A review by spacewhombus
The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love stories with non-linear timelines, and the structure of this book was wonderful. This book alternates between a progression of Mayken's journey on the Batavia ship in the 17th century, and Gil's stay on a remote coral island off Australia in 1989, where we learn details about his traumatic past. The two stories converge in subtle ways, and I expected there to be some fantasy/magical element but I was actually happy there was not.

I also somehow didn't realize that the events of the Batavia's journey were all based on a true story, and only found out after finishing the book and reading the author's acknowledgements- it definitely hit me then how dark that part of the story was. Though, Gil's story with his mother was also extremely sad. The reviewers who called this book "haunting" were definitely right.

I think I only wish there had been more of an emotional, sob-your-eyes-out moment when reading this, rather than the empty hollow feeling of reading all this dark stuff through the eyes of children. Overall, it was a memorable read.
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