Title : Untamed Shore
Author : Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: historical fiction, horror
Pages: 339
Own/Borrowed/ARC: eARC provided through NetGalley
Publication Date: February 21 2020
Synopsis : Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She’s bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future.
When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances. Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman who is quickly being tangled in a web of deceit(originally posted April 2020 on a previous blog that is no longer active)
“Sharks haven’t changed in millions of years. They know how to survive better than we do.”
The book begins by introducing you to a small town in Baja California named Desengaño, its shark hunting history and Viridiana's place within it. The first couple of chapters introduce you to all the expectations placed upon her by everyone in her life. From her mother, her step father, to the mother of her ex boyfriend, everyone seems to have had an expectation for her to fill for them. It also the lack of expectations from her father who saved himself from the town where nothing happens, packed his bags and headed back to Mexico City and his occasional gifts.
Viridiana spends most of her time translating for the slow trickle of tourists that come to town, taking care of her siblings and studying with an old friend of her fathers, Reynier, who serves as a sort of surrogate father. With him, she perfects her English, Dutch and French and lets him practice his Spanish. This ability to study language comes to service when tourists come to town.
The three newcomers need someone who speaks and writes English, as the oldest of them tries to dictate a novel, Viridiana is recommended for the job through Reynier. Upon meeting them, she becomes enraptured by the beauty and novelty of these three strangers and accepts the job, despite the impropriety that being a live-in with strangers cause around town.
Viridiana quickly finds herself in the middle of a crime, a tangle or lies and no one to turn to for help. Her town begins to gossip about her and her nature of work, which even her own family believes. Left on her own, Viridiana has to rely on her own wits to find her way out of her predicament.
“But she was an extra in this film. They were the protagonists.”
This story captivated me in from its visuals to its quotes about sharks and their nature to the strangers and the front they present. There were times were small things were predictable but they were set up in a way where you knew it was coming. The slow pacing just lends to the lay back nature of Desengaño. I enjoyed watching every single thought that went through Viridiana's head as she tried to figure out exactly what was happening and what she could do to find her way out.
Overall I would call this more of a coming of age with some criminal aspects to it more than a thriller persay, but it does not take away from the wonderful ride this story takes you on. The pacing is just right for me, it isn’t too fast nor too slow. And that ending! I will not spoil the ending as I would like everyone to experience this for themselves. But just know that Viridiana was right about sharks.
*Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
I really enjoyed this too. It's so different from her other books.
I think describing this one as a coming of age is definitely more appropriate than calling it a thriller. This really felt like a novel written in the past if that makes sense. I really admire how versatile SMG is. Great review!