Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy || Publication Date - 04.03.2025
It's amazing what a little isolation and a climate crisis will make you do.
Fiction | Literary | Thriller
Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9781250827951
A small family living on an isolated island between the ocean of Tasmania and Antarctica have saved a woman from a frozen grave. Her wounds were extensive, Dominic had little hope she would make it. However, his suspicion gripped when he couldn't think of a reason why she would be here at all. No one comes here.
This family only have a few weeks left before they would be packaging precious cargo and moving off this god forsaken rock. Each day looms ever closer that the ocean is rising, weather is more chaotic and the world is falling victim to impending climate change.
The woman has come here to find something, the family are trying to keep things hidden, and nothing will prepare them for what comes next.
The Review (May Contain Spoilers)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this eARC for an honest review!
I could easily write my own novel as to why this book was incredible. Everyone in this story is on edge, and you can really get roped in with their emotions as their conversations wax and wane through various topics. It was truly a devastating and haunting experience of a novel.
Exploring multiple themes over the length of a few weeks, I found it impressive in the way that it effortlessly weaves in and out of family, tragedy and compassion. You are never given the time to get comfortable with the characters, new aspects of their history on the island or interactions with other characters constantly throw new and tense situations into the mix. Towards the end I was gripping my seat because it all comes crashing into a myriad of emotions and circumstances that by the end of it, you're sitting there pondering everything that's just happened.
This novel explores what it's like to be human. The various emotions we exhibit and how perception changes and alters the way we feel about certain situations. What it's like from the outside looking into a future where humans have radically changed the course of an entire planet and it's inhabitants. Most importantly, and my personal favourite, the resilience of nature in all its forms.
It discusses the choice to have a family, how this choice can impact the lives of not only the ones coming into the world, but also those already existing. The biggest impact was the commentary of who really has this choice. Subtle cues indicating that even though women are the ones creating the life inside their bodies, they're almost expected to throw their own life away in the process, especially if something bad were to happen during birth.
Lastly how love transcends all other emotions. It's almost written in this novel as a superhuman aspect of humanity. It can be powerful and heartbreaking all at the same time. However, it remains to be said that without it, humanity would fail. The smallest things have an impact, and it can chain into some of the biggest accomplishments our species can achieve.
Overall Thoughts
Despite the bleak and overarching impending doom of the planet due to climate change, I don't know if I speak for everyone when I admit I found this book incredibly uplifting. It's slow pace was really the only negative for me in terms of narrative. However, towards the end, everything ramps up and all you're left with is sitting on the couch for 10 minutes while you ponder your life and everything in it.
The social commentary within the book is provoking enough on its own without throwing in the countless moral dilemmas that happen to all the characters. It left me with so much to think about, so many passages that resonate with me and I truly believe this will be a novel that sticks with me for a while.
I would highly recommend this novel, especially if you run a book club or discussion groups. Everything in this book is primed for conversation, which in turn a lot of these conversations being prompted are incredibly relevant to today's issues. A phenomenal piece of literature and I hope it gets the praise it deserves.