Wild Dark Shore
- Judith D Collins
- Mar 29, 2025
- 7 min read
Narrators: Cooper Mortlock; Katherine Littrell; Saskia Maarleveld; Steve West
ISBN: 9781250381538
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: 03/04/2025
Format: Audio
My Rating: 4 Stars (ALC)
This program features multicast narration.
An ENTHRALLING new novel from the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves
"A WILDLY TALENTED writer."―Emily St. John Mandel
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. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all 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 breathtaking 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 disappears.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
My Review
WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy is a hauntingly atmospheric mystery thriller that intertwines elements of climate fiction. The story centers on Rowan, a woman who miraculously washes ashore on a desolate, windswept island, where she encounters the enigmatic Salt family. As the devoted caretakers of a crucial global seed vault, their lives are steeped in isolation and shrouded in dark secrets. Rowan's unexpected arrival acts as a catalyst, unraveling the intricate tapestry of their hidden truths and long-buried tensions, ultimately revealing how interconnected their fates truly are against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.
About...
WILD DARK SHORE is a mystery thriller and climate fiction novel centered on Rowan, a woman who washes ashore on a remote island, and the Salt family, caretakers of a global seed vault, whose isolated lives and dark secrets unravel as a result of her arrival.
Rowan, near death, is rescued by Fen and the Salt family on the remote, storm-battered Shearwater Island, which houses a global seed vault.
As Rowan recovers, she is driven by the mystery of her missing estranged husband, Hank, a botanist who was last known to be working on the island.
Rowan discovers sabotaged communications equipment, evidence of violence at the abandoned research base, and a freshly dug grave, raising her suspicions about the Salt family's secrets regarding Hank's fate.
Hank had an affair with Fen, suffered a mental breakdown under the pressure of deciding which seeds to save (due to the vault failing), and attempted to destroy the seeds. Dominic and his family imprisoned him for the safety of the island and its contents.
During a massive storm that floods the seed vault, a final confrontation occurs. Hank escapes imprisonment and attacks Fen, but is pushed into the ocean by Raff and drowns. Meanwhile, Rowan and Orly are trapped in the rising water in the vault. Rowan sacrifices herself, using her last breath to save Orly.
After the storm, the family reconciles and works together to save stranded whales on the beach, a symbolic moment of hope and healing. The rescue ship arrives, and the family, along with the seeds they managed to save, prepares to leave the collapsing island for new beginnings.
The surviving Salt family members carry the lessons of loss, love, and resilience with them as they leave Shearwater Island behind, while Rowan's narrative voice continues posthumously, emphasizing that she found a sense of belonging and made a final sacrifice for her new "adoptive" family.
My thoughts...
In WILD DARK SHORE, the Salt family's isolation on Shearwater Island is both a refuge and a prison, shaped by deep-seated grief and the burden of guarding the world’s last biological hope.
The family's central trauma is the loss of Dominic’s wife, Claire, who died eight years prior while giving birth to their youngest son, Orly. Her death prompted Dominic to move the family to a remote island to escape their grief, yet it left the children with profound emotional scars.
The family lives in the shadow of the island's violent history of sealing and whaling. Orly and Fen believe the island is haunted by the "ghosts" of these slaughtered animals, a motif reflecting their own unprocessed family trauma and the "interconnectivity of life and death".
Dominic’s grief has made him an emotionally distant and fiercely protective father. This isolation has forced the children to develop idiosyncratic coping mechanisms:
~Fen (17): Finds solace by living among the seals, essentially rejecting human society after being traumatized by her secret affair with the unstable botanist Hank.
~Raff (Teenager): Channels his "grief and rage" from a past heartbreak (specifically regarding a character named Alex) into silence and music.
~Orly (9): Obsessed with the natural world and "hearing the voices of the dead," he has never known his mother and looks for connection in the seeds and the island's environment.
The moral trauma, the secrets, the cover-up, deception, and guilt all create a pervasive atmosphere of paranoia and moral compromise that defines their present existence. Isolation, while initially a protective mechanism for the characters, is shown to be a "trap". True redemption and healing only occur when characters choose to trust and belong to one another again.
The presence of "ghosts" and memories on the island highlights that the dead continue to influence the living, and finding peace requires acknowledging both the beauty and the "ravages of nature".
The novel argues that loving others is a risk worth taking, even when the future is uncertain or temporary. The central message of WILD DARK SHORE is that while we cannot prevent all losses—whether environmental or personal—the act of loving and caring for one another remains our most essential purpose.
The title reflects the novel’s central themes of environmental unpredictability, psychological grief, and the literal setting of the story. The book is primarily about fear. The "dark shore" symbolizes the treacherous emotional terrain the characters navigate while coping with profound loss, betrayal, and an uncertain future. Despite its ominous name, the "wild, dark shore" is where the characters eventually find redemption.
The audiobook...
Though it may not top my list of favorite books, I found myself captivated by the atmospheric allure of the audiobook. It was brought to life by a brilliant ensemble of narrators, including the talented Cooper Mortlock, the enchanting Katherine Littrell, the evocative Saskia Maarleveld, and the compelling Steve West. Their distinctive performances deepened the sense of dread that permeated the intensity of the dark shore, accentuating its many complexities and haunting mysteries.
A special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sharing an advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Mar 04, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
Praise
A Most Anticipated Book (Goodreads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, WNYC, The Nerd Daily, Zibby’s Highlights)
“Riveting… McConaghy’s descriptions of nature’s glory and terror are galvanic, the psychological struggles wrenching, the suspenseful action spectacularly choreographed. McConaghy has attained new heights of intensity and lacerating ecological conviction in this complexly plotted, tragic, and all-consuming tale of the battle to survive.”
―Booklist (starred review)
“[A] terrific thriller…McConaghy keeps readers guessing…McConaghy writes about both nature and human frailty with eloquent generosity. Readers won’t want to leave behind the imagined world of pain and beauty that McConaghy has conjured.”
―Kirkus (starred review)
“Sub-Antarctic noir meets a love letter to the rapidly disappearing wild world in McConaghy’s latest…As lush as it is taut with tension, this novel is filled with both the joys and ravages of nature.”
―Library Journal (starred review)
“Urgent…McConaghy ratchets up the tension as the characters’ paranoia and mutual suspicion increases and their motives are revealed…McConaghy blends entertainment with a sobering message about conservation and the impacts of geographic isolation.”
―Publishers Weekly
“Remarkable…Raising issues of love and family and sacrifice, Wild Dark Shore is a beautiful examination of hope in the face of certain destruction.”
―Shelf Awareness
“At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural world, and a taut, psychological thriller, Wild Dark Shore is a triumph. Charlotte McConaghy is masterful in her ability to show the intricate connections between place and the human heart, and Wild Dark Shore shows her at the height of her powers. Breathtaking.”
―Hannah Kent, international bestselling author of Burial Rites
About the Author
Charlotte is an Australian author living in Sydney with her partner and two children.
She has a Masters Degree in Screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and a number of published SFF works in Australia.
Her novel MIGRATIONS was her first foray into adult literary fiction, published in North America by Flatiron Books, and by Penguin Random House in Australia and the UK. It is being translated into over 25 languages, and adapted to film.
ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES, the New York Times Bestseller, is a romantic mystery about a biologist charged with reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands in order to rewild the landscape and bring a forest back to life.
Her forthcoming third novel WILD DARK SHORE continues her love of romantic thrillers set in beautiful, remote places, and explores not only what it takes to raise children in a collapsing world, but the impossible choices we make to protect those we love.
Due out March 2025. WEBSITE
