Black Tide by K.C. Jones is an pulse pounding alien invasion horror / 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 know 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.