Getting back into reading after the New Year is a slow process for me, but I have definitely caught the reading bug thanks to Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. With its isolated setting, complex and mysterious characters, and deeper themes of grief, life, death, and surviving, it has been a story that kept me engaged from start to finish.

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 realises 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.

This whirlwind of a novel has such a vivid and lush description; you can taste the salt air, feel the icy wind on your face, see the rugged and beautiful landscape underfoot, and both hear and smell the seals down on the beach. It is a novel with such stunning writing, featuring words and phrases that will teleport you through time, through space, through all emotions, and deposit you on this stretch of sinking land in the Southern Ocean. I love the multiple perspectives, giving each main character a chance have their say in this story. From young Orly with his love for botany, Fen, who is the embodiment of the sea, Raff, the young man who has been through so much and grown into who he is in such isolation, Dom, the father who does anything and everything to keep his family together, and Rowan, the new arrival who has secrets of her own, and is looking for answers this little family holds close.

The tension and pacing of this novel felt right, and there were times when I had to stop myself from skipping ahead to see what tidbit of information was finally spilt, gleaned, or learned. Charlotte McConaghy has a magnificent way with words, and she knows how to weave dialogue and interactions into a tapestry of pain, darkness, and longing. This makes the novel feel so suffocating (in a great way) and reinforces this setting of aloneness, which leads to things unravelling and chaos ensuing. The big reveal and the climax were so well done, and I love the imagery and themes woven into the tale.

A definite recommendation for all you literary fiction readers and thriller fans out there. This adult contemporary novel has its mystery, its tense foreboding, and its thrills that will have your heart leaping into your throat. The beauty and terrifying strength of nature make for such a perfect backdrop for this novel, and I enjoy it so much. Good thing my next Charlotte McConaghy read, Once There Were Wolves, is already in my library requests.