3.5
The Night Ship
ByPublisher Description
Based on a true story, an epic historical novel from the award-winning author of Things in Jars that illuminates the lives of two characters: a girl shipwrecked on an island off Western Australia and, three hundred years later, a boy finding a home with his grandfather on the very same island.
1629: A newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks.
1989: A lonely boy named Gil is sent to live off the coast of Western Australia among the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once resided. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck…
With her trademark “thrilling, mysterious, twisted, but more than anything, beautifully written” (Graham Norton, New York Times bestselling author) storytelling, Jess Kidd weaves “a true work of magic” (V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) about friendship, sacrifice, brutality, and forgiveness.
1629: A newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks.
1989: A lonely boy named Gil is sent to live off the coast of Western Australia among the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once resided. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck…
With her trademark “thrilling, mysterious, twisted, but more than anything, beautifully written” (Graham Norton, New York Times bestselling author) storytelling, Jess Kidd weaves “a true work of magic” (V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) about friendship, sacrifice, brutality, and forgiveness.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Night Ship Reviews
3.5
“I was interested in this book after visit the shipwreck museum in western Australia and hearing the story of the Batavia. I thought historical fiction would be an interesting way to learn more about it and while I appreciated the story in the end there the first 2/3 was pretty slow. The way the author tried to parallel the stories was nice but I often found myself skipping chapters to find out what was happening with Gil or Mayken. Maykens storyline was significantly more interesting - I liked learning what it was like aboard the ship during the voyage and I liked bulleback as a metaphor for evil and of course once the ship wrecked I was riveted. It was absolutely brutal what happened to the survivors. The author also did a great job of capturing a child's perspective and imagination with Mayken but there were times I wished for an older perspective so I could have understood the politics more. Gils storyline was very weird and depressing and not a lot going on but the author did manage to make the ending suspenseful and made me care about Gil in the end. I just knew something bad was going to happen to that poor tortoise 🥲”
“Since this book was based on a true story, I looked up the story of the Batavia shipwreck and………😨Yeah, I was definitely disturbed. Other than that, I loved how Mayken and Gil’s stories were intertwined in this book. This book didn’t disappoint.”
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