The Night Ship - Jess Kidd - ★★

AUTHOR: Jess Kidd

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: July 12, 2022

RATING: 2 stars

In a Nutshell: I enjoy historical fiction. I enjoy fantastical elements. I enjoy stories with strong child characters. I enjoy dual timelines. I enjoy fiction based on facts. BUT I did NOT enjoy this book. Go figure!

Plot Preview:

1629. Nine-year-old Mayken, newly orphaned, is sailing along with her nurse maid to the Dutch East Indies. Their vessel is the magnificent Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch trading fleet. Mayken is unlike typical girls of her era, with her unbridled curiosity and her propensity for misadventure. She spends her time roaming the ship’s underdecks and searching for a mythical monster, not realising that there is no monster worse than humankind.

1989. Nine-year-old Gil, newly orphaned, is sent off to live with his grandfather off the coast of Western Australia, on a small fishing island. When he discovers the story of a shipwreck and hears of a young girl’s ghost roaming the isle, his curiosity is stirred. However, his exploration of the facts isn’t easy when the adults around him aren’t used to having a “weird child” around.

The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of Mayken and Gil.

The book started off really well, especially in the 1629 timeline. The 1989 timeline was duller in comparison, with hardly anything to hold my interest. But when I reached the halfway mark of the book, I realised that I was registering nothing, my mind drifting away more and more often. So I went back all the way to the start and forced myself to concentrate. However, I began to lose interest at exactly the same point. I completed this book only by sheer determination and a hatred of DNFing. When a book has two timelines and neither keeps you invested, there’s no way this ship would sail to a happy ending.

The obvious common factor between the two timelines is that they come to us from a child’s perspective. Both the kids are adventurous, inquisitive, atypical of their era, and orphans. Mayken is an especially amazing character, what with her tendency to explore forbidden areas, her wild imagination, her love for her nurse maid Imke – also a great character, and her determination to be brave. Gil’s personality is more subdued in comparison, though he also has a whimsical side to him. Both kids however never behave their age, especially evident through Mayken’s fondness for using the F word. Slightly implausible that a wealthy and sheltered young girl of the early 17th century would know and use a cuss word! The only character I liked in the 1989 story was Enkidu the tortoise.

The historical timeline (the 1629 one, I mean. As I type this, I realise that both timelines are historical!) kept my attention much more than the modern one. The characters, the life aboard the ship, the old beliefs and superstitions, the mythical water monster, the darkness of the subsequent events – all were gripping to a great extent. However, as we see everything proceed only through Mayken’s eyes, we see what’s happening but we never realise why it happened. Especially considering the human machinations that resulted in such a gruesome outcome, knowing the reasons and the motivations of those involved would have helped much in feeling connected to the narrative.

There is a hint of the fantastical in both timelines, what with Mayken’s imagined monster and Gil’s investigation of the identity of the ghost girl. But the potential stays underutilised.

I had assumed that the “ghost” quest would somehow bind the two timelines together. But at the end, each timeline was cut off abruptly, with nary a connection established and many questions left unanswered. Moreover, the shift between the two timelines was very frequent, especially in the final quarter. Jumping between 1629 and 1989 after every 2-3 pages made for a bumpy and annoying ride, and the flat ending of both timelines sealed the disappointment.

I fail to see the point of Gil’s story as it had nothing to connect to the Batavia wreck except for the presence of the wreck itself in the background. The two tracks never feel like parts of the same fictional work. This novel might have worked much better for me had it focussed only on the Batavia story, thereby providing a detailed glimpse of the exact historical events.

The 1629 timeline is based on the actual shipwreck of the Batavia. I hadn’t heard of this incident and its gruesome fallout, and learning the truth of the incident left me incredulous. That said, I would have appreciated some suspense about the proceedings. However, the 1989 timeline reveals details about the 1629 events even before the historical timeline does. The latter spends a lot of time on the pre-wreck narrative but zooms through the actual event and its consequences. I read the Wikipedia entry after I completed the book to fill in the many blanks left by the novel. The wreck, its cause and its aftermath is like a horror story. How I wish the book had handled the post-wreck scenes better!

One factor where this negative reading experience is my fault is in my preference for balanced realism in writing. I'm not sure what I thought the book would be, but I certainly did not expect this endless cycle of death and darkness and abuse and misery, much of which was graphic. There is hardly any positivity in the book. On top of it, it includes gratuitous animal abuse as well! I know there are readers for such plots, but I am not one of them. I don’t mind dark reads, but seeing a plot that is so dark that it is almost carbon black? Not for me. This was almost like misery lit in the second half.

I’ve heard much praise about this author’s writing and I could see the beauty of her descriptions in this book as well. But as far as plot development is concerned, maybe I should try another book of hers to see if this novel was an aberration or the norm.

I cannot think of any strong positive point by which to recommend this book. However, all of my friends on Goodreads except two have rated this 4-5 stars. So it’s very clear that the book does hold appeal to the right reader, and I encourage you to pick it up and discover the same for yourself. In the meantime, I go looking for a book with some rays of sunshine to heal my broken heart.

The 2 stars are almost entirely for Mayken and for making me aware of the Batavia shipwreck. .

My thanks to Canongate and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Night Ship”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.