Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

 

Summary (from the publisher): A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

Review: I have a lot of mixed emotions on this one! It is a big, bold plot with poetic language and a timely premise that harshly illustrates the likely future reality of our world as climate change progresses. I was intrigued by the mystery of this story, the secrets virtually all of the characters are harboring, and the remote and isolated island setting. All of this drama is exacerbated by the threat of the increasingly turbulent world. Set in the near distant future, the earth inhabited by the Salt family and their visitor Rowan is threatened by climate change that has made the seas turbulent, and is causing flooding, diminishing food sources, and terrible storms. 

One of my main issues while reading this is I kept questioning the probability of it all while I read. This is set on an island quite close to Antartica. One of the characters is constantly swimming, despite references to the cold water and rough nature of the seas. I understand that the water would be somewhat warmer in this near future, climate change reality, but what do you mean, she swims in that water with seals? What do you mean?? How would that activity be compatible with life? I kept waiting for references to a wetsuit or some sort of explanation of how she would pull this off without succumbing to hypothermia, being battered to death in the sea, or being attacked by wildlife. Similarly, explain to me how Rowan would survive floating unconscious in the rough sea? I'm not buying it. And why did Rowan just set off alone to the island anyway?? If you really think your husband is in danger, wouldn't you alert the authorities or recruit help? The characters and their actions just did not make sense to me, over and over and over. There is a lot of backstory, with all of the characters having gone through significant trauma and loss, that is meant to help explain what brought them to this point, but it just wasn't enough for me. 

Similarly, this felt a bit too instalove for me. Rowan shows up looking for her husband, with grave suspicions that something dark and sinister has happened to him. She thinks this family knows something they're not saying. But oops, she just loves them all so much and likewise on their feelings for her. What?? Explain to me how you get over the trauma of the death of the man who brought you to the island, get over the suspicious disappearance of your husband, and just happily bond with this family, all while recovering from gruesome and bloody wounds. Over time, we learn that Rowan's husband is extremely problematic and an all-around terrible person, which only continued to make me suspicious of Rowan and her judgement. 

While reading this, I kept thinking that it reminded me so much of a book I read in 2022, to the point where I thought, did this woman rip off that novel? The tone, the themes, the characters all seemed incredibly like that novel. When I went to look it up, I realized that the book I was thinking of, Migrations, was also written by Charlotte McConaghy! Even without remembering her name, her writing style, consistent themes, and tone were all incredibly recognizable from book to book. I think I was less impressed by this novel because I have read that earlier work. While obviously not identical, in so many ways this felt like an alternate version of her earlier book, with both focusing on a woman alone out to find herself in the midst of devastating climate change. In other words, this felt far less original and striking, as it is the second of its kind she has written. 

I did enjoy the last quarter of this book much more than the earlier sections. This felt very slow and like little was happening for a long time, but the intensity dialed up significantly in the final chapters! It became quite riveting in the end. The audiobook version was beautifully narrated with a full cast, which added a lot to this. 

Stars: 3.5

Related Title: 

• Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy