Review: Wild Dark Shore

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

There has been much hype about this book and let me state from the outset, I understand why. It packs a punch in so many ways, terrific reading and I highly recommend it. Evocative and atmospheric, immersive and heartbreaking.

‘Is this how it will feel when the world starts to crumble? Like you can’t see where you’re going, and at any moment you could lose your people and be left to wander alone?’

Let’s see .... 

• classic mystery/thriller with loads of twists and turns that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final pages

• the haunting locale - harsh, remote, inaccessible

• the characters - rare but true and so identifiable - exquisitely crafted

• it’s statement on the environment, climate change and rising sea levels

• the wildlife, the island, the risks to save the seed bank for future generations

• how it captures grief and parenting

• the way the author captures the sense of place - you will feel cold just reading it!

• the climactic ending that leaves you breathless

One hundred percent compelling - one hundred percent unmissable. Do yourself a favour.

‘... maybe none of us will be, because we have, all of us humans, decided what to save, and that is ourselves.’

Title: Wild Dark Shore

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

Publisher: 4th March 2025 by Penguin Random House Australia | Penguin eBooks 

Pages: 389 pages

Genre: Mystery | Thriller

Synopsis:

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 of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back towards 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 realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together. 

A novel of heartstopping twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is a story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.