The Shore

Sara Taylor

2015 • 303 pages

Ratings3

Average rating3.3

"Traces the history and future of a small group of islands off the coast of Virginia through the lives of generations of the women who live there"--

In the Chesapeake Bay, just off the coast of Virginia, The Shore is clumps of evergreens, wild ponies, oyster-shell roads, tumble-down houses. Sanctuary to some but nightmare to others, it's a place that generations of families both wealthy and destitute have inhabited, fled, and returned to for hundreds of years. Through a series of interconnecting narratives we discover the small miracles and miseries of a community of outsiders, and the bonds of blood and fate that connect them all.

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Emma

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.

March 25, 2015