Black Tide

Jones’s debut begins with a one-night stand and ends with—the end. House sitter Beth and movie producer Mike seem very different, but both are carrying some serious emotional scars. Discovering that they are neighbors and Mike has alcohol, they share a night of passion as meteors fall around them. Arriving with the meteors, vicious (and creatively described) alien creatures quickly decimate the population. Soon, the couple is trapped by these monsters and must figure out a way to survive their sudden bump from the top of the food chain. While most apocalyptic tales are recounted through news reports and multiple eyewitness accounts, Jones wisely keeps the focus on Mike and Beth. The fact that they are far from the typical action movie tropes of capable heroes only adds to the tale’s tension, and narrators John Pirhalla and Sophie Amoss skillfully let the protagonists’ voices cycle through emotions like exhaustion, despair, and even hope.