KC Jones (1983–)

I struggled with 'Black Tide' at the start but it turned out to be a well-structured Can they escape the monsters? end-of-the-world horror story with some moments of high tension. With the right cast, I think 'Black Tide' would make a great movie.

After the first twenty per cent of the novel, I wasn't sure that 'Black Tide' was going to be my kind of novel. I was up for a character-driven, two strangers coming together to face down a scary apocalypse story as long as the characters mattered show more to me. When I met them, neither Beth nor Mike appealed. Beth was a thirty-something woman with an alcohol problem, low self-esteem and a habit of pressing her self-destruct button whenever she is given any responsibility. Mike is forty-something 'my life is so hollow I want to kill myself - after I've drunk a few more $200 bottles of champagne on the deck of my beach house on the Oregon coast' rich Hollywood movie producer. Neither of them are people that I had much empathy for, so getting me to care whether they survived the apocalypse was going to be a challenge.

The first half of the book dragged a little. They got drunk. They had sex. They each had weird things happen to them separately in the middle of the night which neither of them decided to share even though it was an extraordinary night with meteors striking nearby. The next morning, Beth carries on drinking as a way of not facing up to the world, Mike is still wondering whether being alive is worth the effort and both of them drive to a beach to see if they can find where the meteors struck. When they get there, they can see that something weird is going on but they make no effort to communicate with the people around them to find out what is going on. At this point is was happy to nominate both of them for a Darwin Award. It seemed to me that, if anyone was going to survive the coming apocalypse, it shouldn't be these two no-hopers.

I'd reached halfway through the book and was ready to give up when the pace suddenly changed and I was immersed in a well-structured horror/thriller with scary monsters, a growing body count, lots of blood and an absorbing struggle for survival against the odds.

How did this transformation occur?

Well, firstly we finally got to see the alien monsters and they were original, well-thought-through and truly terrifying. Secondly, the plot tightened, the threat-to-hope ratio was being gradually cranked up until the smallest hope seemed like a relief and the threats seemed likely to be fatal.

Then Beth seemed to undergo a personality transplant after being shot in the head (just a graze) and bitten by one monster and infected by another. I would have expected the Beth I met in the first half of the book to climb into a bottle at this point, let shock take over and wait to die. Instead, she suddenly becomes, competent, brave and capable of deep empathy and sensitivity when dealing with strangers who are in danger. That worked well for the plot but I wondered why I'd had to spend so long watching her demonstrate her long-established habit of self-destruction if she was going to become more than a little kickass under pressure.

Where Beth and Mike had spent the first part of the book being too unimaginative/self-involved to understand or even notice what was going on, they spent the second half of the book coming up with a variety of ingenious plans to get themselves off the beach they were trapped on and analysing the behaviour or the alien monsters to understand their weak points.

K.C. Jones' masterstroke, the one that did more than anything else to ramp up the tension and play on the emotions was to shift the focus from Beth and Mike finally stay sober long enough to rescue themselves to Beth and Mike and their wounded but brave dog give their all to save a stranded little girl who is cuter, brighter and braver than either of them.

I defy anyone to get through the last scenes on the beach without being emotionally involved and routing for all the good guys to be OK while being far from certain that they will all survive.

I recommend the audiobook version of 'Black Tide'. The book is written mostly from the point of view of Beth or Mike in alternating chapters. The audiobook leverages this with two narrators, one for Beth and one for Mike, which I think worked well. show less

There was a point, early on, where I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book because, honestly, I really didn't like either of the main characters.

Such is the strength of Jones's writing that the story swept me up in its black tide (see what I did there? Of course you did) and carried me along.

I'm actually quite jealous, as this is a deceptively simple story, in the way that King's Gerald's Game and Cujo are. There's a set up, there's a tight focus on a character or two, and they're show more trapped in a claustrophobic situation. And Jones absolutely smoked it.

I'll absolutely read more from him. show less

"THEY'LL BREAK MORE THAN SPEED LIMITS ON THIS GIRLS' TRIP FROM HELL."

If you're a fan of road trips with a supernatural twist, you might want to check out "White Line Fever"! As someone who loves hitting the open road, I'm not sorry I missed this one!

I was immediately drawn to this novel as someone who loves horror movies, especially those that twist a seemingly fun trip into a chilling nightmare. The eerie cover added to the allure! The story follows four childhood friends—Livia, Mo, Ash, show more and Becka—who decide to hit the road for a getaway after Livia finds out her husband has been unfaithful.

Sounds like fun, right? But things quickly spiral out of control when they encounter a sinister tow truck and take a shortcut. That’s when the adventure amps up! Little do they know they're heading into "The Devil's Driveway," a 15-mile stretch of closed road. As supernatural elements emerge, the friends confront unsettling childhood flashbacks, revealing their struggles and secrets—some of the best parts of the story.

The book's pacing starts like a leisurely drive along familiar back roads, gradually picking up speed as the story intensifies. Bizarre events leave you questioning what’s real. With each twist, the friends question their reality and wrestle with their fears, desperately seeking a way back home in one piece.

If you’re up for a wild ride filled with outrageous and hair-raising supernatural suspense, this road trip might be worth the journey!

I enjoyed this crazy ride and appreciate Macmillan Audio and Tor Nightfire providing the ARCs through NetGalley. Listening to the audiobook alongside the ebook was fantastic, and the narrator did an excellent job. I’m giving this one a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. I was hooked and needed to see how the story wrapped up, but the supernatural twist caught me a bit off guard. As always, my opinions are my own and shared voluntarily. show less

Black Tide is cinematic horror tour de force by a brilliant new author K.C. Jones. It's a story about an alien invasion - from the point of view of just three characters, and their most horrible day spent at the beach. And it's a hell of a page turner.

It's not only the action and the scare factor of the weird, almost Cthulhu meets A Quiet Place alien invasion that causes one to turn to the pages quickly but the attachment to the characters. Our main characters, Beth and Mike, aren't perfect show more but are highly empathic. Their paths cross early on in the story—Beth is house sitting next door, and Mike is staring off into the distance like he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Both of them are complete messes in different ways. Beth, for her part, can’t seem to keep her life on the rails. Every time she finds something good, she seems to destroy it. Or at least that’s what her mom tells her. She’s accepted it as her lot in life, and she’s bound to make the most of this job before she moves onto the next one.

Mike, on the other hand, seems like a stable guy on the outside. He’s a movie producer who owns a nice car and a big house. He’s got bottles of champagne to spare, but he’s been more than just a little melancholy since his wife walked out (or did she walk out?). Since then, he hasn’t had much interest in this little thing called life.

The two hookup that night, and it’s the start of something for both of them. But when they wake up the next morning to the reality that the heavens are falling and aliens are invading...it's their survival that truly brings them close together and allows for them to grow.

To say much more would ruin the book. Just know that Black Tide is a suspenseful ride and one harboring tale of survival. The characters are crafted perfectly, the story is cinematic, the horror tangible. Do yourself a favor and read it.

Many thanks to Tor Nightfire for the advanced reading copy. show less