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Haunting.
3.5/5I enjoyed this one a lot although perhaps not quite as much as Things in Jars (I'm quite partial to the time period in that one!). I enjoyed the setting and dual perspective but thought this didn't fully know where it was going to end up. The final 100 pages or so dragged a bit for me, then the last 10 were just rapid fire. Pacing was a bit off but I enjoyed the story and the characters, despite how depressing it was. Plus it's based on an interesting piece of history!
JESS KIDDThe Night Ship~SYNOPSISA parallel tale of two lives, The Night Ship switches between the story of Maryken, a Dutch child in the early 1600s, and Gil, an Australian boy in the late 1900s.Under the charge of her nursemaid, Imke, Maryken embarks on the long and arduous journey to Batavia, where she will be delivered to her father, a rich merchant she has never met. Centuries later, Gil is sent to stay on Beacon Island with his unwelcoming grandfather.As both stories unfold, so do uncanny s...
a new jess kidd novel ?!?!?!?! IM SO EXCITED
"The Ghost Ship" is a genre-defying tale that will keep your eyes glued to every single page. The ghost ship of the title is the Batavia, a state of the art Dutch vessel that set sail from Holland to Batavia in the Spice Islands in 1629. On board is nine year old Mayken, whose mother recently died, and so she and her nursemaid are on their way to her father ion the other side of the planet. Mayken is a lively kid delighted to explore the ship, especially the places where she shouldn't go. A dark...
This is the first novel by Jess Kidd that I have read, and I am suitably impressed. As soon as I read the following on page 2 I thought “yep, this is a keeper”:"She had no intention of joining her husband, being too delicate for such a perilous journey. Mayken doubted this… Her mother was as durable as a well-built cabinet. Until a baby got stuck inside her.Mayken must not say a word about the baby because it shouldn’t have been up there in the first place. She has practised with her nursemaid.‘...
The release of a new Jess Kidd novel is a real event for me. I often think about her previous novel, Things in Jars, as well as her phenomenal debut, Himself. The worlds Kidd creates are infused with joy, magic, and terror. So I was absolutely ready to get aboard The Night Ship.The Night Ship is based on a real historical event, the Batavia shipwreck in 1629.The novel switches between two timelines; in 1629 we follow young Mayken, who is aboard the Batavia with her maid, en route to live with he...
Oh my goodness, this book was such an emotive read for me! Sarah brings to life the two main characters, Mayken and Gil, in such a way that caused my heart to break and tears to come to my eyes numerous times. There is a lovely balance between character and plot development, though it is with the former where I found Sarah to be exceptional. Split into two timelines, young Mayken is on board the ill-fated Batavia in 1629. Based on true events, her experiences and adventures on the ship are broug...
The Night Ship by Jess Kidd1629. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of...
Gosh this is probably the saddest, darkest book I've read for a long time! It's beautifully written and I loved the narratives from both protagonists Gil and Mayken. I thought their childlike perspectives of the grim events they experience are believable and multilayered.The dual timeline worked for me in the sense that I was equally engaged in both narratives and rooting for both characters. I enjoyed the mythological elements and how they reflected danger, threat, and fear in the children's li...
I read about a quarter of it and still wasn't deeply engaged. Onward! There are a lot of books I could love in this world that I'll never get to, so there's no time to waste on ones that don't grab me after more than 50 pages.
Jess Kidd’s Things in Jars was one of my books of the year in 2019. I don’t think her new novel, The Night Ship, will achieve the same honour this year, but it’s still a book that I enjoyed very much. It takes as its starting point a real historical event – a 17th century shipwreck – and uses it to tell the stories of two children whose lives are separated by more than three hundred years.In 1629, a nine-year-old Dutch girl, Mayken, is sailing to the Dutch East Indies aboard the Batavia, accompa...