From the Bookshelf of Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends…

Wild Dark Shore

Charlotte McConaghy

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: July 30, 2025

Discussion: Spoiler Talk on Books We've Read

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Spoiler Talk on Books We've Read

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What Members Thought

Mar 24, 2025 Rachael Hodson (still skiing) rated it it was amazing

How do I become one of you amazing GR readers who gets books early? I don’t think I have had this much book lust over an announced book release in decades. Wild Dark Shore was easily my most anticipated book of the year.

The true tragedy of finishing this book is that I now have to wait for Charlotte McConaghy to publish another novel and wonder if a fourth book can keep my love affair with this author’s incredible storytelling talent alive. I already cannot wait. Please let us not perish from d How do I become one of you amazing GR readers who gets books early? I don’t think I have had this much book lust over an announced book release in decades. Wild Dark Shore was easily my most anticipated book of the year.

The true tragedy of finishing this book is that I now have to wait for Charlotte McConaghy to publish another novel and wonder if a fourth book can keep my love affair with this author’s incredible storytelling talent alive. I already cannot wait. Please let us not perish from drowning, fire or starvation before this becomes a reality.

I quite literally had to force myself to close the pages of Wild Dark Shore several times just so I could keep it going awhile longer. Keeping in line with her other environmentally conscious books this one is no exception however, this novel is much more plot driven than Migrations and Once There Were Wolves. The later being one of my top favorite books of all time. Maybe even my favorite.

Go into this one blind. Let the story sweep you away into madness and darkness. Let the brutally, beautiful subantarctic island haunt your dreams. Learn a little on the way. Acknowledge that Charlotte’s books are warnings and while some things may not be avoided so many things can. Commit to being a better human and leaving our world a better place. Figure out how to cultivate love and beauty where it doesn’t seem possible to grow. Love deeply. Give yourself to others and allow others to fill your soul. Everyone and everything is worth saving, even what or who you might hate the most and even if they cannot be saved.

I lost my aunt a few years ago and we loved each other unconditionally. She was like a mother to me yet we varied in many different ways including religion, politics and other deeply divisive issues yet books always brought us together. She never got to read Once There Were Wolves, and I dedicated that review to her, but Migrations was one of her last books that she was able to read, and she is the reason that I fell in love with this author and her work. My aunt would’ve loved this story (especially the nod to our Aussie heritage) and for as long as I live, Charlotte McConaghy’s books will remind me of my aunt Lani and the struggles and issues that were important in her life. She carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Much like the beloved characters of this book.

Charlotte McConaghy understands the fragility of nature, the importance of conservation as well as the darkness and light of humanity and weaves each together with breathtaking bitterness as well as beauty and hope.

Did I want Wild Dark Shore to end the way that it did? No, but I am not surprised and I am sure it will haunt me for a long time to come. If you haven’t finished this one, don’t forget the tissues.

Rated R ...more

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Mar 09, 2025 Meera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, book-of-the-month, bought25

This author has consistently given me 5* reading experiences and this did not disappoint. I felt for all of the characters in this novel. The themes of isolation, climate change, grief, and forming connections worked well in this.

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Mar 24, 2025 Rachel rated it did not like it

Clearly I’m in the minority here. Did not like this book at all. Couldn’t stand the writing style. The author made no distinction between past and present timeline. It was all jumbled together. Told from five POVs. And I didn’t like the story at all. So far fetched and weird.

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