Wild Dark Shore
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Synopsis
From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore.
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.
Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, can they trust each other enough to protect one another—and the precious seeds in their care? And can they finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together?
A novel of heart-stopping twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.
Synopsis source: The StoryGraph
Review
Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery
HB&W Rating: 3.75 stars
View on StoryGraph, Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon
I struggled on where to land in rating this, between 3.5 and 4 stars. I decided to split the difference at 3.75 because, while it didn’t fully live up to my expectations, it was immersive and engaging.
I’m a sucker for books with strong atmosphere and this one delivered. The setting was easily my favorite part: dark, haunting, and twisty in all the right ways. The multi-cast audiobook narration heightened that even more, perfectly capturing the bleak, somber tone of the story. The abandoned research station/seed bank made for an eerie backdrop, and paired with the isolation of the remote island and worsening climate conditions, it left me deeply unsettled. I also loved the way the author balanced the beauty and brutality of nature. The seals, penguins, and almost uncanny empathy of the whales contrasted sharply with the storms, the harshness of survival, and the darker sides of human nature. Altogether, it created an incredibly effective atmosphere.
From a mystery standpoint, its clear early on that something deeper and possibly sinister is happening, and uncovering what that was kept me hooked. The isolation gave the story an almost locked-room mystery feel and with all the characters hiding something, it was difficult to know who to trust. Another plus in the mystery column: unreliable narrators.
Speaking of characters, after finishing it, the three kids ended up being my favorites. We get all five perspectives throughout the novel, thought Rowan and Dominic are the primary POVs, and they were harder for me to connect with at first. Both were rough around the edges, and the insta-lust element strained believability considering how suspicious they were of one another to that point. Still, their arcs improved as the story progressed. The emotional stakes ramped up significantly in the second half, and I found myself much more invested in all of them by the end.
That said, the ending didn’t fully work for me. It felt unnecessarily bleak and emotionally manipulative rather than meaningful, leaving me more hollow than reflective. I also think the mental illness aspects could have been handled with more compassion. While the novel was gripping and exceptionally well-told, I don’t know that it left me thinking deeply about the larger themes of climate change, grief, or human nature once I finished it.
Overall, this was an atmospheric and emotionally intense read that completely held my attention, even if the ending and lack of lasting impact kept it from becoming a favorite.
Also…that family is going to need extensive therapy.
Until next time,
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