Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Charlotte McConaghy’s “Wild Dark Shore” is a page-turning psychological thriller novel with a big focus on climate change. It explores the devastating effects of environmental decline and the need to protect the plant and food supply to save humanity.
Additionally, the book beautifully blends a wide range of themes such as loss, sacrifice, and love into an emotional and mystified story about trauma, family and connection. It’s a book that will leave readers thinking about it for days for its deep attachment to characters and unpredictable revelations.
The book, which covers some triggering content, is set on a remote subantarctic island called Shearwater, which is home to the Salt Family. For eight years, Dominic and his three children have lived on the island and looked after the Shearwater Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest seed bank and home to thousands of different plant species, including some that are extinct in the wild.
Right at the start, readers are introduced to multiple character perspectives, starting off with Rowan, primary female protagonist, and followed by Fen, Dominic’s only daughter. Through their perspectives, readers learn that Rowan has washed up the shore of Shearwater and is found barely alive with serious injuries by Fen.
While having multiple character perspectives as chapters is common in books, something McConaghy does differently is switch the point of views.
Dominic and Rowan, the two main adults, are written in the first person. As they reveal their secrets, trauma, grief and overall individual experiences, reading their perspectives in first person helps build the novel’s suspense and obscure realities.
Fen and Raff, Dominic’s oldest son, are switched to third person. Having lived almost half their lives away from the mainland, the switch to third-person creates the sense of isolation and vulnerability that they experience. But as a reader, observing their perspective also helps build their loving and caring personas.
Orly is the youngest of Dominic’s children and the last character perspective. Through his chapters in the novel, readers learn about the different plants and seeds that he believes to have stories of their own though a monologue format.
McConaghy’s extensive research in botany and climate science is seen throughout the book, especially during Orly’s POV. It helps develop the overall setting of the story, but also creates a character of Shearwater itself.
“Wild Dark Shore” follows a slow-burn format, so readers are gradually given bits of information as new secrets are revealed throughout the story. While the pacing might not be as fast as readers hope for, McConaghy does a great job building tension to keep readers engaged and wanting more.
McConaghy also does an amazing job developing the characters and creating their own personalities, which is greatly shaped by the psychological struggles and experiences they face while on the island. Readers gain deeper insights into their trauma, fear, motivations and the love they have for each other.
This allows readers to form deep emotional connections with the characters, which makes the ending especially powerful and emotionally impacting.
