April 8, 2026

Just when you thought you’d read all the best that zombie fiction has to offer, along comes a jewel! I adored this book. The descriptions are phenomenal and horrific, plenty of jump scares, and it feels like a World War Z meets Fallout meets Castaway. I knew from the first page this was gonna be a winner, and I was right! Also, I would like a pet pig now. If you’re looking for something gory and fun, and a refreshing look at the zombie genre, I highly recommend this book.— Desiree Horton, author

April 9, 2026

Mattheson’s debut doesn’t just hook you, it drags you under and holds you there.

Set on a brutal, unforgiving island where the ocean quite literally gives back its dead, this is survival horror at its most savage. By night, the shoreline becomes a nightmare - reanimated bodies crawling from the sea. By day, the jungle is just as deadly, packed with cannibal caves, hostile survivors, and something ancient watching from the shadows.

This book is relentless. There’s no real sense of safety at any point - just constant tension, danger, and the feeling that something worse is always coming. The tropical setting mixed with dark mythology gives it such a unique edge, and the whole thing feels gritty, chaotic, and completely unhinged in the best way.

And Casey? The man is just trying to survive against EVERYTHING - dead things, living things, and whatever sits in between. Add in Puaka the hell pig, and you’ve got a duo I will not be forgetting anytime soon.

The writing is tight, punchy, and dripping with atmosphere. It’s vivid without being bloated, brutal without losing its pace, and honestly just impossible to put down —Mickey, Goodreads reviewer, bookstagrammer

April 5, 2026

Mattheson's debut novel grabs the reader with the very first sentence and doesn't let go. The pages unfold with a perfect blend of horror, a tropical setting, and tiki mythology. The plot is well-crafted, and the narrative tension ever present. Dripping with vivid imagery and written in tight and punchy prose, What the Tide Leaves Behind is a visceral read that never misses a beat. Highly recommended. —Isobel Blackthorn, Author

April 22, 2026

I've had zombies on the brain lately, having written a short story to submit for KJK Publishing's new Zombies anthology that just released this week. At the same time, I was also reading "Where The Tide Leaves Its Dead" by Bray Mattheson which, coincidentally, also revolves around zombies.

"Where The Tide Leaves Its Dead" is a mix of dark humor, horror, and survivalism, set against the tropical backdrop of a south Pacific island in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Not just any zombie apocalypse, however. The undead in this story come out of the sea, armed, aggressive, and relentless in their pursuit of the living, including the beleaguered hero Casey Jones. Casey is a transplant from Texas who now earns a dangerous living dispatching "sea corpses" and hacking off their lower jaws--or "jowls," used as currency--to cash in for supplies. As the story opens, his only companion is Puaka, his loyal "hell pig," that fights alongside him, but he quickly amasses new friends as he treks across the island in search of a fabled "war club," a last vestige of human survivors who are said to share strength in numbers against the undead. Through a series of harrowing misadventures, Casey soon learns that not all of his new allies are trustworthy, and the salvation in the "war club" may not be as promising as it first appears.

This is a wildly imaginative story with breakneck pacing and a colorful cast of characters. The exotic setting serves as a stark contrast to the bleak circumstances in which the island's ragtag human populace is forced to survive. The sea corpses, and in particular, their malevolent leader, Vaekoro, are menacing and terrifying, and the abuses Casey endures leading up to his final confrontation with Vaekoro are truly brutal. "Where The Tide Leaves Its Dead" reads like a movie adaptation, and it's easy to imagine this playing out on the big screen as you're reading. It's a great debut novel and a hell of a lot of fun, making Mattheson an author I'll be keeping an eye on for sure.