A review by jayisreading
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

Untamed Shore takes place in a sleepy coastal town in 1970s Baja California, where the protagonist, Viridiana, spends much of her time bored and longing to get out. Little does she know, her life would take a drastic turn when three Americans arrive one summer and hire her as a personal assistant. True to Moreno-Garcia’s style, there’s a lot of setting up the atmosphere that happens at the start, with much of the action happening later in the book.

I’m not sure if this novel will fully satisfy mystery or thriller lovers, but Moreno-Garcia always has a way of writing that draws you in and keeps you wanting more, I feel. When it came to the twists, I found most of them to be a little predictable, though it didn’t take away from the overall mood of the story. If anything, Untamed Shore felt like an opportunity to watch Viridiana grow as a young woman, especially as she learns from her entanglements with the three visitors in more ways than one.

I felt that the novel ended rather mysteriously, which I don’t think is a bad thing— If anything, it feels like an appropriate way to end a book that was clearly inspired by film noirs. It certainly sets things up for Moreno-Garcia to write more about Viridiana, should she want to.

I admit I wasn’t entirely invested in the book, in part because I wasn’t a huge fan of most of the characters, but I always enjoy how Moreno-Garcia adds her unique twists to different genres and time periods.
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