A young woman named Rowan washes up on the shore of an island. The island houses a seed vault. It used to house researchers, too, but they have all left; the island’s beaches are rapidly being swallowed up by the rising sea levels, and the only people left on the island are caretaker Dominic, who lives with his three children in the lighthouse. They find Rowan and take her in, nurse her back to health. It doesn’t take long, however, before they discover that she has her secrets – and so do Dom and his family…
Wild Dark Shore is an atmospheric and intelligent eco-thriller (a burgeoning genre, apparently; I still haven’t gotten over Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood) where the setting – a desolate, nearly uninhabited island close to Arctic waters – is used to maximum efficiency. Dom’s family are used to dealing with incidents and accidents; they have lived in isolation for so long that the degree of dependency comes natural to them, and Rowan’s unexpected arrival immediately throws a wrench into their complicated dynamics. It’s a terrific setting that adds a layer of tension; after all, there is no police to call. The nearest people are thousands of miles away. Add to the fact that the island is slowly being swallowed up by rising sea levels, and the whole thing feels poignant, urgent, and frankly, a little depressing. There are also the stories about dead animals, from the seal hunting to the alive boiling of penguins to render their fat for industrial purposes. Dom’s children can feel the ghosts of these tortured creatures. Rowan doesn’t entirely believe them, but at the same time she too can feel the inherent destructiveness of the island.
The characters in the novel are interesting and well-rounded – and they should be, because they are the focus of the novel – but they do suffer from the literary disease: a variety of melancholy oddballs that one really only encounters in fiction. Then again, real life rarely exposes people’s inner thoughts the way novels do, and you’d expect children who grew up far away from the real world to be a little odd.
There are a few predictable twists and a few less predictable twists, and a bunch of foreshadowing and red herrings which I usually hate but that I didn’t mind here. It keeps the reader on their toes and keeps the plot taut even when not much happens. Much of the tension lies in the unspoken ties between the characters; the intense but not entirely benevolent bond between Dom and his children and the newfangled ties between Rowan and the family, but also the ties they each feel to the island.
Not everything about the novel works. The ending is a bit of a cop-out and the reason for Rowan being on the island is rather obvious. The tension is ramped up near the end and I’m not entirely sure I think the way McConaghy chose to end her story is the best one. Some things, too, are simply left unsaid. Narratively speaking this is fine, but it doesn’t always make for the most enjoyable reading experience. Nevertheless, in general this is a well-written thriller where the setting is the real star of the story.
