This is a translated review from the original review posted on Goodreads in Spanish

Score: 2.6 Stars.

First of all I want to thank Tor Nightfire for sending me the arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Black Tide is a novel that belongs to a subgenre of which I have not read much: Sci-Fi Horror, or in Spanish, "horror de ciencia ficción". In this case we will witness the arrival of the apocalypse and how Mike and Beth, our main characters, try to survive a cataclysm of unthinkable levels.

Apocalyptic stories are not really my "Cup of tea", I do not read many novels with this theme and, the few that I have read, have not been entirely of my liking.

Unfortunately, Black Tide has not been the exception. However, before we talk about the negative aspects of my experience, let's start with the positive parts of this review.

Black Tide is a novel whose narration is focused on its characters. I feel that if one day the apocalypse comes, it would be as K.C. jones propose in this novel. It would happen at any moment, while we sleep. Can you imagine waking up one morning and seeing that the apocalypse has begun?

This made it easier for me to step into the characters' shoes. The apocalypse caught them off guard and I think that could happen to all of us. Now, from there to whether they have made the right choices is another matter.

Another element that I liked about Black Tide is that its narration is very agile. In a single sitting I advanced more than 40% of the book. However, this is all I enjoyed. Unfortunately, there are more negatives than positives in my experience with this book.

I will start with something that I had previously mentioned. Although the situation that the characters were experiencing felt very real, I did not feel identified with them at all. This is because I didn't feel like they were making the right decisions. Also, their interactions are very awkward, so much so that I felt the cringe jumping off the page as I read the book.

This triggered another element that added to my experience with the book: Feeling no connection to the characters, I didn't care if something terrible happened to them. You don't know how much I expected something horrible to happen at some point (After all, I'm reading a horror novel).

But if there's one thing I didn't like about this book, was the ending. The worst of all is that it cannot be called the end because the story does not end. The last page of this novel left me with more questions than answers, it looks like there will be a sequel (which I don't think I'm going to read).

Unfortunately, Black Tide was not a novel that I enjoyed. It has aspects to highlight, however, the negative elements weighed more in my reading experience. Personally, I don't recommend it, however, if you like apocalyptic stories with touches of science fiction, you may be interested in this book.

First things first: the dog DOES die (off-page, but there are on-page injuries). If that's a dealbreaker for you, best to know it now.

Anyway, I was really digging the irreverent tone. Beth especially feels exactly like what would happen if a millennial was confronted with the apocalypse. Bad puns, sarcasm, and just a rapid-fire toggle between rage, exasperation, and despair. I was really getting Kingfisher vibes from her character and dialogue.

However, unlike Kingfisher's books, the prose isn't poetic. The descriptions are clunky and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the various cars were situated (how was one submerged in water up to the windows and the other totally on dry land?) There's so much chaotic movement in the same small place with no real landmarks that I just couldn't figure out what was happening.

But hey I read it in two sittings, so I guess that's a win?

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥I am a big fan of H. G. Wells and the first thing I thought from the synopsis was War of the Worlds. This got me interested. So I looked into getting the book and saw that it was available in NetGalley. And that's where I have read it. I have gone ahead and ordered a physical copy for my collection.

As much as the synopsis made it sound like War of the Worlds, it isn’t quite, but there are some similarities. There is an invasion. They seem to be unstoppable. The story focuses on the plight of three people and a dog in the midst of the chaos. And they only slowly learn what is going on. That’s where the similarities end really, though I still felt a lot of Wells vibes from this. But if you are afraid that means it will seem outdated, , don’t worry. This is very contemporary with well-developed modern characters and situations. The invaders aren’t Martians. I won’t say more about them than that and the fact that they prove to be very difficult to deal with.

The story then is about the two main characters and later a young girl trying to survive against these invaders. It gets extremely suspenseful, with the characters getting deeper and deeper into their jam. You don’t know if they are going to make it. That kept me glued to this book, reading through it faster than most books I read because I just couldn’t put it down!

Now I’m not a literature professor, just an ordinary reader and I am fairly new to horror. At this point I have only read Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, lots of Poe and Lovecraft, a handful of King just recently and even more recently my first Dean Koontz. So I’m not a horror expert. I will say that as terrifying as the creatures were, there wasn’t a lot of graphic description, and there was only one sex scene which didn’t go into much detail. So if you don’t like graphic horror or a lot of sex like you find in some of today’s horror you won’t have to worry about this. If you do really want that sort of thing you will be disappointed. I felt there was just enough blood and such to make it terrifying without grossing anybody out. What you get instead is damn good storytelling!

This is a terrific way to do a character-driven, self-contained horror. Just enough of an introduction to Beth and Mike at the top, then nonstop mayhem to the finish, played out almost entirely in realtime on an Oregon beach.

Loved how the characters have deep, complicated flaws; loved their very real, very funny banter in the face of death; loved how Jack the dog is as much a protagonist as his two human protectors; but most of all, even in the face of apocalypse, I love that the novel ends on such an incredibly hopeful note, so true to the human spirit.

But most of all, BLACK TIDE is FUN. And KC Jones understood the assignment.

I should start out by saying that I generally don't like sci-fi, but something about this book made me want to give it a try, and I'm so glad that I did.

Beth is a chronic screw-up, doing her best to keep afloat in life as a housesitter/petsitter/whatever-people-need-sat-sitter. Right now she's got a pretty sweet job taking care of a lovable dog named Jake in a fancy house on the beach. To make things more interesting, next door lives a mysterious recluse of a man--Mike-- that has caught her eye. One night, over a campfire and champagne, the two get to know each other. And then they 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 get to know each other.

And then the world ends, more or less.

Overnight, a hail of asteroids crashes to the earth, and with them come alien life forms of all shapes and sizes. Trapped on lonely stretch of beach with nowhere to run, in a vehicle they can't get started, with Jake the dog growling up a frenzy in the back seat, Beth and Mike face down the most insanely intense twelve hours you can possibly imagine. There's multiple deadly aliens to contend with; some are invisible, some can bite your leg clean off, some wrap their tendrils around you and infect you, some snatch you up into the sky faster than you can scream,"Giant flying jellyfish!" Add in unseasonable heat, hunger, dehydration, blood loss... and the fact that eventually the tide is going to come in and flood the car if they can't figure out a way to get safely to some kind of more permanent shelter.

I swear, these two are brave as they come but everything seems to go wrong for them. Everything. But they keep at it, determined and with nothing to lose, pushing through until the end--whatever that may be.

Author KC Jones is apparently a screenwriter, and that makes sense because this book reads with the crazy immersive intensity of a sci-fi action movie. You can feel the panic, hear the screams, feel the grit of the sand in wounds you're afraid to look at, smell the awful stench of the aliens and the tang of blood. This book is one seriously good thrill ride of sci-fi horror. (And I don't even like sci-fi.)

TL;DR

Black Tide by K.C. Jones is an excellent story with two flawed but very likeable characters. It’s an in-depth character study that attempts to break them during an apocalypse. Humanity might be at an end. Will Beth and Mike find out if they’re the last humans alive? Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: Black Tide by K. C. Jones

Characters connecting with other characters is the basic of what all fiction is about. Relationships make for drama and opportunity for growth. Add in the end of the human race, and there’s a recipe for the extremes of character exploration. In K.C. Jones’s Black Tide two lost souls attempt to survive an apocalypse. Mike and Beth find each other at low points in their lives. Little do they know, they’re about to get a little lower thanks to a meteor shower. As they try to survive, Beth and Mike form a relationship based on mutual survival, and as the reader learns more and more about them, we enter a relationship with the two. Oh, and there’s a cute dog, too.

Black Tide opens with Beth berating herself. In her mind, she’s a screw up of such epic proportions that she screws up other people as well. Next, we see her house sitting, professionally. She’s getting paid to stay at a house on the beach and to take care of Jake the dog. Beth has kept herself out of trouble, but she’s getting bored. One night, she sees the neighbor, Mike, sitting out back, drinking beside a fire. The champagne is too tempting for her to pass up. After too much alcohol, the two end up spending the night together. Mike wakes and walks to the ocean. He’s decided to kill himself. As he walks into the surf, meteors streak across the sky. Meanwhile, Beth dreams that she’s in a wild, terrifying place. A large jellyfish fills the sky, and the air is sulfurous. In the morning, Mike returns to his house. He’s chosen to live after finding what he thinks is a meteorite that smells like garbage and stings his skin. The electricity has gone out. Jake the dog is going wild. The three drive towards Portland to see what’s going on. They stop at a beach where people are gathered. On the beach, they find another garbage ball. A group of people are trying to signal a boat offshore; they’re fleeing the area.

It’s here on this beach that the majority of the novel takes place. The meteor shower brought with it an apocalypse no one prepared for. It’s also on this beach that the body count begins to pile up. Beth loses the key to the car that brought them there, and they’re trapped on the beach with murderous creatures. And the tide’s begun to come in.

Black Tide is a first person point of view book that mostly alternates between Beth and Mike. The majority of the novel takes place on the beach over the course of a day. The science fiction apocalypse is set dressing for a character intense narrative. The novel rests on whether the reader likes Beth and Mike’s relationship dynamic. I did, and I think that most readers will too.

Character

This novel excels at making the reader care about the characters. Jones creates flawed characters that aren’t the most interesting in the beginning of the story. As the narrative progresses, the reader becomes invested in them and their survival. While helping each other, they end up confronting the darker part of themselves. Against the backdrop of the end of the human race, both Beth and Mike have to learn that they are more than the stories they tell themselves. Beth tells herself she’s a car wreck waiting to happen, and that her mistakes will take Mike with her. During the course of the novel, I couldn’t help but wonder if Mike would succumb to his suicidal thoughts again. After all, the situation seems hopeless many, many times.

Character is the focus of this book. Mike and Beth are never in a position to save the world. And that’s okay. The joy of the book comes from cheering on their survival. Along the way, the reader begins to care for them as we learn more and more. These two character studies twist and twine in a way that makes both greater than the sum of their stories.

A Day at the Beach

This novel takes place mostly at the beach. By mostly, I mean 75 to 80 percent is in one location. It did get a bit old. Jones uses vehicles to act as different locations on the same beach, but at times, it felt like their struggle to leave the beach was too drawn out. The struggles, problems, and solutions were creative, but it could have been broken up with flashbacks or something to provide a little variability.

Horror Mixed with Science Fiction

Jones spices his horror with science fiction elements. Black Tide is a horror because it’s about survival in the face of overwhelming odds. Beth and Mike face cosmic horror elements; the forces arrayed against them are unearthly and intent upon feasting upon the pair. They are pushed to their limits physically and psychologically. But this isn’t a science fiction (SF) novel. The SF elements provide a problem and enemies; however, Black Tide is a horror novel. It succeeds by attempting to break its characters.

While the SF elements are good, they do create enough of a distance that it’s less horrific than more realistic novels. The emotional engagement comes from getting to know Mike and Beth from their flaws to their dependency on each other. When their lives were in danger, I didn’t feel horror. It felt tense but not scary. There were moments of body horror and a scene where the horror comes from being a witness with no control or ability to help. This isn’t a criticism. I made an emotional connection to each of these characters; they stayed with me after I closed the book.

Conclusion

K.C. Jones’s Black Tide is a masterclass in making a reader care about characters. While it suffers from a drawn out setting, Black Tide balances tension with revelation to create a wonderful story.

Black Tide by K. C. Jones is available from Tor Nightfire on May 31st, 2022.

Black Tide brings together a "human car wreck" and a depressed movie producer at the end of the world to save each other from themselves and some new inhabitants to Earth. This is a small-scale, focussed sci-fi horror that plays out primarily on a distant beach in the Pacific Northwest as our two misfits get trapped by lost keys and terrible maws full of razorblade teeth.

In some ways, Black Tide gives off 80's action vibes (think Alien, or Predator), and it's quite self aware - no sooner had the comparison with Alien popped into my head than one of our main characters name dropped Ellen Ripley. The book nods to the movie world in a few other places, which should be expected with a producer among our very small cast and feels like Jones writing what he knows for his first novel (he graduated with a degree in Film Production, afterall). As such it makes Black Tide feel cinematic and something I could certainly imagine getting optioned for a feature film.

My one tip to new readers would be not to be put off by the prologue; I found it a little bit navel-gazey and relied a lot on telling rather than showing. After the slightly painful meeting of our two MCs in the first couple of chapters, things pick up exponentially.

This isn't exactly your typical alien invasion story and it shines for it, adding a bit of cleverness into the mix that you don't always see in horror. There's plenty of tight, tense scenes; uneasy moments, and; injuries a-plenty, all mixed up with human resilience, fortitude and badassery.

Black Tide is an entertaining science fiction horror read that packs a whole lot of action into a surprisingly short amount of time. While it is character-focused, there is enough world-building of the event and the creatures that come after to make it appealing even to those readers who prefer less talk and more action, death, and destruction.

Our full review will be up on Leviathan Libraries on May 9th.

Beth is house sitting on the lonely Oregon coast with only the owner's very good dog Jake for company. She had been watching the neighboring house, noticing a man, Mike, who seems to never leave, and looks as lost as she feels. Deciding to reach out to him and after several bottles of champagne, she wakes up in his bed. A vicious dream and a head-splitting hangover will be the least of her worries though. A maybe meteor shower that Mike saw while she slept changed the landscape of the world.

Soon Beth, Mike, and Jake take off to find information about what happened. Not prepared for what they uncovered and stranded alone on the beach, they soon find out that just surviving may be more than they can handle. A normal start to two people getting to know each other is quickly replaced by an alien invasion and the fear that they might be the only people left alive. Trapped in the car with no supplies and no weapons, they have to face things that they don't understand and ones that they cannot see.
Holy claustrophobic and tension-filled day at the beach! I could not put Black Tide down until I knew how it would end. The whole time I was crossing everything that I had saying please let Jake survive this nightmare (Beth and Mike too). There wasn't a moment when the alien thingies just took a break to, I don't know regroup and at only 256 pages, I was pretty sure that this wouldn't end well. I am not going to discuss the horrors of what they encounter because I think this one is best if you discover it for yourself.

Kudos to the author for giving a glimpse of hope at the end. In my mind, the fate of one of the main characters had a much different, off-the-page ending. Could there be a sequel coming? If so, maybe my wish will indeed come true.4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. Was a little slow at first but I warmed up to it. Several heart pounding moments in the book as they were forced to survive. I hope the series will continue and that they find their happy ending.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes psychological horror thrillers.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought that the emotional depth that Jones accomplished with the characters in this story was really amazing--quite the emotional rollercoaster. I thought that the setting/world was well fleshed out and that the story kept me really engaged. And--this caught me by surprise--the ending was honestly not what I was expecting, in a good way! I think that if you like horror that is more character driven and/or stories about the apocalypse then you're really going to like this one!

Dystopian-world ending debut novel that will make you sit up and pay attention!!

I loved the sci-fi-horror mashup and the Lovecraft vibes!!

This book was so incredibly entertaining, it’s fast paced and full of action and I think the author did a great job at providing more character development than this type of genre usually does and that really brought it to a different level.

Beth and Mike barely just met and then the world ends. Neither of them are in a good mental place, Beth considers herself a human car wreck as her mother puts it, but is trying to improve and better her life, she lands a job pet-sitting on a beach house next door to Mike, depressed ex movie producer. They come together, drawn to each other by their loneliness just a few hours before a strange meteor shower that heralds the end of the world. Together they must face the most bizarre and scary creatures imagined joining more weaknesses than strengths.

While I did really enjoy this book and highly recommend it, I have to mention 2 things. First, the alien invasion/intergalactic bleed was not fully explained. Maybe it doesn’t need to be explained but I like to know the why. Secondly, the space creatures were just a bit too bizarre, in this sense I think the author maybe tried a little too hard to make them extremely frightening.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.

Beth is a house sitter, and she has finally built her business up to be trusted in nice neighborhood called Strawberry Dunes. She is staying at one of the nicest places she has ever been and so far it has been great. It is even better when she meets Mike. One thing leads to another and they are hooking up and being a little less lonely then they were before.

However, when they wake up the next morning, well more in the middle of the night there is a strange meteor shower, and little do they know their whole world is about to change. At first it seems that that the meteor shower actually let meteorites hit the Earth, but then they meet people who explain that their is damage and the power is out all all over the place. Then the tide rises and people start to disappear.

What is going on? What is happening to all the people? How can they get out of this area? Why is happening to the people that are disappearing?

Can Beth and Mike survive what new nightmare has been unleashed or will they fall victim to the new menace.

I thought this was an interesting read, I think I might read it again. Just to see if really get everything that was going on. It felt a little busy and doesn't explain much at all. While that isn't my usual genre or on my list of things I enjoy about a book, I did like this one. It leaves you with a creeping sense of dread and wondering what will happen to them.

I wasn't too sure about it at first because I really didn't like Beth but I'm glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be such a great story! I can absolutely see why it was touted as "Cujo meet A Quiet Place" I definitely got those vibes while reading this

K.C. Jones’ Black Tide is not your typical horror story. Pulling on elements of both the horror and Sci-Fi genre, this is a tight, fast-paced read about a cataclysmic event that leaves two virtual strangers trapped on a beach fighting for their lives. Tide is unique in the way that it is character driven yet fast-paced and a terrifying plot yet laced with laugh out loud humor. I quite enjoyed the break from the norm with this one and would go so far as to say while clearly a horror, it was fun at the same time.

I found this to be a more character driven narrative. While there is clearly a drive to the plot—aliens taking over the world—the bulk of the book is about Mike, Beth and lovable pup Jake, who are trapped on a deserted beach fighting for their lives against some ultra creepy aliens from another dimension/planet. As per usual, Jake the dog steals the show. Be warned…as with most dogs in books or movies…well, trigger warning let’s just say that. Beth and Mike are both incredibly flawed and complex and I liked them for that. They aren’t heroes from the movies but everyday people who are dealing with their own chaotic minds only to be thrown into an even more chaotic situation. I liked how Jones gave us perspectives from all of the characters and it made it a more intimate experience as they faced what looks to be their untimely deaths.

The book read like a movie and would be amazing as a film adaption. Beth’s character was my favorite and I appreciated the wit and sarcasm and there were moments I was laughing out loud. Perhaps I found it relatable because humor is my best defense in the face of literally anything as well. I also liked the parallel of this reading cinematically and the fact that Mike is a producer, so he also made references to how their situation was playing out much like a movie.

The ending is what held me back from giving it more stars. I won’t say much on it to refrain from spoiling the read but with so much action and adrenaline throughout, the last bit was disjointed.

Overall, Black Tide is a fun mix of sci-fi and horror—and there is plenty of horror in this don’t let the humor aspect fool you. The effects of the hellvines will leave you cringing, the entire event will send you down a rabbit hole and their constant state of distress will leave you on edge. If you loved Stephen King’s Cujo, then this needs to be at the top of your reading stack. 3.5 stars.

Jones spins a tale of cosmic horror that's both reminiscent of Stephen King's <i>Cujo</i> and <i>The Mist</i> that feels claustrophobic and helpless, even frustrasting at times, but I was really invested in the characters (Jake joins the gallery of best fictional dogs of all time, honestly) with the lulls in the story providing for some good insight from the protagonists- I was pretty hooked from beginning to end, and sci-fi and horror elements were quite good.

There's a certain moment that made me scratch my head towards the end which is why I'm giving this four stars but overall, this is a pretty good little horror book.

Reading Black Tide by KC Jones felt like tripping through the imagination of Lewis Carroll as he directed Alice down the rabbit hole. Suddenly reality is skewed and the experience is as if seen through a lens of drug induced hallucinations.

Jones begins with an introduction to Beth—a young woman with a tough as nails exterior and battle scars that hover beneath the surface, coloring her every action and interaction. She is, by necessity, a wanderer, moving from one house sitting job to the next, untethered and uninhibited, with the haunting memories of her mother’s callous parenting chasing her from behind. One evening, while house sitting a beach home and a dog for a wealthy family she notices Mike, the enigmatic man next door, sitting by his fire pit. She finagles an invitation to join him, and their fates collide when that night an unprecedented and unexplained event causes a variety of vicious monsters to suddenly appear on earth—and a variety of earthlings to simply…disappear.

It is in the description of the hellacious alien creatures that author Jones shines, as the horror of each practically drips from the page and into the reader’s psyche. The suspension of disbelief needed to engage with the premise is seamless and occurs without hesitation—truly the hallmark of a writer who knows their audience. As cloud fish, shriekers and bowling ball entities shred the world as we know it to pieces, Jones maintains the banter that forms the basis of the budding relationship between Beth and Mike as they struggle to survive and save one another.

In the same way that the descriptive passages are the strength of the writing, the relationship building aspects of the story are the weakness. Whilst you don’t have to like characters to invest in the story, one does need to have an interest in their predicament and the eventual outcome. In this case, both Beth and Mike were so flawed as to be almost acerbic in their interactions. I had no horse in the race as to whether or not they survived, which tempered my reaction to a number of the presented scenarios. I was completely indifferent to the outcome.

Overall, well written and imaginative, full of vivid imagery that may leave you with nightmares for many days to come. Definitely worth a read for the monsters alone.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Tor/Forge for allowing me access to an ARC. Publication is scheduled for May 31, 2022.

KC Jones takes readers on a apocalyptical sci-fi thrill ride. Beth is a house and dog sitter looking for companionship when she meets Mike, the loner next door neighbor. A cataclysmic event occurs that spirals the world into chaos and leaves Mike, Beth, and the dog she's sitting, fighting for their lives.

The action and horror aspects will keep readers entertained, but some may have to suspend their disbelief when it comes to the characters' ability to fight considering their grave physical wounds. The sci-fi premise is intriguing and while this plot doesn't contain twists, it does strategically drop information about the mysterious event leaving readers heavily invested in the outcome. The setting is largely singular, with the vast amount of the story taking place in a single spot, which some readers may enjoy, but others will find this actually hinders the ability of the premise to fully bloom.

This book is a mix of Predators and Bird Box and will entertain sci-fi horror fans looking for a quick paced read.

I'm a bit of a horror newbie, and I haven't read a lot of monster/Lovecraftian stories, but I really enjoyed this one. The gist of the story is that a couple becomes stranded on a beach while mysterious extraterrestrial creatures emerge on land and in the sky. Almost the entire book takes place in real-time as the characters fight off the alien monsters and go through the ups and downs of their escape. I wouldn't say that the book was particularly scary, but it was definitely full of thrills and intensity. For a new author, Jones did an excellent job with the character and plot development. I had to knock off a star because of a particular event at the end of the book that I won't spoil in a review, but on the whole, this was an exciting read. Take it with you on your next beach trip.

What an utter disappointment. I guess you can fancy up any book with a great blurb and write any synopsis you want. I'm suspicious of the authors who gave this book high praise. I've know their work and find it hard to believe they loved this book.

This was bad writing, poor characters, and a disjointed storyline. Could it be any worse. Nope.