I just think that if anyone were to slide this book towards Mike Flanagan’s “for consideration” pile that’d be pretty neat. The dude knows his fracturing families and trauma hauntings, both literal and figurative. 

First Things First: Wild Dark Shore is the first book (out of 26) chosen for my family’s book club that I’ve given 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads (the group average being 4.4), so thanks for picking it, mom. Well, mostly thanks Charlotte McConaghy, but also thanks mom. When in doubt, go for the brownie points.

Brief Thoughts: When a nearly drowned, battered, and bleeding woman washes up on the shore beneath a defunct lighthouse, there’s only one obvious explanation: she’s a selkie. No, that might actually be the island keeper’s daughter, Fin Fen, who finds her safe haven not with her family, but amongst the seals who call this island at the end of the world home. Maybe she’s a kelpie instead? Or is that the ghost of the mother, who the lighthouse keeper clings tightly to in the hope that she will keep him afloat, even as she slowly drags him further away from their children… How about a siren then? Or are those the whales whose songs the eldest son no longer finds comfort in, as he drowns in grief. Then maybe she is the albatross who will save this family, flying them away from this sinking island like the seeds the youngest son covets so highly, bringing them to a place of promise where they can take root and bloom into something beautiful once more. 

Or maybe she’s just human, wounded and floundering, lost like all the rest. 

A Favorite Highlighted Quote:
“…why isn’t she waking up?”
“I don’t know, mate. She swam a long way. She might still be swimming.”

Maybe Not So Brief Thoughts (Cont.): Until Rowan’s folklore inspiration reveals the truth of the who, there is still the mystery of why she has washed up on the blood soaked shores heavily scarred by manmade death, during the final days of a large-scale doomsday prep scenario — a relocating seed vault that houses the seed specimens that will be relied on to jumpstart the world’s ecological and agricultural survival when things get truly dire thanks to good ol’ global warming. Blegh, grandiose hope for the future? Sounds like the last place someone who sees the futility of life as reason enough to not live it fully would want to be. And yet she made the beyond perilous journey through a murderous storm to get to this out of the way island anyway. She must have one hell of a reason…

Another Favorite Highlighted Quote: “I think it suited me to be with someone I knew would never look directly at me.”

Ok Definitely No Longer Brief Thoughts (Cont. Part 2): [Squints directly at her] Maybe Rowan is a ghost. Or is everyone ghosts!? [Pushes book at Mike Flanagan more insistently.]

Admittedly a number of my more outlandish theories were quashed early — or were they!?!?!?!? — by someone who is, thankfully, far more skilled of a writer than I am. And though I may have a few qualms with a certain whale incident and an element of the ending, there’s no denying that McConaghy knows how to keep the reader invested with a slow but steady trickle of reveal after reveal — I’d say my Kindle notes are full of theorizing, but it’s actually mostly just “the plot thickens!” written over and over — often further complicating things in the best way.

Final Thoughts: No, but seriously, if McConaughy is interested in an adaptation… [Aggressively smacks the book in front of Mike Flanagan] Do it for the ghosts, real or not.

—Bonus Rounds—

Easily Distractible: There is a character in this book named Hank Jones, and it bothered me for some reason I couldn’t place for the longest time, until it finally hit me: Hank Henshaw + J’onn J’onzz (John Jones) = Hank Jones. Shoutout to The Martian Manhunter.

Quick Question: Does anyone have thoughts on why Rowan and Dominic are written in first person while Fen and Raff are in third? My best guess is it’s something to do with splitting the generations, with the elder generation having a responsibility to fight to protect and better the world being left to the younger generations, but that feels a bit shaky honestly.

My Biggest Complaint: You’d think it would be the aforementioned qualms with the ending, but it is actually that at one point someone says another character “tastes of salt.” The character’s last name is Salt. BOOOOOOO.

---

Book Club’s Next Pick: For those curious, my father-in-law has chosen Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. I’ll unlikely be sharing a review of it since it’s not a book I would choose to read myself; granted I said that about Wild Dark Shore and it was more than a pleasant surprise, so we’ll see!