Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
Oh my dear lord, this is a gripping story. It certainly builds and builds, and the author does a great job at laying down the foundations of clues and little crumbs to pick up and digest along the way. The reader is urged to figure out how this curious and complex story will end, almost like a true crime novel (which I’ve never been a fan of but I loved this story). With the clever building of the characters and plot, the ending is dramatic and I was weeping as I turned the last page. Each chapter in the book is written from a perspective of a main character, which includes a family of four, plus another woman. This format helped me understand each character's perspective and plight, like I was actually them. It felt like a familiar dance I play within my own family unit, where each person comes at a situation from a really different view. Because in families there’s either too much said in haste or too much gone unsaid in fear of upsetting the apple cart. Then enters the assumptions we make about how each person is feeling or what they want, and what an exhausting dance that is.
The story weaves in several big, big topics including; complex family dynamics, climate change, the growing pains of adolescence, parenting, maternal expectations, survival instincts, connections with nature, power dynamics within relationships, mental health, and grief.
Set on a remote island that is slowly becoming inhabitable due to wildly changing weather, a family of four try to survive as the caretakers of the island. But when an unexpected guest is washed ashore searching for her husband, who was a scientist working in the research lab stationed there, things get curly. The island is the home to a precious seed vault which holds the future of life on earth as we know it. The stakes are high, and the lengths each of these characters go to to protect themselves and each other is even higher.
There are some beautifully articulated insights about the above topics, and that is what sets this book apart from others. How the author conveyed and tackled big existential topics with ease and flow. She chose the right character to deliver each specific message she wanted to convey. With that I often felt a sense of relief when reading, like she’d solved a big problem in my brain that has been spinning for years. The book was beautiful, and cruel, and fitting, and right. It left a little ache in my heart when I finished reading it and I think the main reason is because the story is about all forms of love and love can be sad and joyous at the same time. It hurts so much but it also saves people.
I would highly recommend this book, it is captivating and a real page turner. Just bolster up for the emotions to flow.
Some of my favourite quotes below;
‘Maybe that’s what a parent is. Expanding to be more. Asking of yourself more, for them’
‘It is really sad that is should take loss to know the precise quality of love’
‘My immediate reaction is to say no, of course not, why should it need to be about that? But with him not looking at me I am able to breathe instead. My eyelids fall shut and I sit with it. Poke around in the dark for the truth. It is tender and aching, like the wound on my hip.’
‘There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.’
Happy reading.
Brigid x
** This review was not written using AI