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Bearing Witness in the Shadow: A Reflection on Tides of Darkness

Revisado: 04-11-25

Andrew Van Wey’s Tides of Darkness, the second in his Beyond the Lost Coast trilogy, is more than a horror novel—it is a meditation on memory, evil, and moral endurance. It cloaks itself in the language of the supernatural, but at its core, it’s a deeply human story about choosing to care when apathy would be easier.

Zelda, the teenage protagonist, avoids the trap of becoming a hollow “chosen one.” She stumbles, scars, and grows. Her greatest strength isn’t power, but presence. She listens to the ghosts—literal and figurative—when the adults around her refuse to. She does what the elders cannot: she remembers. And in doing so, she redeems.

The novel’s true terror lies not in its eldritch horrors, but in its portrayal of banal evil. Those who serve the god Jahar are not monsters in the dark—they’re familiar: privileged, self-protecting, and bureaucratically brutal. Their worship is convenience, and their legacy is rot. And yet, even as they’re devoured by the very god they served, the novel warns us: evil survives. It adapts. It waits.

What lingers most is not the dread, but the defiance. Zelda does the right thing not because it will save her, but because it is right. And that is the kind of story worth reading.

For those of us who walk halls heavy with other people’s pain, Tides of Darkness is not just fiction. It is reflection. It reminds us that the we might go through the shadow of death - sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do in the face of cosmic indifference and care anyway.

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A Gothic Masterpiece of Love, Power, and Haunting Memories

Revisado: 02-24-25

Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is a novel that lingers like a dream—beautiful, unsettling, and impossible to shake. From the very first line, it pulls you into a world where the past is never truly gone and love is tangled with secrets, guilt, and obsession.

At its heart, this is a story of two women: one living, one dead. The narrator, a quiet, uncertain young woman, finds herself thrust into the shadow of Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter—a woman who seems to have been everything she is not. As the story unfolds, the weight of Rebecca’s presence grows unbearable, turning Manderley, the grand estate she now calls home, into both a paradise and a prison.

But Rebecca is not just a love story, nor simply a mystery. It is a masterful exploration of power—how it is wielded, how it is perceived, and how it can shape a person’s identity. Du Maurier leads us through a world where appearances deceive, where villains can be victims, and where justice is never as simple as right and wrong.

The audiobook experience heightens the novel’s tension, bringing the characters’ psychological depth and the novel’s brooding atmosphere to life. Every moment is thick with emotion, every word dripping with the weight of things unsaid.

Perfect for lovers of Gothic fiction and psychological thrillers, Rebecca is a novel that will make you question everything you think you know—about love, about morality, and about the stories we tell ourselves. Once you step into its world, you may never leave it behind.

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Initial reaction: mixed feelings

Revisado: 02-13-25

Before beginning this work, I wanted to re-explore all of the storm light archives and so have been binge listening to installments one through four before I tackled this one. So with everything fresh in my mind, I wanted to capture my thoughts.

This was a fine book, but not a great one. I was particularly disappointed by the scale and scope of things. Everything is too big and it suffers from the Marvelification of scope. When things were confined to the shattered plaines and the world was as large as the next bridge run, I could connect. This was too big to feel any investment I. More than that, and maybe this is a a personal preference, but there was never a moment when I was concerned that any of the characters were going to not have the ending that they did. There were some surprises, but I never really felt a sense of danger for any of them. What with their semi divine power, the dangers of books one and two were largely absent. These were beings that could really do no wrong.

Something that I particularly disliked, and which I think Brandon Sanderson did in fact do wrong, was interjecting 21st century, woke ideology into the story. A non-binary subplot and a chest binding character, and even the gay-inner species romance really took me out of the story. Not because they’re so strange in our world but because of all of the characters’ reactions to them. Everyone was so understanding and supportive without any reason for it. It’s like Sanderson wanted everyone to know how wonderful it was and that’s…not reality. Of course, it’s not lost on me that this is fantasy but up to this point there had been a realness to the world that this choice destroyed. More than that, I think this took the story out of the timelessness that the early books had set it upon completely out of the possibility. There’s no telling what the future will hold, but I tend to think this ideology, at least as it’s presented in the story, will not stand the test of time.

While I do love the narrators and appreciate the story that they’re able to create with their voices, it is clear that there is a tonal sound different in Miss Redding’s voice. I suppose being in the industry as long as she has will do that, but it was jarring when listening to all of the works in a row.

Will I read book 6 when it comes out? Yes, but this particular story ate up a lot of my goodwill, and I’ll be very interested to see what he does in the intervening years.

Journey before destination.

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A call to lead well as men

Revisado: 06-09-24

In a world twisted by the lies of Satan and the tools of feminists, this book serves his excellent primer to godly men to pick up the mantle of responsibility that God has called them towards. Not just in the church, but in the family and world as well.

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A worthy successor to HG Wells’ work

Revisado: 02-07-24

I wasn’t totally sure what this book would be when I purchased it, but Levine Christopher Priest novels as I do, I thought it would be worth the read. I was not disappointed. What follows is a retelling of HG Wells novels the Time Machine, and War the worlds. 

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A paradigm shifting book

Revisado: 12-10-23

Tremendous. This book delves deeply into the concept of fear and the different types revealed in scripture. Like so many pastors have said through out history our view of God is not too large but far too small. That is how I felt after reading this wonderful book.

And the narration is everything I want in a narrative.

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It’s alright

Revisado: 02-27-23

This story does not have the heart or the danger of the previous iteration. It reads like a quest log of a mildly entertaining video game. Go here to do that now go here to do that then go back to where you started and then the novel ended.

I guess my final thought was, ok, well I guess it’s over then.

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A cordial for the soul

Revisado: 02-25-23

Are you afraid, are you timid, do you see the news and worry for the future. The Lord, through Thomas Watson, bids us come to Him and find our rest and peace. For, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
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A beautiful series of reversals

Revisado: 02-15-23

War and peace, leaders and followers, men and women, rich and poor, the novel explores the reversals of people and nations. I greatly appreciate the work but it isn’t my favorite of the great Russian literature.

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Compelling story

Revisado: 11-29-22

At first, I thought the story was a little too cookie cutter, too many tropes being used and not enough originality…I was so glad that I didn’t give up on it after the first hour.

I love the narrator, but his voice is not nearly young enough. The main characters sound like they’re in their mid forties rather than the teens they’re supposed to be. A minor complaint for so great an actor.

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