Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Night Ship

The Night Ship follows the stories of two kids connected by an island. While the doomed journey of Mayken and the great merchant ship Batavia is the anchor of the story, the story of Gil (set in 1989) is the more interesting of the two.

The structure alternates the stories between chapters, which is effective in developing the stories and characters early but becomes distracting as the two stories build to their finales.

Jess Kidd weaves wonderful details throughout the book and her writing is engaging. This is the type of book to read on a plane, a beach, or listen to in a car (as I did). It’s gripping enough to keep you reading but not complex enough to demand your full attention.

Overall, this is a better than average book with moments of excellence, built upon a very interesting historical event.

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cdiodato's review against another edition

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2.5

Kinda put me in a slump, the beginning was promising but I lost interest half way… I feel like this could have been 100 pages shorter. Also, didn’t appreciate the scene where that dumb kid drop kicked the tortoise. That really made me not enjoy this book, totally unnecessary to the story and just sad.

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picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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missmali's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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ejanephillips's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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georgiastyan's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Breathtaking, heartbreaking, thoughtinspiring. I adored this book and the way it was written. The parallels of the two children's life were so haunting yet they did not interact much as I thought they may, keeping then realism alive, yet still giving them a deep connection despite being alive 300 years apart.

I loved Mayken's spirit, Gil being unashamedly himself, both of them adventuring as children do, and seeing their world's through their eyes was sepcial. Both of them experiencing the challenges and growth of childhood. I loved their relationships they built with the adults around them and really appreciated those who took care of the children.

The book was steady at the start and middle then sped up quite a lot at the end - or perhaps that was just me as I couldn't put it down.

I went into this book having no idea what it was about, and it's been amazing to learn about a real maritime tragedy of the 17th century and get to know the complex characters within.

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jlfaith21's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I enjoyed Mayken’s story line much more than Gil’s, and

the stuff with the tortoise made me so sad, I just can’t stand animal cruelty and bullying, such an innocent creature😭

. I just didn’t really understand where Gil’s story fit into it all, but overall, it was a great read, it kept me entertained, I learned about a shipwreck in history, and I felt satisfied at the end.

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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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2.25

Finished reading: July 22nd 2023

“The greatest disgrace of humankind is the failure of the strong to protect the weak. We don't need monsters, Gil; we are the monsters.”

I still can't believe this happened to be honest. I mean, I absolutely LOVED my first experience with Jess Kidd's writing when I read Things In Jars, and I've been excited to read more of her books ever since. The blurb of The Night Ship sounded simply fantastic with the (partial) 17th century setting, the fact that it's based on true events and the hint at a supernatural twist. I had high expectations and fully expected to add a new favorite to my list... Imagine my surprise when I ended up struggling considerably with The Night Ship instead. Don't get me wrong, I still love the premise of this story and its 17th century setting. The references to the Netherlands, the Bavaria ship and journey in general added a little something extra to the story for me. The 1989 timeline was likewise interesting, but I do think I preferred the 1629 timeline in the end... Although on the other hand I did prefer Gil's character over Mayken, so it was a bit tricky to decide on a favorite. Part of what went wrong for me had a lot to do with the constant POV switches. The story jumps between 1629 and 1989 so often that I almost ended up with a whiplash, and as a result it was hard to get a proper feel for both the main characters and the story. I just never felt fully inmerged, because I never got to spend proper time with either timeline; instead of adding tension and suspense, it only highly frustrated me (especially in the second half). I also felt that the story was just too bleak, brutal and graphic, and if things had been toned down I would probably have been able to enjoy it better (case in point: was the animal cruelty really necessary?!). The pace itself was also rather slow, which again probably had a lot to do with the constant POV/timeline switches. It resulted in a very halted story, and I struggled to find the motivation to keep reading. I kept putting the story down to do other things instead, and that is never a good sign. I did like the subtle connections between both timelines; sometimes less is more, and it gave the story more impact this way. Still, all in all I'm sad to admit that I struggled considerably with The Night Ship, and I even started considering a DNF in points. I'm still going to give this author another chance though.

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