The Shore by Sara Taylor

by Sara Taylor

Welcome to The Shore: a collection of small islands sticking out from the coast of Virginia into the Atlantic Ocean. Where clumps of evergreens meet wild ponies, oyster-shell roads, tumble-down houses, unwanted pregnancies, murder, storm-making and dark magic in the marshes. . .
     Situated off the coast of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, the group of islands known as the Shore has been home to generations of fierce and resilient women. Sanctuary to some but nightmare to others, it's a place they've inhabited, fled, and returned to for hundreds of years. From a half-Shawnee Indian's bold choice to flee an abusive home only to find herself with a man who will one day try to kill her to a brave young girl's determination to protect her younger sister as methamphetamine ravages their family, to a lesson in summoning storm clouds to help end a drought, these women struggle against domestic violence, savage wilderness, and the corrosive effects of poverty and addiction to secure a sense of well-being for themselves and for those they love.
     Together their stories form a deeply affecting legacy of two barrier island families, illuminating 150 years of their many freedoms and constraints, heartbreaks, and pleasures. Conjuring a wisdom and beauty all its own, The Shore is a richly unique, stunning novel that will resonate with readers long after turning its final pages, establishing Sara Taylor as a promising new voice in fiction.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Americana, Historical, Fantasy

Unknown Binding

First published March 19, 2015

About the author

Sara Taylor is a product of the United States and the homeschooling movement. She traded her health for a BFA from Randolph College, and her sanity for an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. Following the MA her supervisor refused to let her leave, so she remains at the UEA to chip away at a double-focus PhD in censorship and fiction. She spends an unprecedented amount of time on delayed trains between Norwich and her husband's house in Reading, and tends to get lost, rained on, and chased by cows with unsettling frequency. Her first novel, The Shore, was published by Random House in 2015.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i chose this book thinking it was going to have a Winesburg, Ohio vibe - a series of linked stories that make up a larger novel-feel in which desperate characters both love and resent their isolated hometowns and suffer beautifully.

and in some ways, that expectation panned out - structurally it holds up, although this is definitely more "novel" than "short story collection." although it is made up of short self-contained vignettes, they would lose something if this had been marketed as a collection - there is too much foreshadowing that will pay off in later narratives, and there are little "aha" moments peppered throughout that would be overlooked if these were read as stories in isolation.

and these characters do indeed suffer. this is an unremittingly bleak novel, and i think it is a lot grimmer than anything in winesburg, so be prepared for that.

this cover:



kind of promises a book that is somewhere between women's fiction and grit lit, but even though grit lit rarely takes place on tiny islands off the coast of virginia, this is definitely flying under the grit lit banner. there's meth and everything!

this other cover:



is a really bad match to the book's contents and is sure to attract the wrong readers, who will most likely be horrified by what transpires here. it's a gorgeous cover, i just worry that it doesn't scream "here be horrors!"

*edit - i am only just now seeing that bloody tooth in the corner. i didn't see it when it was just goodreads-size on the book's page, but looking at it in the larger size... yeah, i actually dig it. disregard my complaints, plz.

because there are some terrifically harsh scenes in this book. the story is primarily concerned with the women who live in (on?) the shore, which is the name given to this small group of islands. over the course of 250 years, as the stories flit back and forth through time, we will visit and revisit these women at different stages in their lives, their families, the consequences of their actions coming home to roost generations later. we will witness murder, assault, poverty, addiction, and smaller, everyday disappointments.

but then other elements start to creep in - sort of quiet magical realism moments. and it's a little unclear at first if we are supposed to be reading them as the traditions and beliefs of an isolated population or if we are to accept them as "magic exists." and then all of a sudden BOOM - with no warning (i mean, apart from the table of contents) we are in 2037 and who saw that coming?? (except for people who read the table of contents.) and then BOOM - the final chapter takes place in 2143.

so, wow.

with these things in mind, it reads more like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Cloud Atlas than winesburg, but i wasn't disappointed just because my expectations weren't met - i am frequently wrong in my assessments. (and if i had picked up that shell cover (but i wouldn't, because it does not speak to me at all) i would have been even more incorrect in my expectations)

it's full of gorgeous prose and very sad stories, which are my personal brand of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and even though i felt a little sideswiped by the futureshock stuff, i really enjoyed the rest of it.

a very strong debut and i already want more.

come to my blog!

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read short stories as a rule and I know I am missing out on some really good writing but once in a while I take the leap especially if the stories are connected. That's the next best thing to a novel for me and this collection felt like a novel - sort of . It would have felt more so if the stories in this book were in chronological order ; then the changes in the narratives spanning over 250 years might not have been as confusing . However , the appearance of people mentioned in one story in another story which takes places years or a century before was a clever mechanism that hooked me . The structure of the book made for a little work to piece things together and several times I had to move back and forth between stories to confirm the
link . It does however come full circle in a way with the character of Chloe from the first disturbingly and devastatingly sad story. There are many characters in the these stories, but from beginning to end , it was Chloe's story for me .

I'm not sure there's an ounce of joy anywhere in this book with maybe the exception of the last pages. If there was any earlier I surely missed it among the depressing, sad lives of the people that inhabit The Shore - consisting of three islands off the coast of Virginia and spanning the years 1876 - 2043. One finds brutal realities here - revenge murders , meth and physical abuse as wives and children are beaten and women are raped . There's black magic , healing , and a recurring theme of unplanned , unwanted pregnancies . Pretty heavy duty stuff , but if you can go on after the reading the first chapter, which gave me pause , you'll be rewarded with descriptive writing taking you into the desolate places in the lives of these characters , with the creativity of the storytelling.

This is not for the faint of heart . It's dark and brutal but I can't help but feel that there is writing here worthy of our attention and if you make it through to the ending chapters you might like I did , find a an ounce of hope .

Thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley .

[Peter Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It’s a little house, our house, one room downstairs and two rooms upstairs and a porch for each, and according to the phone company and the electric company and the taxman it doesn’t exist."

The Shore is an isolated, run-down collection of islands off the coast of Virginia, populated with wild horses, witch-doctors and chicken factories. It has been home to generations of strong-willed, determined women and their haunting stories are told in this remarkable novel. From Medora, the illegitimate daughter of a white land-owner, to Chloe, a resourceful thirteen-year-old girl with no mother and a meth-addicted father, to Tamara who is doing her damnedest to become pregnant during a deadly plague - these characters all have a heavy burden to bear. Oppressed by poverty, disease and abusive men, their lives have never been easy. But there's one thing they all have in common, a dogged determination to rise above it all.

What strikes me most about this assured debut is its fearless ambition. Taylor weaves the tales of these unforgettable characters so effortlessly. I found myself eagerly flipping back and forth to decipher the connections - what became of the mysterious Grandpa Tom, the identity of Chloe's real father, how the Lumsdens came by their enormous wealth. Taylor seamlessly slips between genres with each memorable chapter - from Southern Gothic to magic realism and even sci-fi in a bleakly imagined post-apocalyptic future. This has earned comparisons to the work of David Mitchell - but then I guess every novel that tries the interconnected stories approach gets the Cloud Atlas tag.

One small niggle is that certain intriguing elements of the story are only touched upon and never revisited. For example, some characters appear to have the ability to control the weather. Is this a supernatural ability or all in their heads? I'd love to have found out more. And the sheer size of the cast can be tough to keep track of at times. But these are minor complaints - Taylor's terrific writing is what shines through. It is a powerful exploration of womanhood and the lengths required to survive a cruel, misogynistic world. It also has one of the best first chapters I have ever read. A wonderful jigsaw puzzle of a book from an exciting new voice.

[☮Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern grit lit at its best. If you like generations of a very disturbed and disturbing family in your reading selections, this fits the bill. Murder, mayhem, mysticism, meth heads, and malevolence fill the chapters.

The lay-out of the chapters, really interconnected vignettes, would be what I first disliked and then ended up much appreciating by the end. This book makes your brain work! Something like 20 characters are introduced at different points in their lives, not chronologically and without much explanation of to whom or how they are related. Since neither my ARC nor my ebook included a family tree in the front (I think the finished book does), I took many notes on each chapter and referred back often. It became an adventure and a unique experience, trying to figure out how each piece of the puzzle fit together. And by the end chapters, keeping track of the people was no longer a problem.

The Shore's remote setting, three islands that are part of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, is the real star, with oyster-shell paved paths and an underlying wildness that its inhabitants have inherited.

The ARC I received from LibraryThing literally fell apart after one chapter, thus the delay in my ability to read and review this until it became available on NetGalley. But from that first chapter I was intent on finishing the book, an original debut sure to put Sara Taylor's name among the greats of this genre.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rarely do I finish a book and have so little to say about it. I enjoyed The Shore, and I wanted to write an in-depth review, but I've been struggling for days with what I have to say and even what I remember about the story. The way I felt about this reminds me of the way I felt about Hannah Kent's Burial Rites , which was published (and which I read) in 2013: both books gathered a word-of-mouth buzz about them prior to publication, receiving favourable reviews and drawing comparisons to the work of established literary authors; both have been nominated for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. But both also turned out to be quick, light and easy reads, actually less complicated and challenging than a lot of genre fiction, and both proved to be almost instantly forgettable.

The Shore is a collection of interlinked short stories, all of them set on the titular Shore, an arid archipelago of three islands somewhere off the coast of the Southern state of Virginia. That the stories focus on different characters and take place in different time periods - including the future - has led to the book being likened to the novels of David Mitchell. Taylor's work differs from Mitchell's in one crucial respect: it lacks the variety of voices and literary styles that made Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas what they were (I'm pretending The Bone Clocks doesn't exist). This lack of diversity is both a problem (it means the stories, which often have the same rough themes, seem too alike) and an asset (it makes the book feel more coherent as a novel, and avoids, for the most part, making it feel gimmicky).

There are a couple of notable deviations, though. The most obvious is the final chapter, set in 2143, which uses a sort of 'futurespeak' that seems very familiar and felt like a rip of the style employed by Mitchell in the future-set sections of Cloud Atlas. If not Cloud Atlas, then I have definitely read something extremely similar in another book. It's not original and it's kind of lazy, but what saves it is the truly touching story lurking beneath the daft language. In general, the story is kept afloat by engaging characters, strong and intriguing openings to each of the chapters, and the identity the Shore itself acquires: characterful and close to magical.

The Shore has some running themes: though some of the main characters are male, the book concentrates mainly on 'the female experience' and secondly on sexual politics. (One of the better examples of the latter is that, in a tongue-in-cheek twist on the epidemic-dystopia formula, it's a sexually transmitted disease that brings about the ruin of humanity.) I did sometimes find all of this a bit tiresome. There's a recurring portrayal of women as inherently obsessed with motherhood and familial bonds, which I struggled to relate to, and there were times when the book's relentless emphasis on 'women' (I don't mean women as characters but more the idea of women) felt overwrought.

This doesn't sound like a four-star review, does it? The truth is that I did very much enjoy reading this book and don't have any concrete reason to rate it lower. It's just more of a casually enjoyable read than anything else; it has some dark moments, but these are given a sort of ambient gloss not necessarily by the story, but by the fact that the book is so easily readable and - perhaps as a result of the short-story format - never feels like it gets very deep into any analysis of its characters.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Nearly 4.5) Gritty and virtuosic, this novel-in-13-stories imagines 250 years of history on a set of islands off the coast of Virginia. As a Maryland native, I think of Chincoteague and Assateague as vacation destinations, but Taylor definitely focuses on their dark side here: industrial-scale chicken farms, unwanted pregnancies, domestic violence, bootleg liquor, gang rape, murders and meth labs. There’s a core of narratives set in the 1980s–90s that could easily form a novel on their own, but these are interspersed with vignettes stretching from 1876 to 2143. Dirty realism thus shares space with historical fiction and dystopia, while first-person narration (about one-third) trades off with third-person (nearly two-thirds) and one instance of the second person (“Boys”).

My favorite of the stories were the nineteenth-century ones about Medora, a half-Native American healer. These have a faint flavor of Wide Sargasso Sea, while there are traces of Ron Rash and David Vann in the rest. Taylor has proven here that she can do it all: contemporary realism, period research, even post-apocalyptic. Each of those genres could have spawned an entire book, but when crammed together they seem a bit show-offy, or like Taylor couldn’t make up her mind what she wanted the book to be. I also thought the 1980s–90s chapters were repetitive, with young women getting knocked up by dubious boyfriends.

Is The Shore short stories or a novel? That’s a question I’m still asking myself. I’ve heard Taylor’s approach compared to David Mitchell’s in Cloud Atlas or The Bone Clocks, but I haven’t read either (anyone who has, feel free to let me know how Taylor measures up). The compromise position says it’s linked short stories (like Snow in May by Kseniya Melnik, Unforgettable by Paulette Alden, or Archangel by Andrea Barrett), with characters and/or their ancestors/descendants showing up in later chapters. I think in the end I would have preferred a clearer choice: either a chronological novel or a straight set of short stories.

Still, there’s no denying that Taylor can write, and I loved tracing the history of some dying communities that are more than just names to me. Every region needs a literary chronicler, and I reckon Taylor is it for the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia’s islands. This was certainly a deserving entry on the 2015 Baileys Prize longlist. Next time, though, I hope she’ll commit to one genre or style.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I think the fact I gave this book more tags than any other that I can recall says a lot. I first read Taylor's second novel, The Lauras, and was intrigued enough to read this novel, which got better reviews. And I can see why. Her second novel is very good, but does not match the brilliance of this one. Can I point to things I didn't like? Yes. Nearing 60, it was challenging to recall all the myriad connections in this rather long collection of linked stories (thank god for the family tree at the front of the book) and one of the stories, "Skirt," detailed a graphic gang rape scene as witnessed by a passive narrator. I don't know what was worse, reading the scene through the lens of a passive person or simply reading a scene I would rather not have ever read at all. Why I give this 4.5. I don't think it needed to be there to do the big reveal that came later.

But overall, I can't help but feel that for their inexperience and age, this is a mightily proficient, deep, complex book to pull off, and they do. This beautifully renders The Shore, an area of barrier islands off the coast of Virginia, where Taylor grew up. The famous Chincoteague ponies live there, for context. The research is admirable, the span of history (more than 250 years) is handled well in terms of shifting voices and dialog and local culture. When I got to the end I was surprised to enter into dystopian territory. At that point, for me, it took on another prescient layer.

Taylor finishes the history of The Shore in the future, during a pandemic. Sound familiar? It's as if Taylor knew what was coming and has the same precognition that some of Taylor's character's have.

This is not kind to men. Quite the opposite. Though Taylor offers this:

"But something happens in the gap between boy and man to turn all that sweetness bitter. You wonder if it's necessary hardening, like a tree's shedding of leaves as winter approaches."

None of the men in her novel deserve this much consideration. Except for those in the future, who seem connected to a line of indigenous settlers and hermits and escapees. Only those deformed at birth seem to get Taylor's nod of approval as being able to be kind and loving.

Read this for the joy of place, innovation, gritty reality, language, and take notes! And skip "Skirt" if you have trigger issues.

Like one of Taylor's characters, I was filled "to glowing" after reading this book.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, man. It sucks to be poor. And generational poverty? Sucks even more. These interconnected stories are bleak and compelling. Bloodlines are blurred, violence is certain, and the shore is where it all transpires.

Grit-lit.
You've been warned.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many characters that populate this very assured debut novel, but none of them is more enduring and unforgettable than the shore itself. Within these chapters, characters ebb and flow like the ocean itself, plunging in head first to reveal themselves to the reader and then receding to safe (or not so safe) shore.

Indeed, the structure of the book follows this ebb and flow, starting in current times, withdrawing to 1876, advancing to a horrific dystopian future in 2143, introducing different “players” almost willy-nilly. If you enjoy linear books, this is not a novel for you. However, if you have a high tolerance for books that flow seamlessly back and forth before revealing all their secrets, you’re going to love this one.

Ms. Taylor writes, “The Shore is flat as a fried egg; on a clear day from one upstairs porch it feels like you can see into tomorrow, and usually you can just about see the smart smear that is Chincoteague Island off to the northeast. We are one of three islands, off the coast of Virginia and just south of Maryland, trailing out into the Atlantic Ocean like someone’s dripped paint.”

The island comes alive under Ms. Taylor’s deft hand: the smell of the salt water, the crabs crawling up the shore, the noxious smell of Perdue chicken from the killing factory. All the while, the author integrates different styles and tenses: from historical to suspenseful, from southern-gothic to dystopian, from fantastical to conventional. There’s also a wisp of feminism philosophy contained within: many of these woman are fighting for survival and self-actualization and in one case and a few have special skills such as herb doctoring and controlling the weather. As the novel progresses, clues are dropped how all these stories link and a more universal theme is introduced.

One of the reasons I chose The Shore is that it was compared to David Mitchell and Jennifer Egan’s works. I’m a fan of both. However, I did not really see the connection to either, except for the more experimental form of storytelling. If I had to compare to another author, it would be Flannery O’Connor with a touch of Alice Hoffman. Sara Taylor knows how to tell a story, to rev up the reader’s interest, and importantly, she knows how to sock the reader right between the eyes with some of her story endings.

It’s an imaginative novel, inventive, creative, and beautifully controlled and paced by the author. By the third or fourth chapter, I was willing to suspend belief and let Sara Taylor take me anywhere she chose to go.

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning read well and grabbed Chloe's personality and context of her life. But I am afraid I have to be the odd woman out again on this one.

The continuity was not there. Period.

The pictorial family charting at the beginning non-withstanding.

The place feel existed, just. But my enjoyment in the read barely made the two.

And this time, I could actually detail 4 or 5 basic reasons why. But I won't, because the mode and the writing style are exactly into current endemic forms. And they are popular, so I'd be typing for naught. This book also by focusing so much on the female family and community members as "thought narrators"- it held vast cross over to current chick lit. But far darker and creepier.

This bordered grit without being genuine about it. That's not my prime disconnect though. Because I can actually tolerate and sometimes appreciate Grit. Lit.

It was the tone observance vs actions cited that did me in eventually. I had to force myself to read the last third of this book. I did. But my enjoyment by that point was a zero.

Violence, abuse, domestic assaults through the centuries, lust called love- that's just the tip of the iceberg to why these characters got to be jail bait cartoon characters. They certainly did to me.

Role models toward work and positive purposes? Starting a baby within a secure marriage for support and/or mere survival? Financial responsibility to feeding your own young? I would say that most humans consider these fairly prime. And in most cultures.

The outliers (not more than two characters in this entire book of dozens was other than an "outlier" psychologically) of homicide, torture, abuse, excuses, addiction, abandonment and lack of reciprocal "affect" for others beyond a self-defense shield for themselves within THE SHORE? Honestly, I doubt that they (human habitation) would have lasted the approximately 200 year span with these completely selfish self-serving people to this degree. In fact, by the end- I believe we are down to very few in number. Surprise, surprise!

Fiction to sell. YES this is! Writing style is adequate. Absolutely. Subject matter and form is just hitting 2 star. And hit is the right word for this book. Felony and human slave type usage by emotional cretins is constant so I guess that means it is not "boring"- so the happening crowd will most likely love it. Not I. Children as fodder, and animals even have it worse. Told in a tra-la-la style.

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So every once in a while I take myself out of HPlandia and read what various acquaintances refer to as a "real" book - like literature even.

This one is interesting in a how bleak and sad and horrible can we make things kinda way. The writing is good. The various interconnected stories were mostly well done, but srsly peeps, except for the very end story - which is set after an epic biological apocalypse and people are horribly mutated-the sheer unrelenting misery of this book makes me want to run back to HPlandia and get myself some HEA's .

The interesting thing is that both HP's and this book are all about women and the practically stereotypical feminine tropes of marriage, motherhood and misogyny/patriarchy and how these women either rise above it or succumb.

I do find it fascinating that in the romance world of HPlandia (Harlequin Presents), women are shown to have much greater agency in building a better life for themselves than this book, which is arguably written by a 24yr old who probably has more personal options and liberty as a female than at any other point in history.

I am not sure what is the point this book was trying to make. It comes off as a neo feministic rant against the patriarchal heirarchy.

But I do know that I think if a woman's lot in life is mostly misery and suffering, as this book implies, I'll take my chances angsting over unrequited love and stay in HPlandia - at least the women over there get the bondage of their preference in the end.

[Lotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5. The Shore by Sara Taylor is a book that’s hard to categorize. It’s a cross between a short story collection and a novel and follows the lives of different members of a large family living on a collection of small islands on the coast of Virginia. The stories jump from branch to branch of a vast family tree in a nonlinear timeline (the first chapter is set in 1995, the second one in 1933, and so forth). These different perspectives don’t shy away from depicting quite harsh realities as most of them deal with poverty, violence and addiction in some way. The stories not only vary in genre (there’s gritty contemporary, magical realism, Southern Gothic and even some sci-fi), but also in quality. Some stories felt really impactful and some I really couldn‘t get into. Even though there’s a family tree included at the beginning, the grand cast of characters can be a bit hard to follow and this is one of those books you need to pay close attention to while reading to pick up on all the small connections between the characters across the different generations. Once you start to see these little connections, this definitely pays off though and overall, I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this audiobook from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.

I was quickly pulled in to this book chronicling multiple generations in the shore region of rural Virginia. Cheyenne bloodlines, herbal magic, resiliency - these themes follow throughout. I think I was most partial to the present-day stories with people having to choose between dealing drugs or picking up another job at the three chicken factory farms nearby.

I was less thrilled, and surprised by, the storyline that suddenly jutted into a post-apocalyptic future. It did not feel as if it belonged in the book and was happy to go back to the characters I cared more about.

There is a young girl in this novel who walks several miles to her public library just to make sure she turns her books in on time. The librarian is kind and does not make a single comment about her lack of hygiene. <3

[Julianne (Leafling Learns・Outlandish Lit) · Rating 5 out of 5]

But like actually 4.5.

The first chapter of this book absolutely blew me away and the rest of the book did not disappoint. If you're at all interested in dark, gritty Southern Gothic literature, or perhaps think you could be but have been put off by how male-dominated those stories tend to be, grab this immediately. And if you want a little dose of magical realism, too, you're in the right place. I waited a couple weeks to read this after acquiring it, and I regret it.

The Shore is an interesting book, in that each chapter focuses on a different character (though sometimes narrators recur) and each chapter jumps to a different year, sometimes up to 100 years in difference. But the common thread is that they all focus on families, and particularly the tough and fascinating women, who inhabit a group of islands off the shore of Virginia. And boy does Sara Taylor know how to evoke a sense of place. The marshland these families have populated for years is both desolate and enchanting. Taylor's writing is absolutely stunning and I loved just soaking in how real and rich her descriptions were.

Taylor is also extraordinary at writing characters. Each one was intriguing and different. Sometimes at the beginning of a story, you had no idea who you were watching, but you could begin to recognize people from earlier just based on how they felt. One character that was vaguely mentioned in one story could be the main character of the next one. It was a lot of fun taking notes and trying to keep track of how all these people were related, because they all were in some way, and it added a layer of depth and interaction that many books don't achieve.

It's worth noting that this book is really intense. Beautiful, but intense, and it goes to very dark places. Anything that you imagine might happen in a rural, isolated, run-down set of island towns does. There's violence, crime, drugs, domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, and rape. I think all of it was important to read and it doesn't feel gratuitous, but it is worth mentioning.

I loved this book. Well, I loved all but the last chapter of this book, which felt unnecessary. But I'm fully behind every other chapter. Even if you think you don't need to read this book, you do. I'm beyond excited to see what Sara Taylor does in the future.

Full review: http://outlandishlit.blogspot.com/201...

[Denise Atzori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inizio l'anno con una delle migliori letture che potessi trovare in questo momento della mia vita. Un romanzo frammentario eppure intenso, doloroso, toccante, custode di un'infinità di anime e voci che riecheggiano tra le paludose rive delle selvagge e affascinanti Shore.

[Jen Campbell]

A DNF from me

[Ellie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for this ARC.

The Shore tells the stories of islanders living off the coast of Virginia. Many of the individuals described escape to the islands because they don't want to be found. The stories are all connected, although not told in chronological order. I didn't mind the fact that there were jumps from past to present, and future, although I enjoyed the future story the least and found it the most far fetched. I don't think though it detracted from my enjoyment of the novel as whole.

The stories are of hardship and document instances of sexual abuse and domestic abuse, murder, illegal drinking, or unwanted pregnancies and therefore the content might not appeal to all. I got the sense that this was a particularly harsh environment which was off the radar for many, especially those holidaying in exclusive resorts in other parts of the islands. I haven't researched to see whether this is today's reality, or to see if such divisions of wealth and social attitude do indeed exist.

I liked how in the end the stories came a full circle, and issues and questions arising from other stories were addressed. I found the stories / the book to be very well written and I think the author should be congratulated on such a gripping début novel and I look forward to her next works.

[Ruth P · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I am on a different planet from the readers who raged about how mesmerising and powerful this book is!
For me...yawnsville

[gorecki · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 - a wildly imaginative collection of interwoven stories, full of action and characters, but slightly too much for my personal taste

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

As we wrap up another Postal Book Club round, it's safe to reveal some of the selections we've read since last summer. The Shore was my pick for our group, so naturally, I loved it.

Many reviews call The Shore a collection of connected stories, but, for me, it was most definitely a novel. The main character is the setting itself, a group of small islands in the Chesapeake Bay, that come alive through Taylor’s exquisite language and imagery, and offer solace and heartache to the generations of characters who live there, try to leave, and desperately return time and time again. The characters are the patchwork; The Shore is the quilt, holding them all together, intricately bound to a shared beauty, and at times, a shared horror - nothing without each other.

I loved the span of the book, stretching over a period of 250 years, and through 7 generations of islanders. I was dazzled by the way the novel kaleidoscopes back and forth through time as the narration shifts from 1st person, through 2nd and 3rd and back again. I did have to spend a fair bit of time flipping back to the family tree at the beginning of each chapter to identify who was being described, but somehow that only added to my enjoyment. I loved how the stories slowly filled out, and how a glimpse of a fascinating character in one chapter opened up to their whole story in another. In this way, the book reminded me a bit of Station Eleven.

While the book covers a lot of time, it also covers a lot of genres. There’s a bit of historical fiction, some magical realism, a little sci-fi (maybe even some cli-fi), contemporary fiction and some dystopian fiction for good measure. The strong, clear narrative voice keeps these shifts from being unwieldy. Moreover, what binds the stories and chapters is the humanity and compassion that runs strong and deep throughout, and characters so fully realized, I still wonder about them now.

I enjoyed Taylor’s exploration of the extent to which where we come from, and who we come from, shapes our identity, and the identity of those who come after us. The dark themes in the novel: generational poverty, abuse, and addiction, are tempered by the yearning and tenacity of the characters who strive for more, yet remain loyal to their people and their place in the world.

This book has everything I could want in a novel: gorgeous writing, vivid imagery, a unique and atmospheric setting, slow burning suspense, and wonderful characters, with both beauty and darkness in equal measure. Highly recommended!

[Book Riot Community]

The shore in question is the collective name for an ellipses of islands dotted off the Virginian coast. It is a place of magic, drug addiction, domestic abuse, doomed love, illicit distilleries, wild ponies, and shell-dappled roads. Treating time as a game of hopscotch, Sara Taylor’s debut novel traces the ebb and flow of the islands’ families over several centuries and into an imagined future. It’s an accomplished balancing act, especially for a debut novel. An incidental character in one chapter is a major player in another; what is a whispered old wife’s tale in one section is made fibrous reality elsewhere. Generations of characters satisfyingly overlap and entwine. It is a place of sometimes sickening patriarchy and misogyny, so Taylor almost pointedly traces the islands’ story through its women. Some are cowed and broken, some dangerously deluded, some strong and resourceful. All have an impact. At full tilt, The Shore reads like a feminist One Hundred Years of Solitude with some Cloud Atlas futureshock thrown in for good measure. It will make your family tree seem charmingly incidental. –Edd McCracken

From The Best Books We Read in January: http://bookriot.com/2015/02/02/riot-r...

[Charlotte Dann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took some time but I really enjoyed this book. It was quiet, powerful, and affecting. Lots of different things going on, and I for one loved the conclusion. Watch my video here.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

review to come

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is webbed together, following closely knit characters. From the first story (which is my favorite) I realized that I was going to be riveted and maybe horrified by the actions within. It does verge on the strange as we head into the future, but it fits. The writing is beautiful and I can't wait for a novel by Taylor. In honesty, this collection reads like a novel because being the shore, many are relatives or friends that touch each other throughout the ages, some inappropriately. Magical, horrible, deformed... one might wonder why the heck someone keeps reading- and that my friends lies in the talent of the author.
These stories are heavy as an anchor and not to be read for a sweet escape. You are headed into the murky depths of humanity. Sometimes reading about the ugly side of people reminds us that there are lives lived paraellel to our own that have no choice in embracing light or dark, particularly in the first story. I admit I felt so much sorrow for the young girls in just a few pages, from the rocks that are hurled to the seedy men that sniffed at them my heart broke.
There are moments when people have a chance to be better, to save others from being violated but that step doesn't get taken. As much as we'd like to see humnanity at it's best, there are others who only get to see it at it's worst.
I hate when authors are disparaged for writing about things people close their eyes to, because it takes a hell of a writer to get through it and still create likable characters. You are not going to love everyone, but you will feel something! Can't wait for more!

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This started off really good. It is a novel but almost feels like a series of short stories, every chapter tells a stand alone story about a female member of one family. I think this is the type of book you need to read more than once to fully understand what is going on, there is a family tree at the front of the book which helps, however flicking back and forth through the ebook version was slightly difficult.

The book is sort of a historical/ modern day fiction. However the final few chapters got so weird that I couldn’t believe it was part of the same book. These chapters show what has happened to the family over 100 years in the future. I don’t want to give away spoilers but it got really strange and these few final chapters are the reason why I gave this book such a low rating. Its almost like the book was trying to be like Cloud Atlas but it didn’t work. I’m really quite disappointed as I was enjoying it up to that point.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tutto il nostro sangue" è un buonissimo esordio per Sara Taylor. Un esordio che mi ha incuriosito da subito ma che ho lasciato in stand-by perché pensavo di trovarla un'opera pesante, non amando molto le raccolte di racconti.
"The Shore", titolo orginale, infatti è una raccolta di racconti che vanno dal 1876 al 2143, racconti tutti dedicati alla stessa grande famiglia. Ogni racconto è dedicato a una persona diversa, solo due personaggi avranno due racconti a testa. A complicare le cose, non solo i 200 anni di storia, ma anche il fatto che i racconti non sono in ordine cronologico, quindi bisogna armarsi di albero genealogico (o riscriverlo come ho fatto io) e vedere dove si colloca ogni personaggio di questa intricata famiglia. In più alcuni personaggi non sono nemmeno in questo albero, ma risultano sempre collegati a questa famiglia.

A rendere speciale il libro, oltre al modo in cui è costruito, c'è anche l'ambientazione. Il tutto è ambientato in un arcipelago accanto alle coste della Virginia, un posto che sembra quasi un mondo a parte, con le sue strade ricoperte di gusci d'ostriche e le paludi fangose. Una comunità chiusa, a poco a poco spopolata dai giovani che non hanno molte possibilità di futuro. La trama presenta la classica storia familiare, arricchita con un po' di realismo magico e anche con un futuro post-apocalittico.
I personaggi che mi hanno colpito di più sono quelli che hanno due capitoli a testa: Chloe e Medora. Chloe la conosciamo da ragazzina, alle prese con un padre violento e cerca di prendersi cura della sorella. Medora invece è la capostipite della famiglia. Una donna che ha sofferto tanto ma ha anche lottato e da cui originano tutte le dicerie sulla famiglia.

I racconti hanno punti di vista maschili e femminili, ma sono le donne quelle che occupano la scena. Donne maltrattete, vittime dell'ignoranza e dei pregiudizi, madri, mogli, figlie, ognuna con una situazione difficile. Allo stesso tempo però non appaiono come vittime, perché ognuna è ben cosciente della sua vita, di quello che può o non può fare. Forse è esagerato un po' che quasi tutte, che siano della famiglia o no, siano vittime di violenza, fisica o psicologica. Così come alcune, per le situazioni troppo uguali, sembravano avere la stessa personalità.
La storia scorre fluida, nonostante il modo di raccontare, ogni racconto permette di conoscere bene il personaggio a cui è dedicato e dona informazioni su questo puzzle che non è altro che la famiglia Day-Lumsden.

Ho apprezzato il realismo magico, una parte della storia di questa famiglia, meno il futuro post-apocalittico. Il finale è strano, diverso dal resto del romanzo, un ritorno agli albori, una nuova possibilità per la società di rinascere.
Consigliato a chi ama i romanzi famigliari ma anche sperimentare qualcosa di diverso.

[Blackjessamine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sento che questo è un romanzo a cui non ho reso giustizia: spero di avere occasione di rileggerlo, tra qualche anno, e di dedicargli l'attenzione che invece meriterebbe. È un romanzo molto originale, fatto di racconti che si intrecciano a formare una trama molto più ampia, spaziando in diverse epoche storiche e andando ad infilarsi negli anfratti più violenti di una famiglia che abita sulle Shore, un gruppo di isole al largo della costa della Virginia. I personaggi sulla scena variano in continuazione, saltellando da un'ambientazione di fine ottocento fino ad arrivare ad un futuro piuttosto lontano, ma il palcoscenico rimane lo stesso: le Shore, isole ostili e difficili, ammantate di una bellezza struggente al tramonto, ma ricche di pericoli e di difficoltà. Fra sentieri lastricati di gusci d'ostrica e il tanfo pestilenziale di una ditta che lavora la carne di pollo, il lettore viene trascinato senza pietà nelle pieghe più difficili della violenza che si può annidare in un luogo ristretto, dove la convivenza è spesso difficile e il sangue sembra portare con sé una sorta di maledizione, soprattutto per le donne. Non c'è pietà per il lettore, che deve ricostruire da sé la linea temporale e i legami che uniscono i vari personaggi, e proprio qui arriva la mia mancanza: so di non aver letto con l'attenzione dovuta, ritagliandomi il tempo sui mezzi pubblici e in altre situazioni poco tranquille, e così molto mi è sfuggito. Sono sincera, quando mi sono resa conto che si trattava di un romanzo che avrebbe richiesto un'adesione più attiva da parte del lettore, mi sono un po' arresa e mi sono accontentata di prendere solo quello che sarebbe arrivato, e di lasciar scorrere tutto il resto. Ed è un peccato, lo so, perché sono certa che il lavoro creativo e in un certo senso sperimentale della Taylor avrebbe meritato un'attenzione diversa, ma al momento gran parte delle mie energie intellettuali sono annientate da altro, e non sarei proprio riuscita a calarmi in un'avventrua di questo tipo.
Mi riservo quindi di ritornare sull'opera della Taylor, perché ho come l'impressione di aver perso qualcosa di importante.

[Simone Subliminalpop · Rating 3 out of 5]

- le derive fantastiche
+ i filoni più grossi di questa saga famigliare
- quando la scrittura si fa sovraesposta di particolari
- una struttura romanzo un po' precaria
+ alcune scene perfette (es: lo stupro nella casa in ristrutturazione)
+ i dialoghi: né troppi, né troppo pochi (comunque ben scritti)

Cit.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Ian Mond · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shore is a début novel from Sara Taylor but you wouldn’t know it because the writing is so assured in tone and structure. The book is set on a small group of islands off the coast of Virginia and covers a three hundred year period that focuses on two lines of descendants stemming from Medora – half white, half Native American who was born on the islands in the mid 19th Century. The novel bounces around in time, between the mid 1990s, to the late 1800s, to the early 20th Century, to a point 120 years from now. As a result, there’s a strong mosaic flavour to the structure as we are introduced to a number of Medora’s descendants.

The opening chapter sets the tone of the novel, and it’s anything but twee or bucolic. 13-year-old Chloë – Medora’s great, great, great grand-daughter – is forced to protect her younger sister Chloe from their drug abusing and violent father after their mother disappeared to parts unknown. It’s a gut wrenching piece of writing, with an ending that’s both powerful and upsetting and yet with a great deal of sensitivity. And it’s only the beginning. Starting with Medora’s awful treatment at the hand of her father and first husband, this is a book that takes a frank look at the pain men inflict on women. And while some of the women in this book are able to stand strong against the sexual abuse and violence – Chloe and Medora are cases in point – this isn’t always the case and it’s all the more tragic as a result.

The book also explores a family’s connection to the land – especially with regard to the environment and a respect for the natural order. The speculative element is that Medora’s second husband (or at least that side of the family) have the ability to manipulate weather. Bring rain, deflect hurricanes, control storms. But they use that power carefully, with great respect, and as a consequence gain insight into what’s coming for humanity. And it ain’t good. In the 2030s a sexual disease emerges that kills off most of the planet and leads to mutations for a number of the babies that are born afterwards. The Lumsden’s – the side of Medora’s descendants that have power over weather – plan for the plague, and occupy a small island not connected to the mainland. The upshot is that 100 years after the plague hits, the descendants live a relative peaceful, simple life. In fact the last story of the collection is in complete contrast to the opening, not just because it’s set in 22nd Century, but because it’s about hope and love, rather than violence and pain.

The novel’s one minor stutter is the introduction of the plague. While I understand that out of control plagues are simply reflective of the author’s concern for the environment and our general mistreatment of the natural world, as a plot device it’s lazy. It’s not to say that a plague won’t come around and wipe us out, but that it’s now being used as science fiction short hand to get around the need for a more nuanced and thought out future. However, considering everyone does it, and given the chapter that deals with the plague would make for a magnificent piece of horror short fiction, I can forgive Taylor this stumble.

Confronting and powerful and sensitive and assured – the way Taylor’s handle so many voices is wow-tastic – The Shore is a truly fantastic novel.