WellRead's March 2025 selection was Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. In Wild Dark Shore, a woman washes up alive on the beach of a remote island near Antarctica. Who is she? Why is she here? How did she get here? The caretakers of the island – Dominic Salt and his young family – are determined to find the answers. But uncovering her secrets might just mean they’ll need to surrender some of their own. 

Use these discussion questions to engage with the book further, whether in a book club with friends, or just on your own as you digest the story.  

Reading questions for Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy:

• There are twists and turns galore in Wild Dark Shore … at the 50 page mark, what are your impressions of Rowan, Dom, Raff, Fen, Orly and Hank? Compare this to how you feel at the end of the novel. Were you right with any of your assumptions?
  
  

• “Loving a place is the same as having a child. They are both too much an act of hope, of defiance. And those are a fool’s weapons.” Rowan has a nihilistic streak – how much of this is a façade and what do you think is behind that position she seems to present to the world?
  
  

• Climate change is almost like an additional character. Did this play out in a way that surprised you at all?
  
  

• Each character is dealing with their own losses and trauma from the past as well as a certain level of anticipatory grief. Consider each character, the grief they are experiencing and how that shapes their view on the world and their actions. 

• The ending proved to be very controversial amongst our team! We won’t spoil it for you here, but what did you think of it? How do you prefer stories to end – happily, unresolved, realistically? 

Please note, these questions were written and distributed in March 2025.