I am happy to say that this is the first book I’ve read by Charlotte McConnaghy, and am excited to know there are more novels by the same author out there that I will need to read!

As an atmospheric work of speculative eco-fiction, this book successfully captures the stark, brutal nature of life on an island in a relentlessly dominant and encroaching sea.

As a mystery, A Wild Dark Shore kept me highly engaged as Rowan, a woman washed up on the island’s shore, and Dom, the father of the children inhabiting the island, skirt around the reasons they are on the island, and the secrets they are holding.

Mostly, however, I was overtaken with the book’s exploration into what it means to be a parent in an unsafe world. I am well beyond my child-bearing years, but this book really made me question whether I would have the courage to be a parent in today’s reality.

Although this book was at times ominous and foreboding, it emanated the positive forces of love and trust needed in a family — and subsequently in the world — when our very existence may be heading towards a darker place.