Beth is a self-described car wreck. Wasting a life wandering. She’s trying to change and so far she is doing well housesitting. On the Pacific Coast where billionaires from Silicon Valley have built massive homes by the beach. This time it’s for a couple who is out of the country. She also is dog sitting. And doing a responsible and safe job of it. Which for her is boring but no one has gotten hurt yet.

Mike is the next-door neighbor. Dealing with his own demons. When he and Beth meet over the fence and share a lot of champagne, they wake up to chaos and the world turned on its head.

They thought it was a simple meteor shower. It was not. And now they are stranded with no help and a lot of screams along with a dog who is not happy!

Aliens, strange lights, people disappearing in horrible ways, all of that, and more. For myself, there were a lot of plot holes, and I would have probably left Beth and the dog!

NetGalley/ May 31st. 2022 by Nightfire

Thanks to Edelweiss/NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Let's clear something up before I go into this. I didn't think the book was *bad.* Did it drag? Yeah. Could it have been a novella without losing anything? Absolutely. Was the kid at all needed as a character? No.

Was it bad? Also no.

So we have your standard alien invasion: bad signs in the sky just before hell breaks loose, stuff falling from space(?), then creatures showing up and our heroes figuring out how to take them down. The "tide" part of the title is a bit deceptive, as the book takes place on a beach but has little to do with the actual water. Which was pretty disappointing to me. Stuff from space is scary, sure, but what about the things that live just below us? Where they're naturally a part of our world in the first place, then just decide, "You know what? F those people on land. I'mma kill 'em."

The aliens themselves had biological factors that didn't make much sense. There was a lot going on with them that seemed contradictory, but it's an invasion book. I suspended my disbelief long enough to get through and not hate it. It kind of felt like a movie you'd watch on the SyFy network, along the lines of "Lavalantula" or "Piranhaconda." (I have watched both with popcorn in a bowl and a cold soda at my side.) The alien origin also was unclear, and if Beth's dream in the beginning of the book had actually proven true--some kind of weird dimensional overlap--that would have been neat. I wouldn't have expected it to be explainable right away if at all. However, the invaders were rather typical overall.

As for the characters, they were average at best. I didn't like Beth much at the beginning, but by the end she'd grown on me. That said, Mike's voice was definitely the least distinctive. I constantly mixed up his narration with Beth's if her name wasn't in a dialogue tag so often. Natalia was a useless last-act addition, and Jake was my favorite. The little golden good dog who derped his way right into my squishy canine-loving heart. And then K.C. Jones killed him, and the rest of the book was pointless to me.

YES. The dog dies. Sure, it happens off-page technically, but I don't care. You gave me a dog who was fantastic, made him fluffy and beautiful, and then he died. That's such a dick move as an author.

Honestly, Jake's death knocked off a whole star for me. The aliens and Mike did the rest of the damage. If someone needs a popcorn read that's quick and doesn't take much thought, this is a good remedy.

I don't read a lot in this genre, but this book definitely felt creative; unfortunately, the monsters were so creative that I couldn't quite remember how they worked at times, which made it hard to feel the tension of the story. Still, the author's writing was visceral and claustrophobic at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 creepy stars rounded up to 4!

This one was a fantastic mix of creature feature horror, a beachy atmospheric setting, and constantly questioning if the main characters are fully sane or if they are imagining what was happening. Written to evoke many different emotions in the reader, the scenes that stuck with me the most where ones that our main character was feeling so trapped and claustrophobic that I was beginning to feel very anxious and boxed in as well. While there were definitely points throughout that I felt lulled just a little bit, overall this was a pretty quick read and fit a lot into it's 275 pages.

If you're someone who has previously enjoyed bird box, the venom movies, or the black winter series by darcy coates, I highly recommend giving this fun horror novel a try. Publishes Tuesday, May 31st!

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with an ARC for review!

Thank you so much, NetGalley for the ARC on this wild little sci=fi=horror theme park ride......
Quite a non-stop, breathless whirlwind of a day at the beach that turns grisly, horrific, and suspenseful to excruciating degrees.
Tearing through this book, the print equivalent of one of those summer butter-popcorn movies, reminded me of that amusement park ride that just looks like a big boat that simply sways back and forth like a pendulum. Once you get on it, you realize it's plunging your center of gravity so relentlessly, you and your fellow riders are screaming for mercy..
You couldn't find two more damaged souls than Mike and Beth - he's a suicidal failed ex movie producer tormented by tragedy and she's a wandering housesitter with a long sad history of alcoholism and abuse. They manage to stumble into a one night stand on a stretch of Oregon beach.......and awaken to an impossible but all too real nightmare - a ghastly alien invasion apocalypse, complete with an onslaught of vile, terrifying creatures, fully equipped with snapping jaws, razor teeth and tentacles.
From that point on, it's a perpetual, breathless, bloody Worst Day At The Beach for Mike, Beth and Jake, the big sweet dog left by the homeowners Beth was sitting for. One nightmarish reversal-of-fortune piles up after another as the trio find themselves trapped and hunted by a variety of monsters.
And in the midst of the fierce siege they're under, a surprising and most unlikely ally joins them in their increasingly desperate struggle to survive.
Author KC Jones was obviously more than inspired by the "A Quiet Place" films and Stephen King's novella "The Mist" (both book and film).........his main contribution here comes from compressing all the horror into one single afternoon, which renders any reader incapable of putting the book down for even a minute.
For anyone who fondly recalls the chills and thrills they had from those summertime fun rides like "Jaws" and "Aliens", this one should zoom right to the top of your TBR list.

I had started to forget what I liked so much about science fiction and apocalyptic horror, and Black Tide scratched a particular kind of itch. It is a nail-biting edge of your seat creature feature that sets off running and doesn’t let up. I genuinely didn’t know where the book would go and the feeling of claustrophobia elicited by the writing was palpable. I genuinely felt creeped out at various points while reading.

The cast of characters is well-realized and wonderfully flawed. The plot is a character-driven narrative done right in a sea of other character-driven apocalyptic fiction that is often bloated. The story strikes a good balance between developing these characters with fast-moving action and suspense. I really enjoyed the concepts that this book put forth for an alien apocalypse, it is unlike anything I had read and kept the story exciting.

Black Tide is a fantastic thrill ride perfect for the summer season. Reading the book felt like a summer blockbuster and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this book someday adapted to film.

I am a sucker for apocalyptic settings. Give me a natural disaster or mysterious invasion plot line and I'm a happy girl; so when I read the summary for Black Tide, I couldn't wait to dive in.

From Goodreads:

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.

I really enjoyed this book.

Mike and Beth are entertaining characters. Both conventionally disastrous for different reasons, their voices were colorful and layered, and I was interested to see how they would play off each other once the conflict really found its feet. I wasn't disappointed. Sometimes in these end-of-the-world narratives, it seems like everyone is a born survivor. They know first aid and tactical maneuvers and how to remain calm in the highest-of-stress situations. Mike and Beth...did not read like that for me--and that was a good thing. They bicker and make mistakes. They lose key items and don't know how to organize a precise military mission at the blink of an eye. I loved seeing how their different skillsets and personalities came together as the situation becomes dire, and I think many readers will find their dynamic to be a breath of fresh air.

This is definitely an action-forward read, perfect for a summer vacation, and I finished this in just a few short sittings because I was engrossed in the moment. The chapters are short, propelling the plot, and the descriptions are visceral and terrifying.

Falling Skies x Cujo x The Mist, Black Tide is one you won't want to miss.

Big thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

*Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, KC Jones and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/black-tide/

“Beware of the Blob! It creeps, and leaps, and glides and slides across the floor.” –The Blob circa 1958

I must confess that Science-fiction is not my usual genre but I love a good post-apocalyptic novel and Black Tide is all that and more. This book had me on the edge of my seat from the first chapter.

Beth, a self-proclaimed “hot mess” is a professional house sitter. She drinks, smokes and makes no apologies. When she meets Mike, the next-door neighbor of the house she is currently at, she sees someone who is maybe a twin soul, or maybe just a one-night stand. Mike, a former Hollywood producer, is mourning the loss of his wife and his career, drinking bottles of champagne like water. There is an instant connection, and when they wake up after spending the night together, the world is not as they left it. Beth wakes from a nightmare, and Mike tells her all about the meteorite shower she missed, showing her the odd ball he and Jake, the dog she is taking care of, brought back from one of the impact points on the beach. Together with Jake, the dog, they go exploring to find people and figure out what is happening. When they get to the ocean, they see people nervously waiting for a boat to come gather them up and take them away to safety. But what is dangerous? And where is everyone going in the boat? A police SUV arrives, begging everyone to disperse, to go home and lock their doors and await further instruction. An unearthly blob arrives, seemingly coming from the ocean, making chirping sounds and the man who is flagging down the boat is suddenly gone, swallowed by the big blob with tentacles.

This is a stressful book. Everything that can go wrong, does. It is a hot day in October and they are stuck in a Subaru with Jake, because they can’t find the keys. They also can’t open the windows because they are surrounded by the little angry blobs with viny tentacles. They brought no water with them, just sandwiches and mimosas, so within hours Jake, the dog, is panting and dehydrated. Beth and Mike are constantly bickering about what they should do and they come close to dying many times. The atmosphere surrounding the car is a horror show, with torn bodies, moving “balls” with different colors and tentacles, a “queen” ball who stalks them. The ending very much sets up for another book, and while this is my first foray into science fiction, I can’t wait for more. It was just so much fun.

Black Tide starts with Beth house sitting for a friend. She sees the next door neighbor, Mike, and one a night he is outside drinking, she decides to introduce herself. Mike is a film producer and alone, so Beth asks to join him. While they get drunk and learn more about each other, things start falling from the sky. They think that it is a meteor shower, not realizing they are watching the end of the world. What starts as a fun night ends the next day in a world of terror and gore.

KC Jones does a lot of good things in his debut novel. I enjoy the characters he has created. Beth is someone who does not really had much going for her, someone whose mother has told her that she will ruin everything she touches, and someone who has fallen into a life of drug abuse and low self esteem. Mike is someone who is living through the sadness of the loss of his marriage and a career that is waning. Two sad and lonely people meet on a night and the next day the book has thrust them into the role of unlikely heroes. We genuinely want them to succeed, but Jones also does a great job of putting them into a situation that does not show very much promise. The synopsis says that there are tones of Cujo by Stephen King in this book, and I could not thinking this while reading. I read Cujo at a young age and remember the same feeling of the mother and son being trapped in the car with the rabid dog outside trying to get to them. This book spends a great deal of time with two of them being trapped, being stalked by these creatures, and trying to figure out what they are going to do before they die from the elements.

The biggest weakness in this novel is the monsters. I never really get a firm grasp of how they operate and their physical structures because it seems to progress every time they have an encounter with them. If we just had monsters with sharp claws, teeth, and were frightening to look at, we would not be so bogged down in the details. In the end, many of the characteristics that Jones gives them do not matter as much as they mattered in the moment. Claws and teeth, and speed are enough. If the monster design was a little more simplistic, we could have also gotten a better picture of them in our heads. Instead I really still do have have the clearest picture of what Beth and Mike were fighting.

Overall Black Tide is a fun, tense, horror novel, and even despite the monsters, it deserves to be read. The tension of the situation makes the second half of the novel just speed passed, and this is what we always want from any novel.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Black Tide by K C Jones
.
Beth and Mike meet for the first time the night of the meteor shower.
But it’s not just any meteor shower.
It’s the end of the world.
.
My thoughts:
-It was very interesting just following these two people through an apocalyptic event. It helped me picture it really happening as opposed to reading several POVs and knowing everything going on everywhere. Because, obviously, in a real life event I would only have my own POV.

-Jake the dog is the real MVP of this book.

-I wanted more explanation on the event and how it happened. But again, in real life you wouldn’t get that. 😂

-Beth and Mike each had interesting back stories that made me want to know more about them.

-The ending left me wanting more!

This was a book that I’m not sure I would have picked up at the bookstore myself but it was good! I like reading outside of my comfort zone and trying new things.
Thank you Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for this digital copy to read.

BLACK TIDE features two almost-strangers suddenly trying to survive after a meteor shower that left behind very strange things on the beach.

Early on I realized what it's horror novel treatment of, and I don't really want to spoil it except to say that any of my fellow exvangelicals might find something you recognize. You don’t need to figure it out to understand the book, however, since it’s using that sequence of events as the bones in a wonderfully horrific creation. It's from the perspective of two characters who aren’t already familiar with the shape of what’s to come, who have no way to guess the truly twisted shit that’s going down.

The characters have the kind of communication errors which completely fit people who met yesterday and have very little emotional energy to navigate interpersonal dynamics in addition to trying to stay alive. It's just enough to feel real but doesn't bog down the story. The worldbuilding is very good, with the characters slowly figuring out what's happening and some strategies to deal with immediate dangers, but lacking any ability to fix things more broadly. This is a very good horror novel and I'm quite pleased overall.

Black Tide is an Armageddon type story mixing horror and science fiction while following two strangers after a one night stand try and survive the end of the world/alien apocalypse/ I have no idea what. The heart of the story takes place over several hours in a car stranded by the beach. This book was super off brand for me, really aliens just aren’t my thing, and frankly I’m not even sure if they were aliens. Monsters maybe? Who knows. I was hoping for a little more forward moving with the plot opposed to high tense scenes that felt a little messy and dragging. The main characters were flawed and complicated and watching them form a trust and intimate relationship amongst the dark and twisted fear of death was definitely an added layer that I needed to finish the story. I think this could continue to make a great series and if you are into this type of genre, it is definitely worth checking it out!

I really liked this! I’ve read more horror in the past month and I’m happy to say this one delivered. The audiobook was also fantastic in my opinion and added a nice layer of humor. The narrators were great!

Jones combines my favorite elements of horror and sci-fi with this post apocalyptic, dystopian setting. I really like how everything takes place in a small area of beach essentially and over a short period of time.

The descriptiveness of the events that unfold is done well. I saw another review that mentioned this reads like a movie and I 100% agree. I’d totally watch an adaptation of this story.

I think what spoke to me most was the chaotic energy and hot mess Beth brought to the story. Mike’s character, while interesting as a contrast to Beth, was a bit more lackluster. When our aliens are introduced, it happens quite quickly and the differences between the creatures are a bit jumbled in the middle. But ultimately, it’s just a bunch of blood thirsty entities that are trying to hurt our MCs. Pretty straightforward.

Looking for a quick horror/sci-fi read? This one is a good pick.

TW: If you’re sensitive to pet injuries then I’d sit this one out. Some descriptions are especially gory. And there are a couple instances where suicidal thoughts are present.

End of the world, alien invasion type horror is not my usuals pick but I read this after being offered an ARC for an honest review. I’m glad I did. Strong writing, good pacing, and overall enough tension to keep me reading until the end.

I feel like this book had a good set up, but was lacking in the execution. The characters were literally stuck in place for a majority of the book. The terror and anxiety of the one setting could be drawn out for only so long before it stopped feeling tense but more treading water (pun intended?).

Sorry this one is just not for me. I really don't like Beth and I can't get into the story. I gave up around the 15% mark.

This was good! More than 3 stars good, but what can you do when you're limited by ratings? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This was a pretty tightly compressed story, taking place over approximately 24 hours and in very few settings. This only added to the tension, giving it an almost - well, not claustrophobic feel, but claustrophobia in the sense of limited places to go and everything closing in and a sense of dread.

Now, important part: There is a dog. As the third main character, if you will. So, important spoiler, if you want to know the dog's fate: <spoiler>He does not make it. Which, if I'm being honest, is probably the reason I rounded down to 3 stars instead of up to 4 stars.</spoiler>

Overall, a well-paced, tense sci-fi horror where our protagonists go through a lot of shit in a short period of time. What a day!

(2.5)

I thought this was only okay, which was a little disappointing to me. There was a lot of potential for this to really creep me out and K.C. Jones definitely nails the claustrophobic quality that lends itself to the atmosphere he seemed to be trying to capture. I think there were some weird things going on with the pacing for me where the story could have benefited from either a shorter or longer length and ended up in this mid range where moments either felt too dragged out or rushed. I also wasn't super fond of our MCs, so that didn't do my reading experience any favors. This book had a cinematic quality to it though that made it easy to visualize what was unfolding in the way you might watch a horror show or movie. I'd be interested in reading more of Jones' books in the future, this one just wasn't quite right for me.

Big shout out and thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for an e-arc of this!

DNF at 60%. This book started out with so much promise and I absolutely loved it in the beginning. It felt like an episode of Black Mirror and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going on. However, when we begin finding out what was going on I lost less and less interest. I couldn’t picture the monsters in my head, couldn’t picture the action in my head, and couldn’t connect to these characters or care about them aside from the dog who is suffering the entire time and apparently dies. I ultimately lost interest and don’t have the attention span for this book to finish it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Black Tide is unlike any kind of apocalypse novel I've ever read before. Some of them really sound the same at this point--a disease, zombies, warfare. What about perfectly circular meteorites that grow vines, invisible monsters with mouths full of razors, and jellyfish clouds?

Beth is currently house sitting at a beach in Oregon, where she meets the next door neighbor, Mike. After a quick affair, she has a strange dream. Mike, wanting to end it all after losing his wife, sees meteors start to fall from the sky. Beth believes she's had too much to drink, until Mike comes to the house with a perfectly round ball. It burns his hands, so he drops it. They think nothing of it, until they decide to go to the beach, where they see a group of people desperately trying to leave the island. Something strange is happening at Strawberry Dunes.

This book had me hooked from the beginning, lost me a bit in the middle, and got me back at the end. I enjoyed learning more about Beth and Mike, while also watching them try to figure out how to survive this weird event. Both people seem to be notorious for fucking things up, and they don't want this to be their last fuck-up. They both lean on each other to try to survive.

I'd love to see more of this world, or possibly a different location. Is it happening world-wide? How are other people handling it? How is the government handling it? I don't believe this is a series, but I would love to see a spinoff book.

CW for blood/gore, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, animal death