Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy // Book Review

 

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.

The Wolf Tree - Laura McCluskey // Book Review

The Wolf Tree
Laura McCluskey || Publication Date - 11.02.2025

There's always someone whispering about something...

Fiction | Mystery | Thriller | Crime

Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9780593852545

After an apparent suicide, DI's Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to conduct a routine investigation into the death and confirm what everyone already suspects. Where they are headed is a picturesque small island approximately an hour off the mainland coast of Scotland.

From their first arrival, DI Georgina, or George as she commonly likes to be referred by, suspects something is simply not quite right. She's in her own head with something she cannot shake about the death of eighteen-year-old Alan. Things don't add up, and while questioning the island inhabitants, there's even more to this place than she could have even imagined.

What unfolds is an eerie mashup of local history, townsfolk who are way too nice for their own good, and folktales which turn out to have some truth to them after all.

The Review (May Contain Spoilers)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this eARC for an honest review!

Incredibly atmospheric from the first page. I loved the eerie nature of the investigation and the island the detectives went to. I remember starting this book on a 42°C summer day and had goosebumps with how cold this novel made me feel.

There were so many layers of mystery coming into this book. One of the main detectives possibly being ill, or recovering from being so. Inconsistencies between the investigation they have been sent on and what is really happening in the case. There's also the creepy small village atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and is pretty aware of others business on the Island. The ending caught me by surprise and I had no clue where it was going until it was finally revealed. I loved the journey and for a debut it was an incredibly well written novel.

One of the best features was the interactions between the characters. Both the inspectors and the people who live on this island, and the inspectors between themselves. There's so much to everyone and it's hard to know if people are being genuine or are actually conspiring behind others backs. It creates an awesome amount of tension and I loved it!

The created lore of the island is another one of my favourite running lines of narrative. I don't know if it was intentionally referencing the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles lighthouse in late 1900, however if it was, it made this novel even more intricate for me. It's a real story which immediately stuck in my brain while reading, and made this island feel like a real place I could go to and hear the howling for myself.

Overall Thoughts

For a debut novel, incredible. It was eerie, it had complex and genuinely well written characters, and the mixture of historical lore tying into the death investigation made this such a fun read. I would not hesitate to recommend this novel if you like detective novels for one. However, if you like a little history and/or folklore tying into your mystery books, this nailed it for me.

I am partial to a good story which involves close-knit communities with secrets and suspense. Throw a death investigation in there and reading how the author navigates the investigation and the characters is always a good solid time. Another top rated novel for me which follows this same style of narrative was 'One Dark Night' by Hannah Richell. Both are masterfully atmospheric and develop complex character relationships very well.

One Dark Night - Hannah Richell // Book Review

 

One Dark Night
Hannah Richell || Publication Date - 01.01.2025

One dark night in the woods, and a party that takes a disturbing turn. 

Fiction | Thriller

Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9781668081334

There's a legend in this small town. On a lonely stretch of road engulfed on either side by dense forest, there's a girl in a white dress. She wanders aimlessly, and if you see her, it's said you will never be seen again.

The morning after Halloween, a scout group is hiking a trail through these woods which leads to an old stone folly. What they discover, is the grim and staged body of a girl in white. This rocks the small town, for believers of the woman who haunts the forest, and those who are terrified a murderer is roaming the streets.

Was this girl the victim of a Halloween party turned violent in the woods? Or was she killed to represent something more sinister, ritualistic perhaps? The answers lie with a local police detective and a broken family, where they attempt to navigate this crime and try to piece together the case, and their family.

The Review (May Contain Spoilers)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this eARC for an honest review!

Firstly I want to acknowledge that I thoroughly devoured this thriller. It left everything up to the imagination and gave nothing away until the very end. Hannah's writing was atmospheric and created the dank and eerie picture I needed to get sucked into this mystery. No one in this novel was as they seemed and it leant heavily into the creepy, claustrophobic, small town aura I loved.

As much as I love that it played on a real location, it would have been fun to have leant into the superstition a little more, even leaving a final 'is it really true?' impression that lingers in the back of readers minds. There was also a scene in the book which takes place between two characters at a house. This was CREEPY! Intricately disturbing, but sadly, nothing really went anywhere with it. It was disappointing, because with the above mentions, I felt that Hannah had the makings of something truly gripping, but let it slip into 'just another crime novel'.

I do feel, however, that the writing does an amazing job of tying everything together. As much as there are influences in this novel I wish had more attention paid to them, overall it was a solid read. I was guessing where it was going to go next, the entire book. There were a lot of layered twists that I did not see coming. One twist I did see coming, but was exponentially creepier than I was expecting and I was gripping my seat hoping someone would make it out alive. And the overarching mystery surrounding the death of the girl in the woods was interesting and intricately planned.

Overall Thoughts

If you like slow burn, eerie atmosphere, and questionable characters, then I would easily recommend this as a read for you. I generally don't write my ratings in my long form reviews, but this one I gave a 5☆ without question. I definitely had some issues, especially pertaining to the supernatural story that's loosely tied into the novel. I really wish they went harder with that aspect, as it is a main point in most of the marketing for this book and is seemingly casually brought up to add flavour to the story, but no spice.

Though with my feelings pushed aside, and if the supernatural hook is forgotten completely. I loved this novel. It genuinely kept me guessing through the whole story and had moments of pure, delicious, creepy tension, which I love.