A review by burritapal_1
The Company Daughters by Samantha Rajaram

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this story, The Company Daughters, very much. It points out parts of History that I'm not aware of, such as life conditions in Amsterdam, in the 17th century, and also about what life was like on a ship going on a long journey on the sea, at that time. But most of all, the terrible life that women in this book faced, and I'm wondering why it's not much better now. 
The aspect of lesbian love, and what it was like for someone of that persuasion, especially at that time, was interesting. No doubt it was extremely dangerous if you were found out. 
The protagonist, Jana Beil, had an extremely difficult life. Her father beat her and sexually abused her, and her mother did not defend her. When she ran away from home to escape the harshness, she lost her beloved sister in a cave in, and was sexually trafficked, where for 2 years she suffered greatly.
Jana, when she escaped from the house of prostitution, wentt knocking on doors in Amsterdam, looking for work as a cleaning woman. After sleeping for nights in the alleyways, she knocked on one door that was opened to her by a girl, Sontje, who she convinced to give her a chance. 
Sontje was the daughter of a merchant in Amsterdam who invested in a voyage that was bringing spices to the Netherlands.
Santa had a bow, hans, who was from a rich family. She had hopes of him asking to marry her. She asked Jenna to accompany them on walks, at Tina chaperone. Jenna was puzzled by Sanchez affection for hans, seeing a different person than obviously saw:
" 'the other night, he kissed me,' she continues. 'the kiss felt very strange, but then, I started to like it. Not too much, of course,' she adds, blushing prettily.
'How odd.' I've never felt what she describes. Only the Man's Tongue plunged in my mouth like a wriggling, digging creature, and I was its dark little den. 
'if he kisses me, then he must marry me, don't you think?'
I'm not sure what to say, thinking of our stretching wombs, which trap us in lives no one wants. But I know Sontje seeks reassurance. 'he seems honorable. And he's told you that you'll be married.'
'yes,' Sontje nods, comforted. 'that's true. He is very romantic. He acts one way around others, but with me he's much softer.' 
I think Sontje has created a story in her mind of Hans and of the life she wishes to have with him. I even managed to feel a little sorry for him, for he is only an instrument in it. And she is in his story. Just another Italian horse cart."
 When the ship sank, and he lost his money, he was ruined. He told Jana that they would no longer be able to keep her, because they would need to rent out her attic room to a tenant. 
Jana looked for work, in order to pay sontje's father and be able to stay with Sontje, for whom she had feelings. She found work in her rich family's home, cleaning and serving. The master was a predator who lost little time and putting his hands on Jana. 
Sontje's father drank himself to death, and Sontje and Jana were forced to leave their home.  
Sontje found a place on a ship leaving for Batavia, which is Jakarta nowadays, where she would be married to a settler there. The Dutch Indies company wanted these "company daughters" to become wives of settlers, to stop the tide of half-native, half-Dutch babies being created with the natives in the Dutch settlement there. Jana used blackmail on the master of the house she was working for, and got him to talk her into getting a place on the ship, which was full already. 
These young women, one as young as 12, faced a hard life aboard ship, though nowhere near anything what slaves brought from Africa faced. 
Sontje and Jana share a berth on the ship, and Jana notices Sontje beginning to slip out at night. She finally confesses to Jsna: 
"...'you were seeing him, Sontje?'
She waits a moment, as though unsure whether to tell me. 'Yes, at night. I resented Maritjen with all her boasting about her dear husband Gerhard, and he flirted with me from the start. I missed that feeling of being desired. All my life I felt like an inconvenience to Fader, and then Hans came and paid me such compliments. I was hungry for more of it.' She sighs. 'I was a stupid girl. As though it is such a wondrous thing for a man to want us. Now I feel it a curse.'
Of course Hans had dumped Sontje after she was left with no money. He quickly married another rich girl. 
I, too, wonder why, when we're young, we think it's such a desirable thing to be wanted by a man. Those lowly, toxic creatures whose only brains are in their sexual organs. Who do nothing but abuse women and bring cruelty upon them, putting children into their wombs and condemning them to a life of hardship.
Sontje was gang-raped one night, slipping back to her berth from her visit with Gerhard, and almost died from her injuries.

There's a horrible part where the crew is torturing a shark that was swimming alongside the ship. They purposely condemn it to a horrible death:
"at that moment, little Madaleen arrives on deck for air. 
She takes my hand.
'What are they doing?' she asks, her gray eyes wide and Afraid at the pool of blood.
'I'm not yet sure, but I pity the creature.' I regret having brought it to Albert's attention. I pulled Madaleen closer to me and she peeks out from behind me. 
'take out its eye!' another sailor says, his own eyes ablaze in a way that make me wish, for the first time, to be off this ship. Madaleen is shaking. 
They plunge the spear into the shark's eyes as it writhes. Sea water sprays on us, even from a distance. I taste the salt on my lips. 
'it's a mighty Beast indeed! This will be a story for when we arrive at the Cape!' the men slice off the shark's fins in quick Strokes using the blades they carry in their pockets, in a Deft movement that surprises me in its boldness and cruelty. How the creature must feel, lashing about on these foreign decks, suddenly stolen from its life?
Blood mixes with water and spreads across the deck. I wonder how I will return to the berth without blood staining the sandals I have made from fabric and rope since my klomps are useless on the tilting Layden.
'Throw it back into the water!' Albert yells. His eyes look maddened, too. 'tie a barrel to it first. Let it suffer 'fore it dies.' A barrel is produced and tied to the great fish, who still thrashes against the deck and slaps another sailor with its powerful tail. I cannot help but admire it's dark length of sleek muscle, it's steadfast will to live despite its wounds. 
They somehow tie a barrel to the poor creature and then drop it back into the water. The men cheer and clap, watching the sharp bang against the side of the boat, blood blooming into the sea."
🥺 of course, I realized this is fiction, but this happens in real life, constantly, to these poor animals, from those days till now.

When they arrive in Batavia, Sontje is the first one to be claimed as a wife by a settler. He is a brute of a man, and uses his fists freely on Sontje. Moreover, he will not let her out of the house, so Jana goes months without seeing her. 
Jana is claimed by an old man, 60-year-old Mattheus. Lucky for Jana, he is a kind man.

Life is hard for Jana to get used to, Being the wife of a man and forbidden to do chores. The settlers have slaves to do grunge work for them. This hurts Jana's heart, and she slips coins to the two women who are the slaves in Mattheus's household.
She rarely gets to see Sontje, who becomes pregnant with her husband's child. 
But life improves for Jana, and she is able to make a little extra money selling her lace making, when her husband cuts off her allowance for giving the slaves the small amount she does. 
Mattheus is old, and he dies one day. The Reverend of the settlement sends letters off to his grown children, and Jana can only hope that they will not want to come and claim his belongings. She is not successful, but the slaves who Jana has helped, help her in return. In this way, Jana is able to make a good life for herself, and Sontje's child, who becomes an orphan when Sontje dies.

This was a Bittersweet story, and I liked the author for bringing the double themes of lesbian love and the harshness of women's life to this historical novel.