Book of the Month Readers Choose 'Wild Dark Shore' as Best Novel of the Year
Book of the Month Readers Choose 'Wild Dark Shore' as Best Novel of the Year
Erin CrabtreeThu, February 26, 2026 at 1:42 AM UTC
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(Courtesy Charlotte McConaghy/Instagram)
Book of the Month readers selected Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy as the best novel of 2025.
The book subscription company announced the winner of its annual Lolly award on Wednesday, February 25.
“Congratulations to author @charlottemcconaghy on this standout work of fiction, and thank you to every member who voted,” the official Book of the Month Instagram account posted on Wednesday.
Book of the Month also highlighted Wild Dark Shore as the 2025 Lolly winner on its website.
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“Atmospheric and gripping, this timeless story shines a light on a family’s fierce love and the indomitable nature of the human spirit,” the description read. “Profound, heart-wrenching and breathtakingly suspenseful, it is a book that will stay with you long after its final pages.”
Book of the Month offers a handful of books each month for subscribers to choose from, with their selections being mailed to them. Members later vote on the best book from the previous year, and the winner is awarded the Lolly.
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Additional finalists for the 2025 Lolly included V.E. Schwab’sBury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, Layne Fargo’sThe Favorites, B.K. Borison’sFirst-Time Caller and Florence Knapp’sThe Names.
In recent years, recipients of the Lolly were some of the most popular and talked-about books of the year: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid in 2019, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett in 2020, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah in 2021, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin in 2022, Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez in 2023 and The God of the Woods by Liz Moore in 2024.
Wild Dark Shore achieved similar success upon its March 2025 release, becoming an instant New York Times bestseller.
Suzannah Bentley from the Book of the Month editorial team described the novel as “the perfect rainy-day read for me, holed up in my apartment on an inclement weekend.”
She added, “This atmospheric and eerie novel swept me away to the other side of the globe—a setting drenched in salt water and ravaged by untamed weather, but threatened most by dangers that are all too human.”
Bentley went on to offer Book of the Month readers an appealing synopsis of the novel.
“Set on Shearwater, a remote island off the coast of Antarctica, Wild Dark Shore tells the story of the Salt family, who are caretakers of the island,” she teased. “Formerly a research station, due to rising sea levels Shearwater is now inhabited only by Dominic Salt and his three children. While inhospitable and challenging, the island is full of stark beauty and allows the family a deep connection with the natural world. As isolation begins to take its toll on the Salts’ dynamics, an unprecedented storm brings with it an unexpected visitor. Who is the mysterious woman who has washed ashore—and what will she discover about the Salt family and the past that has brought them to this remote corner of the world?”
Bentley concluded: “This sharp psychological drama explores the turmoil being wrought upon our natural world, and the turmoil that exists within complex family relationships. Wild Dark Shore challenges us to consider how we treat our loved ones and, ultimately, our planet.”
In addition to its Lolly win, Wild Dark Shore was also the November 2025 pick for Reese’s Book Club.
This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
