The Tides

By: Melanie Tem

Narrated by: Joyce Feurring

Twenty-eight-year-old Rebecca (Becky) Emig has her hands full. A new position as an administrator at The Tides - a nursing home for senile, elderly, handicapped and insane residents - leaves her little time for her crumbling personal life. Compounding her stress, she has begun experiencing bizarre hallucinations and strange childhood memories after she is mysteriously drawn to visit an empty lake bed behind the nursing home. And her father, Marshall, who is an Alzheimer's patient at The Tides, has begun calling her "Faye", a name Becky does not recognize, but which is inexplicably on the lips of all the patients.

Marshall claims that Faye is the one responsible for the recent rash of perplexing "accidents" (a suicide, a poisoning, a car wreck, etc.) that have left several patients and staff dead and have authorities threatening to shut down the place. Faye turns out to be Marshall's first wife, a destructive woman whose very existence he and his second wife have kept hidden from Becky. Tem (Desmodus) makes good use of this dramatic irony as Becky struggles to uncover a family secret the reader already knows.

Meanwhile, the enigmatic traces of Faye's presence (the intoxicating odor of roses, a visual disturbance in the air) as well as her ability to infiltrate others' thoughts and control their actions, keep readers wondering whether the woman is human or demon. The answer may be different for each of Tem's distinctive and carefully drawn characters.

©1999 Melanie Tem (P)2012 David N. Wilson

A real waste of time and money!

What disappointed you about The Tides?

The story was drawn out with a boring plot.

What could Melanie Tem have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not written it.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator sounded like an eighty-year old chain smoker. Assuming the narrator is female (I really wasn't sure...) she was extremely overly dramatic.

What character would you cut from The Tides?

I would have cut everyone but the husband in particular. He had no bearing on the plot.

Any additional comments?

Not a good choice. Save your credits for anything else.