the plot just didn't thrill me.

Interesting concept combining science fiction with the supernatural. Apparitions or humans - which are the most deadly? The reader will be engaged in this thriller till the very end.

I used to think that surviving the apocalypse at a lakeside retreat wouldn't be too bad, but K.C. Jones may have changed my mind thanks to his Black Tide.

Beth's life is a bit of train-wreck, and if it weren't for her job as a house-sitter she'd likely be homeless. She'd also likely be alone at the end of the world if not for her impulsive decision to get to know the neighbor better. Martin is a movie producer and widower, staying at his lakeside Oregon home with the intent of killing himself until Beth makes his acquaintance. Their (presumably) one-night stand lasts longer than expected after an enormous meteor shower radically alters the world. They head to the beach to investigate and discover loads of people attempting to flee by boat, and a cop warning everybody to return home before disappearing in the dunes. Invisible monsters lurk the beach, strange creatures hang in the air, and the only safe place is inside Martin's car. Too bad they lost the keys to get it started in all the commotion...

Black Tide asks a question I wasn't aware needed asking, but I'm glad Jones thought of it and sat down to hammer out this story with this inquiry: What if Cujo had been a cosmic horror/alien invasion story instead of a rabid dog, and what if instead of a rabid dog it was a pack of six-legged hellhounds (Beth names them shriekers, but since they stay mostly invisible, and because I'm a fan of Supernatural, I couldn't help but think of them as hellhounds) keeping people trapped in their car?

Jones's ideas here makes for a nifty twist on a familiar premise, and he keeps the narrative taught and tense. This is an apocalypse by way of Murphy's Law, where anything that can go wrong for Beth and Martin absolutely, positively, 100% most certainly will - and does! - go wrong. Each subsequent setback these two face permeates the story with a growing sense of dread and claustrophobic isolation that drives them, and readers, into a sense of bleak hopelessness.

My only complaint - and it's a spoiler - is that Jones failed to really lean into this hopelessness in the book's climax. I was craving a downbeat, pitch-black ending. After all the shit Beth and Martin go through, I really wanted something dark and terrible, something truly personally apocalyptic for them to drive home this sense that escape was impossible, that humanity was doomed, that the planet was no longer ours. I wanted Jones to absolutely destroy me. Instead we get the not quite but almost Hollywood happy ending where readers are given a sugary measure of hope that everything's going to be OK. Not every story needs a happy ending. Not every story deserves a happy ending, and I think that giving Beth and Martin an upbeat finale ultimately makes it a less interesting narrative. Black Tide hums along just fine for most of its page count, but if Jones had good and truly committed to the bit and given us a ballsier, darker, more desolate ending this book could have been positively unforgettable. Instead, it ends on a pat cliche.

The majority of Black Tide, though, works - and it works supremely well. Jones continually ratchets up the suspense and tension by keeping the story fraught with peril, and I consistently found myself on edge wondering what Beth and Martin would try next, and what would go disastrously wrong. Black Tide is an auspicious debut, and I'm very keen to see what Jones does next.

Black tide was the book to get me out of my reading slump. Nonstop from beginning to end that will leave wanting more. It reminded me of 'A Quiet Place' , an excellent blend of sci-fi and horror

Beth is enjoying the beach as she house and dog sits for a client. She could never afford to live on this stretch of the Oregon coast so she's enjoying it while she can. Then she catches a glimpse of the 40-something man next door.....a bit of flirting...a few glances.....and they are enjoying a one-night-stand together. But, that night, something happens that turns it into so much more than a fling between strangers....

What looked like a meteor shower or maybe a comet passing through the sky the night before was so much more. Soon Mike, Beth and a dog named Jake are fighting for their lives against all sorts of completely terrifying monsters.

I love sci-fi horror! Movies, books, audio....I don't care what format....just love scary sci-fi tales. I had lots of different reactions to this story. The strongest was probably my constant inner monologue of: nothing had better happen to the dog, they had better protect the dog, how is jake, etc So, I have to admit that my favorite character in the book was, of course, the dog. I admit it. Not sorry. (and no, I will not tell you if the dog made it through to the end ok). My second was reaction was complete sympathy and horror for the plight of the main characters. I can't imagine being stranded in a car on the beach inside a car......with a complete shit show going on all around. And that reaction led me to thinking that this story would make an excellent movie!

I started out reading an ebook arc of this story, but then switched to the audiobook. For some reason I find horror stories more frightening if I'm listening to them. The audio book is almost 9 hours long and is narrated by John Pirhalla and Sophie Amoss. I was unfamiliar with both narrators but will definitely be looking for other audio books narrated by both! Both did a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life.

I hope KC Jones writes more of the same. I really enjoyed this story. The characters are quirky, interesting and relatable. The dog is awesome. And the situation was crazy creepy! Very entertaining. I enjoyed it!

**I voluntarily read an ebook arc from Macmillan/Tor-Forge and an audiobook from Macmillan Audio. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. I apologize to my readers and the publishers for the lateness of this review. I just made a 1500 mile move for a new job and it put me behind on writing and reviews. Things are returning to normal now, and reviews will return to always timely.**

Black Tide by K.C. Jones is an pulse pounding alien invasion science fiction thriller. This book is pretty non stop on the danger. Most of the book takes place in one setting a car. This book reminded me on part Stephen King's novella The Mist and one part Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer with a lot of the Kevin Bacon movie Tremors in there. The story is told in three narratives which is pretty good but a little unnecessary when in the same car. The novel is all about the characters at the beginning then when the world gets chaotic the narrative goes away for a pretty long while, too long in my opinion. I did not care for most of the front half of this novel , but I really enjoyed the second half. This novel has almost two ending, you have a moment when you think the action is done for another danger to pop up. The ending was good and I was satisfied. My biggest issue was lack descriptions, a big chuck of the first half is confusion, and it was confusion with bad descriptions which made this reader even more confused. The second half the descriptions got better when the character no what they're looking for. I read Black Tide thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire. Black Tide by K. C. Jones was published on May 31 2022.

Plot Summary: Beth is house sitting and dog sitting as she gets her life together on the coast. She spots a extremely quite neighbor Mike that looks miserable. Beth takes his picture with him not aware, she wasn't even told about a neighbor. She see's him drinking Champaign alone and kind sort of invites herself over by making jokes he's a killer. The drinking and getting to know each other goes well they end up spending the night together. They each have insane crazy nightmares and find the houses power went out, which something in both their dreams. They find a black bowling ball like thing they each have never seen before but think it must be a meteorite , Mike takes it from the shore to the house and feels a shock to his hands. They go to the public beach and see more meteorites and the world turn ugly, horses running in terror, people start disappearing before their eyes. Mike and Beth haven't known each other long but they're trapped in the car from an unknown prey stalking them that seems otherworldly.

What I Liked: The second half when they find out about the creatures coming to kill them. We finally get a good description on the creatures. I liked all the different creature and that they are a part of nature and don't just want to kill humans, but each other. I loved the two instances of rising action when we the reader can catch our breath and then the next action comes and we realize the characters can't not help. I liked most of the beginning dialogue and the breakdown of how broken they really are in the tide. I like how the title Black Tide was worked into the story and what it means. I liked when we finally get a really good character moment at the end, since this book is more react to the action then have a conversation, but it was welcomed a little too late but it was good. I did like the narrative of the third person which comes at the end.

What I Disliked: After the good 30 pages of decent dialogue, we get a whole lot a of confusion for 125 pages. I don't mind confusion with good descriptions, but it felt like someone was spinning in a chair describing what was going on it was very confusing. on the plus I could feel the tension even though the character's would not focus on anything for more than a second. Beth and Mike are not that likable, I finally started to like them towards the end when they finally have a conversation that's not them freaking out. The action descriptions are hard to follow where everyone is, there's a part where the character are in the tide, and it made me feel that the were really far out to not actually being that far out.

Recommendation: This is a really tough one I like parts a lot but loathed others. I think if your in the mood for mindless action then this book is full of it. If you want and need characterization in your action then this is not for you. I wanted a lot more characterization and can not recommend this book fully. Some will like it more than others. I rated Black Tide by K. C. Jones 3 out of 5 stars.

Black Tide was the first in a series of books I had seen on other blogs that I wanted to read. So, like everyone else, I added it to Goodreads and prayed to the book gods that I got an invite. The book gods blessed me because I got every single book I had put on my Want to Read list. I was pretty stoked about getting it and couldn’t wait to read it. I am glad I did because this book scared the everliving out of me!!

Black Tide is a fast-moving horror story on the Oregon coast. Beth is a woman who has gone through a lot but is turning her life around. She is pet sitting for a wealthy couple and enjoying it. Then one night, she meets Mike. Mike owns the house next door and is a bit of a mystery. When Beth sees him drinking champagne on the deck of his house, she invites herself over. That turns into a drunken one-night stand with Beth having a strange, almost vivid dream and Mike witnessing a meteor shower like none he had seen before. When Beth wakes up, Mike is on the beach with Jake (the dog she is pet sitting), and Mike has disturbing news. There is no power, and he cannot get a hold of anyone over the phone. He also has a strange pod on the beach that turned up (along with several others). Deciding to leave and try to find a person of authority who knows what is going on, they drive until they find a bunch of people parked on the beach and the road. What happens next is almost unbelievable, and Beth drops the keys to the car in a rush to get out—stranded and with high tide coming in, Mike and Beth need to figure something out fast before they end up like the people with them on the beach. What happened on the beach? Will they get out? Will they find out what happened?

I very rarely get frightened by books. I lost the ability to do that when I read The Stand and It in middle school (I was a precocious reader). But this book scared the ever living out of me. But, at the same time, while I was scared to death, I also couldn’t put it down. I 100% attribute that to the author keeping me hooked and wanting to see if Mike, Beth, and Jake (along with another person who appears later in the book) would get out alive. I was left feeling breathless during certain scenes. The author also ramped up my anxiety.

I could relate to Beth on certain levels. Who hasn’t felt like a car accident waiting to happen during specific points in their life? Who hasn’t hit rock bottom and has to claw their way out? I know I have. I loved seeing her character grow. She went from being this self-absorbed drunk to a woman willing to do whatever it took to get out of her situation.

I wasn’t too sure about Mike when he was introduced. I kept feeling that he was hiding something (which he was, and it was very sad when it was revealed). But his character also transformed throughout Black Tide. He was pulled out of his depression and realized his life was worth living. I thought he was perfect for Beth, and he complimented her towards the end of the book.

The author very well wrote the horror angle of Black Tide. During the scenes in the car (while the tide was creeping in), I did get some Cujo-like vibes. That didn’t take away from how much I liked the book. Instead, it added to it. And as I said above, the author stoked my anxiety during pivotal scenes.

The science fiction angle of the book was well written also. I loved the imagination the author had with the aliens. They were so monstrous that I had no issue imagining them in my head (which added to my anxiety).

The end of Black Tide left me with conflicting emotions. I was upset over some things, but I understood why they happened. But at the same time, I was overjoyed over other things. I was also sad because of what they realized after leaving the beach. The book didn’t end with a HEA. Instead, without going much into it, I left the book feeling pessimistic about Beth and Mike’s future.

I would recommend Black Tide to anyone over 21. There is violence, language, and nongraphic sex/sexual situations.

Four stars for Black Tide by KC Jones. I really enjoy stories that focus on the beginning of the apocalypse when the characters are trying to figure out what is going on and this does that very well. While this is already a fairly short book, I do think it was slightly too long and got a little repetitive. Overall this was very fun to read. I like the direction it went in and I like how things weren't fully explained in this.

This book was...bizzare. Good bizzare, but bizzare nonetheless.

BLACK TIDE is a bleak wasteland full of unanswered questions and horror. I honestly don't know what else to say about it other than I kind of loved it. Looking for some War of the Worlds inspired sci-fi horror? Pick this one up.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for my #arc

Black Tide is a unique and captivating thriller/horror that I truly couldn't put down. I'm very impressed and excited about this being KC Jones' debut novel because that just means there's so much more to come (hopefully!). I found myself immersed in this story and the characters within the pages that all felt so alive and intriguing. This was an extremely stressful and terrifying story at times and I definitely had that "edge of your seat" feeling at a lot of different moments throughout. There were a few issues I had throughout, such as with plotting and the dog, but overall this was a really tense and captivating story. Can't wait to see more from KC Jones!

This sci-fi horror story is a creature feature that kept me glued to the pages. The author has a quirky writing style that I am unsure will work for everyone, but it worked for me. I found myself enjoying the comedic relief moments mixed in with the genuinely creepy scenes.

What a great set-up: two strangers indulge in a one-stand-night, only to find the next morning that an astronomical disaster has ravaged the landscape while they were busy. With relentless pacing and suspense and expert character development, BLACK TIDE is near impossible to put down until its harrowing end.

TW: Suicide, drinking, death of parent, animal death

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: It was just another day at the beach. And then the world ended.

Mike and Beth didn’t know each other existed before the night of the meteor shower. A melancholy film producer and a house sitter barely scraping by, chance made them neighbors, a bottle of champagne brought them together, and a shared need for human connection sparked something more.

After a drunken and desperate one-night-stand, the two strangers awake to discover a surprise astronomical event has left widespread destruction in its wake. But the cosmic lightshow was only a part of something much bigger, and far more terrifying. When a set of lost car keys leaves them stranded on an empty stretch of Oregon coast, when their emergency calls go unanswered and inhuman screams echo from the dunes, when the rising tide reaches for the car and unspeakable horrors close in around them, these two self-destructive souls must find in each other the strength to overcome past pain and the fight to survive a nightmare of apocalyptic scale.
Release Date: May 31st, 2022
Genre: Horror
Pages: 256
Rating:

What I Liked:
1. I love a end of times book

What I Didn't Like:
1. Boring
2. Felt very repetitive

Overall Thoughts: This book started out so promising and I loved how snarky Beth was in the beginning when she first met Mike. Once Mike started his sections I hated how whiny Beth sounded. It was like she was a different person all together.

When the action started happening they just stayed in one location and yell at one another while random people came upon them. It was boring. I was bored.

Killing the dog sucked. Why do they always kill off the dog!

The concept of the "aliens" was interesting but the whole back and force "Its your fault you lost the keys" was exhausting.

Final Thoughts: This wasn't it for me. It was just okay. I wish there was more interesting action. I felt like the girl losing her father was totally fine losing him and it was BEATEN over our heads that she had to be a tough girl.

Recommend For:
• Aliens
• Inner struggle stories
• Survival stories
• Atmospheric books

Who doesn't love a good character-driven horror novel? Personally, this is my favorite storytelling format – in general, but also for horror in particular. Naturally, that meant I had to give Black Tide, written by K.C. Jones, a chance.

Mike and Beth thought they had walked onto a romance story set. They met by chance, in a moment that sparked a series of other delightful memories. Unfortunately, they will quickly learn it wasn't a romance they walked into – but a horror.

The next morning the couple wakes not to shyness and awkward conversation but destruction. While they slept, the world burned as an astronomical event caused waves of destruction. To make matters worse, this was only the beginning of something worse.

“Stories explained the unknowable before the advent of science. What happens when science is left shrugging its shoulders?”

To be very clear, Black Tide is favorable compared to Cujo and A Quiet Place. So if you don't enjoy horror or the more graphic elements that come alongside these stories, you're best staying clear.

Personally, I probably should have let the Cujo comparison warn me off a bit. Sometimes it got to be borderline too much for me, and I'm not generally bothered by graphic elements. It's more than the specific type of elements got to me, if that makes sense (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here).

Still, I have to admit that Black Tide is a well-written novel. I love that the characters are the ones to push every plot revelation forward. This human connection made the horror feel more natural – for better and worse. It's why this storytelling format works so well in this genre.

Like any true horror, you'll probably find yourself screaming at the main characters. They don't always make intelligent decisions. This isn't great for their survival odds but for providing us with more information, so I suppose that's the trade-off.

Long story short, Black Tide was an interesting and compelling read. One that had a delightful amount of atmosphere and character development.

Black Tide is a tense and horror-filled read. Black Tide follows two strangers who have a drunken one night stand on the same night the world around them quickly changes after a mysterious meteor shower. There is a constant,. creeping sense of dread that builds throughout the novel creating a compelling reading experience.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Nightfire for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

3.5 stars. This is a cosmic apocalypse novel and the vibes for the cosmic insane aliens that make you lose your minds, but also want to eat you are there, but I struggled with Beth's POV. I liked Mike's, but I didn't warm up to Beth until probably 100 pages in and at that point I already felt like this was teetering on a 3 star, but I loved how hopeful and positive this book became. It could've taken the route of The Road and made us all so depressed that we wanted to curl into a ball and reflect on life for several days, but this novel shifts the perspective from starting with the feeling to ending with the intensity of the what if I don't die today and there is so much to live for? I liked that shift quite a lot and I think that's what won me over in the end. Review to come.

Beth is a young house-sitter who's trying to get her life together, and Mike is a former film producer contemplating suicide and battling his grief over his wife leaving. The two meet by chance and spend one night together before the world ends. When a meteor shower brings in a host of hostile alien creatures, the two find themselves stuck on the beach and fighting for their lives. I received an invitation to read a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Macmillan-Tor/Forge. Trigger warnings: character death (on-page), parent/spouse/animal death, suicide attempts/ideation, drowning, blood/gore, body horror, severe injury, fire, guns, dementia. NSFW content.

For some reason I thought I was going into a water horror novel in the style of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) or even Sweetheart (2019). Instead, I got a discount alien sci-fi novel that flounders around in its overly-complicated mythology with a couple of main characters I prayed would get eaten. The first chapter was a shock when I realized the narrator was supposed to be a 20-something woman. I don't know how to explain the difference, but the narration came off utterly male, which I quickly corrected to female-written-by-a-male. She sleeps with a guy who's much older in the first chapters, which frankly comes off like old-man wish fulfilment. ‘Human car wreck’ isn't a personality, and it's never clear exactly how Beth has managed to ruin everything she's ever touched. I hate that I find Mike more sympathetic, but there's a lot more attention to his sad history and emotional recovery than there is to Beth's.

That being said, neither of these characters are in any way likeable, and it's not even clear why they're the main characters because they spend most of the novel doing absolutely nothing. They're not clever, skilled, or particularly good at surviving, which I guess is kind of the point, but they never get any better at it either, and the major character development seems to be mostly in deciding whether they want to live at all. I'm not much of an alien fan at the best of times, and while there are vague attempts to explain that this isn't an invasion so much as an accidental mashup of universes, there are too many weird things running around. I can handle the attacking teeth-monsters (even though it makes no biological sense for them to have eyes at all if they're invisible) and even killer plants, but I draw the line at carnivorous sky jellyfish. It's too many weird things in a book that's already pretty weird. The action of the novel stays in one place--a car on the beach--for way longer than is actually interesting, as the characters just kind of shrug and say 'I guess we're stuck here?' By the time they realize they might actually need to do something to survive, the book is basically over.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Great premise! Felt very fresh and original. Loved the characters. They all felt very relatable. The plot is filled with suspense and tension. However, my enjoyment of the story went down after what happened to the pet dog. He was a main character and a good boy. It was disappointing with what happened with him.