Synopsis:
A story with a cinematic feel, Black Tide is Cujo meets A Quiet Place.
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.
Edition:
E-ARC via Net Galley
Trigger Warnings:
Hover for Trigger WarningsMy Thoughts:
Meteor showers almost never bring good things in media – amirite? Similar to such masterpieces of film and literature as Night of the Comets, The Day of the Triffids, Battle: Los Angeles, etc. Black Tide features a beautiful meteor shower that brings unspeakable horrors to earth.
Set on the Oregon coast, Black Tide is a non-stop thrill ride through hell come to one of the most scenic places in the continental US (although certainly not the most relaxing, so…there’s that).
I like Beth a lot because she is a self-professed hot mess. I hate a squeaky character. She is definitely not that. Mike, I was a little less into. I know dude has a lot of baggage, but he’s clearly a wallower. That being said, I do appreciate that both of them have dimension – whether I liked their dimensions or not. And Jake. Oh, sweet, floppy Jake. I grew to really love that boy over the course of the story. So loyal, so pure.
And purity and loyalty are in short supply in any tale of the end of times. Thus, Jake is the perfect character. Jake-only story next, please (I’m only joking – let’s move on).
“Stories explained the unknowable before the advent of science. What happens when science is left shrugging its shoulders?”
Black Tide is genuinely freaky. It has moments of extreme intensity, when I felt like I might snap my e-reader in half. I was legit white-knuckling it. I like invasions – I like unknowable horrors – and I like survival horror. I had a whole lot of fun reading this one.
Also, K.C. Jones. K. C. Jones. You guys. Come on. CASEY JONES. I know they aren’t the same person, and I’m not willing to discuss my childhood crush on Elias Koteas (WHATWHATWHAAAAAAT?!), but…come on!
Rating:
Black Tide By K.C. Jones Tor Nightfire ISBN: 9781250792693 Published: May 31, 2022 Paperback, E-book 245 Pages
