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Black Tide
on June 28, 2012 and has 256 pages.
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Disclaimer: This copy was provided by the publisher, Floris Books, Edinburgh
Second in the Kelpies (or Red Fever) apocalyptic adventure series for middle-grade readers.
My Take
This is an engaging story about a young boy’s adventures saving his family and friends. That said, I also found it a bit dorky in spots where Clough is talking down to the reader. I never do appreciate that. Yeah, I know, I’m older than the intended audience, but I’m afraid I use J.K. Rowling and John Flanagan as my guides in this.
Even though this is the second in the series, I found that it wasn’t necessary to have read the first, Red Fever, to be able to follow along as Clough does a nice job of providing us with enough backstory to fill us in.
It is a dystopian world where dogs are more dangerous than you know and pirates swap people for food. I am so hoping that doesn’t mean what I’m thinking!
On the whole, Clough writes well and this is a story on coping and taking on responsibility. There are some good morals in this and a good confidence builder with children taking on adult decisions and succeeding better than most adults!
There were a few spots where I was wondering how I got here from there, small leaps within paragraph that were confusing.
Toby can be pretty dorky in an overly dramatic manner. What’s with those thoughts he keeps having at the end of the chapters? What a drama queen. Then there are the actions and whining he does. Toby is the one who insisted on running out into trouble, constantly asking questions instead of reacting and then Toby gets pissy because Tash decides to save herself? Please. He couldn’t even be rescued without holding everything up. Why would she want to wait around again? Besides, someone needs to be free to rescue him again. And he keeps blaming Tash for his stupidity.
Continuity issue here: Her wolf coat is putting him off his food? When he’s still covered in pig muck?
The Story
Kidnapped! Something his oil engineer dad has or knows. The raiders want him, and they’re taking anyone with knowledge.
Then it’s an unexpected rescue and a wild motor down the Caledonian Canal up through the locks and then careering across the countryside on Highland ponies followed up by yet more rescues.
The Characters
Toby Tennant hates sailing but after the red fever virus hit, he’d had to learn and now lives on the Lucky Lady with his dad, Dave, and six-year-old sister Sylvie with her pet rabbit Henry.
Katie McTavish is a scientist studying the dogs affected by the red virus. She has a son named Jamie who is Toby’s best friend and they live in Fraserburgh. Natasha “Tash” Marie Anya Gablinski is the wolf girl who rescues Toby; her parents were also kidnapped by the General. Snowy is a hybrid wolf that Tash patches up—it’s a good lesson in being kind to animals! Tash names the ponies they found: Daisy, Molly, Lulu, and Flossie.
The General has a grand plan for his New Caledonia and he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the fulfillment of his schemes. The Captain seems to be close to the General; he and Calvert are two of the kidnappers from Fort George.
Cerberus seems to be the leader of this enhanced pack that is tracking Toby.
The SAS-types who rescue them include Tom and his dog, Casper; Captain Bill Gallagher is an interrogator; and, Simon.
The Title
The title refers to the pack of dogs, a Black Tide that covers the land. I do like the wave effect on the title’s type.
