Think Twice About the Beach

"Black Tide" by KC Jones

State: Oregon

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Creatures and gore on an Oregon beach. What more can you ask for? I love a good sci-fi story. “Black Tide” is a cosmic horror survival story that has the reader immersed in the action.

Black tide is like Predator meets Quiet Place. Beth is house sitting a dog, Jake, on the Oregon Coast. Jake stole my heart. She meets, and immediately sleeps with, her neighbor Mike. The next morning, Beth wakes from the strangest nightmare about aliens and Mike witnesses a meteor shower. Mike and Beth head back to the ocean to get more information. They see people nervously waiting for a boat to come gather them up and take them away to safety. Safety? Guess again.

Black Tide, set on the beach, is the perfect summer read. Jones takes full advantage of the setting by using the ocean, sand dunes and coast. Fog is creepy and disorienting. Strange creatures hang in the air and lurk on the beach. The only safe place is inside Mike’s car. Each creature was significantly different than the other and they were unrelenting.

The story was well-paced. It took a while for Jones to set up the story. The author established the relationship between Mike and Beth before the chaos began. Jones gives these interesting back stories that involve past traumas that come into play during the story. The dialog between Mike and Beth felt authentic. These strangers were unsuspectingly thrown into a terrible situation and forced to survive. Jake, the dog, stole my heart. He was so loyal. For fellow dog lovers, there are scenes with the dog that might be upsetting. The author could have handled these parts of the story better.

The audiobook is fun. It had a cast of narrators and felt like a movie in my ears. It was difficult to find a stopping point. I could feel the tension and terror as the creatures cornered Beth, Mike and Jake. Black Tide was a tense sci-fi story that is perfect for summer.

Books set in Oregon:

“One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

“Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed