What do readers think of The Shore by Sara Taylor? Write your own review.

I read this book as soon as I received it. I struggled with reviewing it because it was so well written. The author has an obvious gift. The premise of the book is wonderful but I found the stories too dark and unsettling to really enjoy. I felt unsettled at the end and vaguely disturbed. I would read this author again however because it would be interesting to see what she would do with a lighter subject.

'The Shore' was not what I expected from reading the synopsis. It was a non-linear read about several generations of related folks in a section of the Delmarva peninsula. The story jumped around a lot in time and was confusing at first, although I did finally fall into it's rhythms. Overall I enjoyed it once I got over my initial discomfort with the format. There was just enough character development to entice me, although there was not enough development of any one character to fully flesh them out. I'm glad I did not read it on a Kindle because I had to keep paging back and forth to remember who each character was and how they related to each other. Overall the book was interesting although disjointed, and I think it would be a good book club choice since the format alone could be a topic of discussion.

First, I must say that since this was an advanced copy, not everything is as it will be in the 'official' printing. The family tree was not included in this copy, and having that handy would have eliminated much of my confusion. The chapters jump from the 20th century to the 19th to the 21st, ending in a kind of post-apocalyptic 2143. The action all takes place on the islands of the Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of Virginia. A character is met in one chapter, family history appears in the next, seemingly random threads that come together in the final chapter. While Ms. Taylor's writing style is outstanding, her characters well-drawn and defined, personally I found nothing redeeming in any of them. The entire book was very dark, including some sexually violent scenes, child abuse and genetic mutation. This is a good psychological study of what could happen when people are confined to a relatively small geographical space that is dying, but becomes the "last place on earth" in the end. This is not what I would describe as a pleasure read. Ms. Taylor is an excellent writer and I will be interested to look into her future endeavors.

I really enjoyed this book initially. I kept getting frustrated trying to piece the chapters together. I realize that in the end it would all make sense. I just didn't care by the last few chapters. I am not a short story fan. I think this is what turned me off. Every chapter was very well written. I am sure lots of people will love this and understand the connections of stories. I just couldn't make myself go into the future chapters. I will definitely save and try again someday. Thanks Bookbrowse for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Chesapeake "shore" area is indeed a beautiful, almost wild part of our country. The Shore in no way reflected the vast majority of it's population. There was far too much violence, drugs, hopelessness as the story droned on and on. There seemed to be no thread to the plot--yes, same characters, but a very confusing read. For those who like "The Goldfinch", this book would prove to be a good recommendation--very dark, rambling and quite unbelievable!

Yet another book I wanted to like but gave up about halfway through the book. I did finish it, but only to find out where the author was taking me. I realize that this was a pre-publication copy, but the editing was poor, the grammar awful, and sentence structure lacking in form and basic noun, verb, etc. I got the impression that the author couldn't decide if she was writing in the style of "To Kill A Mockingbird" or trying to imitate "The Hunger Games.". One of the worst pre-pubs I have ever received from Bookbrowse.