Dark Tides

by Elizabeth L. Jones

Dauphin Island, Alabama is an idyllic Gulf Coast paradise, or at least it was before the lights went out. When an unknown Event causes the power, along with the cars and electronics, to stop working, Emily must undertake a bicycle journey with her children from the city of Mobile to reach Andrew, a police chief who is struggling to maintain order on their island haven. Chaos and trials will plague them both, but as they come together, they continue to face trouble, in the form of suicides, marauders, rioting and political conspiracy. Just when they think they've managed to pull their isolated community through the worst of the Event's aftermath, a hurricane approaches, putting them in the crosshairs of something so destructive, the Island's very survival is at stake.

234 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2013

About the author

Elizabeth Jones is a part-time veterinary technician, the founder and director of an exotic animal rescue, and a volunteer at her local sheriff's office. She and her husband, Mark, live in Mobile, Alabama with four of their six children, the eldest two having been already pushed from the nest.

While she has always written as a hobby, she never considered publishing until dared to by her husband. As it turns out, she's discovered she has a knack for it.

When not writing, helping with middle school homework, cleaning up dog poop or wrangling snakes, she can usually be found with a book in her hand, ignoring the chaos around her.

Reviews

[Kathy Amende · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a prepper or a believer in the imminent destruction of the world, but I do love me some post-apocalyptic literature (when done well). I also like good fiction, whatever the subject matter. I generally don't put a lot of stock in self-published works (mostly because the ones I've read have been really really bad), and this one isn't much of an exception, to be honest. The typos are terrible, the writing isn't very sophisticated, the situations are overly simplified, and the characters are pretty stock end-of-the-world types - all the good guys are former military and/or police officers and/or doctors, all of them willing to kill without a moment's hesitation, and the bad guys are either politicians, "thugs," or skeevy business owners. However, what gives this book a rating above a 1 star rating is the fact that 1) the story itself is kind of interesting and 2) there are no grandstanding speeches about how America is still America and will go on as before - instead they adopt a socialist system of living, and are all happier for it. Sharing everything works better than working on your own. The community thrives because they don't set up a hierarchy and actually pretty much share in all responsibilities and so forth. In a real emergency scenario, people who behave this way and look out for one another are more likely to do well than those who don't. So I like the message here more than in a lot of other post-disaster, post-EMP, post-etc. novels. Still, overall, this reads like a rough-draft or first draft of a book that could have been good with a rewrite and a strong editor/outside reader.

[Amber Bellomo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just OK

Just OK

It started out well and I learned a few things about survival, but overall the story was extremely predictable and a little boring.