Review of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughy

Mysteries abound within McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore, but the story is largely an atmospheric story of isolation and loss set against the drama of climate change, tragedy, and finding the will to trust again.

The description of Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore immediately ticked several of my reading-interest boxes--the setting is an isolated island (Antarctica is the closest land mass), the climate is cold (check out these other Bossy reviews of titles with cold settings), and climate change and shifting weather patterns are bringing matters to a head.

When a mysterious woman washes up half-dead on the remote island of Shearwater, home of the world's largest seed bank and formerly a research hub, she finds only Dominic Salt and his three children manning the lighthouse. The lonely, broken characters reach out to each other. Although hesitant because of past hurts, they begin to form intense bonds.

With violent storms on the horizon, no line of communication open with the outside world, and enormous secrets being harbored on all sides, the disjointed group seems doomed to fail each other. But regardless of their interpersonal complications, they may collectively be the only hope of saving the precious, preserved seeds for the future--if they can trust each other long enough to work together for the good of the world.

There are mysteries at the center of the story, but for me this was a captivating, atmospheric dive into the pressures, pain, and hope within extreme isolation, the power of external forces, and the push to protect each other at all costs.

I was intrigued throughout, as the characters' relationships build to a head (they must reveal the secrets they've kept in trying to save each other; they tentatively become vulnerable with each other; they share difficult truths and dare to imagine a bright future) alongside the relentless, unforgiving weather and storms that seem destined to destroy not only their fragile bodies but the work of lifetimes--as well as the characters' hope for the world in years to come.

Wild Dark Shore is both hyperfocused on the nuances of facial expressions, word choice, and interactions as well as vast in its scope, considering climate change's immense effects on the world along with the characters' specific island--as well as the implications of the deadly threat of deterioration of the precious, singular reserves of plant life for generations to come.

More about Charlotte McConaghy

Charlotte McConaghy is also the author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves.