Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy – Audio
ARC from Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
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, 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, 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.
My Review: 4.25 stars
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is another fantastic read that included environmental issues, a compelling mystery, family drama and a dash of romance.
I’ve learned so much through McConaghy’s earlier books as she brings so much knowledge to the page. Call me living under a rock, but I wasn’t aware of the massive seed bank on a Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle. When the seeds in this seed bank are threatened, life becomes perilous. Is it sabotage? Is it climate change? Is it revenge? Why and who are trying to disrupt this island and the science it holds?
Add to the mix is the family living on the island – a man with three kids that are each holding their own secrets and the mysterious woman who washes ashore. The questions about her and why she washed up onto the beach adds another mystery to the mix. There were some really surprising twists in this one and definitely a few I didn’t see coming!
There are many themes running through the novel. I found grief, unhealthy coping mechanisms, trusting one another and the preservation of the seeds to be most enthralling. This is a great read for book clubs who are looking for something different.
Quotes I liked:
Maybe that’s what being a parent is. Expanding to be more. Asking of yourself more, for them.”
“But the dandelion—this single flower that has given nourishment to countless other living creatures—is considered a weed.”
