Wild Dark Shore: Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)

REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB'S BOOK OF THE YEARLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (NPR, TIME, USA Today,
The Economist, Scientific American, Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest,BuzzFeed, BookRiot, HuffPost, Jezebel, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus, and more!)

"A breathtaking novel of ROMANCE, MYSTERY, AND TWISTS that will shock you...I love this book so much." —Reese Witherspoon
"A WILDLY TALENTED writer."
―Emily St. John Mandel
“Absolutely ASTONISHING. McConaghy's writing knocks me over every time.” —Fredrik Backman
“SPELLBINDING...Exceptionally imagined, thoroughly humane.” —Washington Post

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

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. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all 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.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.

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Published Mar 4, 2025

320 pages

Average rating: 7.5

2,796 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Wild Dark Shore* is a haunting, emotionally intelligent eco-thriller with stunning, immersive atmosphere and vivid environmental depictio...

fromlizaslibrary
Apr 28, 2026
7/10 stars
I have conflicting feelings for this book. On one hand I found it incredibly boring and on the other I felt it brought an incredibly powerful and meaningful conclusion. I don’t think I fully agree with the hype of this, especially for the first 40-50% but it did prove itself worth towards the end. The structure was a bit all over the place but I did understand the purpose, it just took some getting used to so it was tough to buy into the story and the characters early. I found the setting very intriguing and I’d say fairly dystopian but in the most realistic sense because I would not doubt our world could succumb to these measures. My largest gripe is the character development. I only half cared about each character and I think it’s because with the constant change in perspectives I didn’t get enough of them, it all just felt surface level. I got enough to understand them or have the plot develop but I wasn’t super attached so when the relationships grow (and we come to the end) I didn’t care as much as I know I could’ve. What I give the most credit to is the twists of this- I thought I had everything figured out and I absolutely did not so I’d say that was a job well done.
Sue Dix
Mar 14, 2026
8/10 stars
This was a fast read (power outage, nothing else to do), and I enjoyed it very much. I know not every book has a happy ending, but this one could have. It was a bit of a let down. The book is a bit of an emotional roller coaster, and I enjoyed the different chapters told by the different characters, none of whom were without their issues. This was also a microcosm of global warming. All in all, a solid story.
P Mancuso
Jan 30, 2026
7/10 stars
Tragic story
Frankie M
Nov 01, 2025
9/10 stars
I would say 10 but perfection does not exist. Loved the setting. Enjoyed learning about whales, seals and plants. Good story, I cared for the characters and their situations.
TopLife
Oct 01, 2025
I enjoyed the edge and intensity of this read. And i enjoyed the gentle allegories.

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