WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 3. Fight the Tide (Book 2 of Kick at the Darkness series) by Keira Andrews

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30989088-fight-the-tide

Sigh, I wish I didn’t have such high hopes for Book 2. I love Keira Andrews as an author and her style, plus the gay sex is very hot. However, I can’t ignore the problems as I read in the 2^nd novel.

What happened?

The story suffered from the same problem The Walking Dead did in later seasons of the show and sadly a lot of shifter genre stories that I have read online. Adam and Parker set out for sea with hopes for freedom and love lifting their sails. However, the actual reality of living off scavenging small coastal towns and the post-apocalyptic landscape without laws is now on full display. Like The Walking Dead, the struggle to survive can be fun and interesting, but the weakness is the human interactions. However, there lies the problem, this is a “Zombie” Apocalypse and we hardly got any zombie at all in this novel. Keira Andrews did nothing wrong with her focus shift, but it’s part of the narrative issue of this genre, when you extend the story. Zombie stories that explores the world, aka world building, amongst humans interacting with the environment and other groups loses the horror element of the zombies, then becomes repetitive with lesser elements of that world.

The other problem came about at the end of the novel, when we learned Adam was an “Omega” werewolf. ☹ Yeah, Keira Andrews changed her genre in the final few chapters of the book from Post-Apocalyptic to Shifter Drama, which helped stem the issues from the "un-dead" story elements of surviving a post-apocalyptic world through scavenging and fighting other groups throughout the book. Cue my disappointment, when Adam became a servant of a female Alpha and implications of what his classification has on his relationship with Parker. In the shifter genre, Omegas are the submissive and maternal partner (male or female gender identity don’t matter), they must obey Alphas, who are bred leaders of shifter packs or groups. Another aspect, Omegas are the only shifters as males, who can give birth to other shifters, when they mate. The ending on Shifter island felt like a forced transition into a completely different genre. It didn’t feel like an organic outgrowth of what Adam or Parker were discovering about werewolves, nor did I like the discovery that Adam was an Omega done by making him enthralled by an Alpha. In this circumstance, just tossing terms and tropes at readers really hurt the overall story to me.

In terms of characters: I like the idea of traumatic experience being a psychological issue, I feel bad for Parker’s PTSD with his assault as a result. However, Parker’s overcompensation and paranoia throughout the story detracts from what his character developed in the last book. Furthermore, the assault, with potential sexual connotations, was resolved in the end without any cathartic release. While I can understand, it might just be my desire for revenge. Personally, I wanted to see Parker pull a gun on his attacker with Adam threatening to tear his limbs off, I don’t expect these guys to kill the villains, which is fine as that would not fit their character arcs. However, killing most of the villains off-screen and leaving the last villain alive in good condition with the “promise” of being “sorry”, while having Parker resolve his psychological trauma as a manic personality quirk, it was a disservice to the character. I just can’t accept it.

Adam, before the island, was afraid of hurting Parker by opening himself up too much with his wolf form being a literal monster. If I could talk to the character, I’d smack Adam, the wolf pup and all, over the head, Parker is completely into him, including the fang and fur. However, this is where the other problem comes into play. I have no problem with the fetish sex in the story, but the emotionally stunted nature of the character involved in sex is the problem. Adam knew from book 1 that Parker would do anything for him despite being so self-absorbed. Parker protected him when Adam was literally locked up and being experimented on. His boyfriend is capable in protecting him and himself. It just felt out of character, Adam has grown far too much to act like this around Parker.

Beyond the two core characters and their hang-ups, the second book introduced four new characters: a family of survivors. Craig and Abby provide an adult outlook, but they appear jaded and at times, I just feel like they were used more for props than as characters for development. Throw in Lily, the obligatory innocent little girl, and Jacob, the teenage boy with angst and unrequited gay urges, you get a family drama in the middle of an Zombie-Apocalypse, with far less zombies. Then, the author kills off one of these new characters to add unresolved emotional conflict, the result was a tragic burial and drama among remaining characters. Yes, I like Jacob as a gay teen trying to figure himself out and struggling with teen angst, but this is not that kind of story and he became a plot device far more than a character that I can root for. Lily’s own fears after seeing Adam’s transformation into a werewolf were a good idea, but the payoff was weak delivery. Overall, all these new secondary character felt either underused or overexposed as plot devices.

Were there things I like about this book? Sure, I still love the premise and the idea of Adam and Parker being a dysfunctional couple. I also still like the dynamics of Parker and Adam reversing roles due to Parker’s abilities as a sailor versus Adam’s as a hunter/woodsman. There are still a lot of mysteries, like the mysterious ship that Parker spotted in this book, or the island haven’s “supposed” utopia of Werewolves/humans living side-by-side together, (For X-Men fans, I am getting Genosia vibes off of this, it’s way too good to be true. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adam gets chained up in a sex dungeon as breeding stock and Parker becomes a slave in the fields).

My rating: 3.25 out of 5, I didn’t like it, but I loved the original book and with a third novel being planned by Keira Andrews, I really hope the third novel addresses issues in the second novel. I am not asking for perfect harmonious relationship between Adam and Parker, but at this point in their relationship, we should be dealing with soulmate territory of unspoken acceptance and mutual trust. As for new characters, Jacob has a lot of character, but he needs to tone it down, Lily is one note and needs to be fleshed out, and Craig is a cardboard cutout, who I would be fine killing off due to his lack of impact.

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I've read really crappy stories in the past, but Keira Andrews Fight the Tide isn't as bad as those, I want to believe she is trying to fix a flaw in the genre she entered, but her way of transitioning came at the cost of her characters. It's a good lesson to me as a writer, don't force a transition in genre, let it happen throughout the novel. At least, the prior novel help set up an environment to help make the second novel bearable. While I gave this a low rating, if readers want to know what story I'd give poor rating or 0 rating to, feel free to ask. There are true stinkers in gay male fiction.

I'll probably do something comedic tomorrow